Contracts are good. Contracts are necessary.
To protect you as a client and as a service provider. To cover your assets in the all too likely event that something goes terribly wrong and that person with whom you have such a lovely relationship right now becomes a terrifying-shrieking-banshee-from-hell-determined-to-take-your-last-possession-on-earth. (Yes, it happens.)
So use them wisely. Use them carefully.
READ the contracts that you are asked to sign as a client.
They represent your agreement. If you don’t understand them or they aren’t what you agreed to-you have to ask.
If it comes down to a fight (and it might), the contract is the only thing that matters.
Whatever sweet promises that sultry temptress of a provider whispered into your ear mean nothing at all.
READ your own contracts before you send them to a client.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked to sign a contract that was utterly different than what we had agreed to.
Each time, it wasn’t deliberate deceit on the part of the service provider, just carelessness.
And this is the thing: how you do one thing is how you do all things.
This is a chance to show your clients who you are.
You can show them that you too busy to bother with details, that you are focused on other, more important things, and that you see them as just one in a faceless horde of clients.
Or you can show them your thoughtful attention to detail, your exquisite care, and that you value your unique relationship with them and the work you will do together.
Your choice.
TRAVELER’S TIP: Go review your client contracts. Are they up to date with your actual prices, services, and policies? If not, you know what to do.
