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Overheard a client at the coffee shop talking about their 'handshake deal' with a marketing agency
I was grabbing coffee yesterday and the person next to me was on the phone, clearly upset. They were telling someone, 'Yeah, we had a handshake deal for six months of work, but now they're saying the scope changed and I owe them another five grand.' It made me think about how many times I've seen similar things in my own work. Even a simple project can get messy without clear paperwork. I started using a basic work order template for every single job, no matter how small or how well I know the client. It just lists the work, the price, and what happens if things change. It takes five minutes to fill out and has saved me from two arguments already this year. What's the simplest contract or agreement you all use for small agency projects to keep things clear?
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william_henderson7mo ago
Ever have one of those moments where you just want to shake someone and tell them to get it in writing? I learned the hard way too. My go-to is a one-page statement of work that spells out the project, the flat fee, and exactly how change requests get priced. It's not a scary legal contract, it's just a shared checklist that keeps everyone honest. Why leave your paycheck up to someone's memory of a coffee chat?
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the_cameron6mo ago
Man, don't you just love when they say "we'll figure it out as we go"? I had a client add three extra pages to a website and then acted shocked when I sent a new bill. Now my one-pager has a line that says "homepage plus five inside pages, anything else is a change order at my hourly rate." It saves the "but I thought..." conversation every single time.
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riley_taylor7mo ago
Yeah, that "memory of a coffee chat" line from @william_henderson hits hard. I read a blog post that called a simple agreement a "pre-nup for projects," which really stuck with me.
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