Freelance Life Lessons | Contracts
Protect Yourself, Get Paid
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I have been a freelancer for about a total of 6 years of my career. Along the way, I have learned some lessons the hard way and want to spare others from some of the frustrations of being a freelancer. One of the things I see a lot is that most freelancers don’t put together some sort of contract to protect themselves and their work.
A contract immediately communicates that you are a professional and you will not be taken advantage of. It is vital to set clear guidelines on what the scope of work and what your responsibilities are. Without it, clients will take advantage of you. Whether it be with endless rounds of changes or trying to sneak in extra work and justify it with, “oh this will only take you a minute to do.” A contract protects you from these things and keeps everything on the up and up. It also gives you the confidence to ask for what you need if the client is not holding up their end of the deal.
At a minimum include the following
A detailed description of the project, the number of concepts included, and the final deliverables.
Specify how many rounds of revisions are included. Describe what a revision is and what counts as a change in the scope of work.
Fees
Payment Timeline
Additional Estimated Expenses
Project Timeline
Project Milestone Deliverables
Cancellation Policy
Client Responsibilities
Signatures (easy to do with Adobe Acrobat!)
Contact Info
Questions? Thoughts? Share below!
Freelance Resources
Graphic Artists Guild
Learn what the going rates are in the industry.
AIGA
Industry resources and events to stay connected.
HoneyBook
For project management, contract templates, timelines, and online payments.