A formal contract with your clients is usually advantageous as a freelancer. A well-written contract gives the safety and security that freelancers and customers want. A contract may assist you in establishing trust with customers, define expectations in advance, and lead to increased satisfaction with project outcomes and client experience. If you don't have a contract for your freelancing job, you should consider writing one.
What you include in your contract is determined on the type of business you undertake. For example, do you require a contractual arrangement for each one-time project you work on, a retainer contract for recurring clients, or Terms & Conditions that clients must agree to before you begin work. Contracts, however, include the following crucial information regardless of business or kind of work:
Dates, names, and contact information
Your responsibilities and role
Payment specifics
Deadlines and commitments
Ownership of the intellectual property
Confidential Information
Terms and conditions for independent contractors
Liability limitation
Indemnity and termination terms
To increase the value of your freelancing contract, add the following items mentioned. Even if you already have a job contract, it is good to review the list below to ensure you don't neglect any important contract conditions.
1. Work and service description
Setting work expectations during the project requires establishing a project scope inside the contract. Viable freelancing contracts specify what you will accomplish for the customer and when you will do it. The more clear and detailed your statement of the contract's actions, the better. Many freelancers face scope creep, which occurs when the quantity of work inside a project expands without a change in budget or remuneration. The following are some specific topics to think about include in the project scope:
Beginning date
Service scope (detailed description of the project and milestones)
Contract expiration date and timeline for the project
Payment schedule and pricing
2. Payment conditions
You will accomplish an important element of the freelancing contract if you have performed all the duties mentioned in the contract's description of work and services. But, nothing is more frustrating after completing a job than not receiving immediate payment for the services you completed. That is why clear payment conditions must be included in your freelancing contract. This portion of the agreement might include information other than your hourly or fixed-project rate. Before adding your payment conditions to the contract, consider the following questions:
Will the contract be paid on an hourly or fixed-price basis?
Is there a minimum or maximum number of billable hours?
When are you going to get paid? At the time of delivery, 30 days later, or at milestones?
Will you get paid a percentage of the entire price up front?
Will there be a late fee if your client does not pay on time?
Who oversees project expenses and material costs?
What will be the cost of additional revisions?
3. Modifications and revisions
Work that is creative might be subjective. Adjustments upon revisions of re-iterations of such work are every freelancer's nightmare. Coming back to your work in progress to adjust or add anything is a natural part of the process. Nonetheless, consumers might be indecisive/weird/excessively demanding at times. This has to come to an end at some time for things to stay productive.
This clause specifies how many revisions (if any) are included in the project. This can spare a freelancer's time from being overburdened with time-consuming adjustments and modifications from customers.
You can set the fee you will charge for further edits or revisions in this area of the contract. It may be required to specify what constitutes a "round," "edit," or "revision" for all stakeholders to be on the same page when it comes to modifications to project deliverables.
4. End-product ownership and licensing (copyrights)
This clause is frequently used by freelancers to clarify who owns the work. Because the customer is paying you to do the job, they will almost always demand the work contract to guarantee them complete rights and ownership of all project deliverables. If ownership rights are transferred to the customer, they will be able to determine what to do with your work and how to utilise it.
If you maintain ownership of any components of the work, you must specify the client's rights and usage limitations. The usual procedures for final product ownership rights and licencing might vary according to the type of service and business. For example, are they allowed to resell the work you produced, do you own the rights to the preset or font that you’ve produced yourself, do they own the images now or are they licensed.
This clause may also cover displaying the project in your portfolio. It is critical to obtain permission before include any client work in your portfolio, and gaining that permission early in the project may make the conversation easier.
Copyright law is complicated and nuanced. If needed you should consult with a lawyer to draught your copyright clause and check your complete contract.
5. Non-disclosure, disclosure rights, and confidentiality
It is critical to have a provision for protecting the mutual non-disclosure of any secret information to safeguard both parties. As a freelancer, you may be given information about your client's company that must be kept secret and discreet. Client lists, corporate plans, proprietary methods, secret recipes, financial information, and other information may be included. The customer will want you to keep any private information to yourself. This clause may stand alone, or a separate and more extensive non-disclosure agreement may be required (NDA). NDAs are legally enforceable contracts that create a confidential partnership and specify how sensitive information will not be shared with rivals or others.
6. Engagements with competition
It is critical as a freelancer to emphasise to clients the uniqueness of your services. Your client may object to you working for them while simultaneously assisting the competitors. Your expertise working with a customer in the same sector but in a different geographic service area, on the other hand, may be considered as a positive. It is advisable to clarify your policy for working with clients who may have services or business sectors that overlap. Here are some questions to think about while writing your freelancing contract's competitive engagements section.
7. Conditions and termination
Inclusion of a termination provision or right to terminate in the contract establishes a procedure for terminating the freelancing contract if the relationship does not work out. Throughout the contract, any side may understand that things aren't going as planned owing to bad communication, missing deadlines, or any other cause. You can specify the grounds for termination as well as the costs or penalties connected with terminating the contract early in this section.
Even if you have a defined deadline and contract end date, freelancers typically feel this part essential to add. It is even more important for ongoing work since it allows both parties to plan for the loss of income/work output if the contract is cancelled.
8. Indemnity provision
Who is to blame if something goes wrong? In this sad position, if the other side breaks the contract, both parties will seek recompense. Indemnity, sometimes known as a keep harmless provision, is a phrase that is intended to shift possible expenses or obligation from one party to another in the case of specific events. The fundamental advantage of an indemnification provision is that it can shield the indemnified party from losses or third-party claims arising from the contract or the results of the contract's labour or deliverables. Both parties may agree to reimburse the other party for damages incurred by the indemnifying party's breach of the contract under a mutual indemnity agreement.
Conclusion
While both sides normally expect a favourable conclusion from a transaction, a robust contract outlining the terms of your agreement with your customer is one of the greatest methods to safeguard your business should a disagreement develop. A freelancing contract is an important aspect of starting and operating a business. Without it, you risk losing your clients' confidence and business.
Hence, if you are not already using a contract, it's time to formalise the agreement and protect your freelancing business from late payments, unrealistic expectations or modifications, legal conflicts, or any other unanticipated catastrophe.
