beckie - 8:08 pm on Apr 12, 2004 (gmt 0)

Hmmm.. I'm not sure where you are living at dcrombie, but a lot of states require you to have a contract to prove that you provided those services. I use my contract to weed out the clients who don't want to pay.

I'm actually in the midst of going through with the courts to find out a clients assets to garnish their bank accounts because they refused to pay.

Before taking on their project, I asked this person to sign my contract. Since they lived less than 2 miles from my home and he wanted to have some sort of 'partnership' with additional work for me, I thought I could trust HIM. He kept on telling me that he will drop the signed contract off the next day, but this project was to be done within 24 hours. Because I trusted HIM, I let it go and thought he would drop the contract off a few days later. After the project was finished, he stated that he was glad he didn't sign the contract because he now he doesn't have to pay.

I've had 1 client change a few things that they tried to get away with. I've also had a very cheap company contact me wanting for me to design their website with the response that contracts were ridiculous and so were deposits.

Having a contract not only weeds out the bad clients, but it protects you from damages and any other detailed information that you provide to your clients. It can also state how you bill them and include late fees if they are x days late. What your hourly rate is and that it can change at any time.

What if their server goes down? Do you want to be responsible (sued) for their loss? What if they start adding on pages or services? How are you going to be protected?

I've had a few other bad experiences, but if you use a contract and send it through email, make sure it's in PDF format. Word Doc is fine too, just as long as you protect it.

In this day and age, you cannot just rely on oral contracts or thinking you can trust your clients. I've been doing this for 12 years, but have been on my own for over 2 years. Besides a few bad experiences, the others had no problem with signing it.

Sorry for the long post, but I cannot stress enough that it IS important to use one.