HayMeadows - 5:38 am on Nov 9, 2009 (gmt 0)

"No contract" isn't really the issue here, is it?

Reason I comment, is I've seen so many people bent on a contract being a must. I happen to disagree with this school of thought and have been running a successful business without worrying about contracts for 6+ years. Granted, my initial fee usually ranges from $1,000 to $2,000. I can see how 4k might require a bit more.

As for us, email communication has worked just fine and sure saves a lot of the headaches of rewriting contracts then faxing/scanning/signing/meeting for the sake of signing the dotted line.

Okay, I'm sure some people might have online contracts that would make things quite a bit easier, but you get the gist.

Difficult clients are going to be difficult clients with or without a contract.

Perhaps the answer is to start off a bit smaller and get to know each other first. Make sure you are a good fit. Works for us.