Agency

any time a brand new client emails me requesting an estimate on a project, I have a pre-written response that I am able to send in a matter of seconds.

A contract can serve as a source of protection for the client as well. This partially explains why clients are more likely to trust a business that uses a contract.

I also don’t require a new contract for each project. My contracts are written, in a sense, to be a meta-contract that oversees the entire relationship through multiple projects. Once my client has signed a contract with me, they’ll never have to do so again.

Dealing with deadlines, mastering the crafts of editing (at Encyclopedia Britannica) and consulting (at Institute for the Future), dealing with clients, and trying to fashion myself into someone who looked like a Productive Worker, didn’t leave a lot of time for reflection about why I was working the way I was.

Contracts offer confidence to the client.

In a way, positioning is fake for a brief period of time. You’ve noticed just enough patterns to gain some credibility. Then you make the most of that driver’s permit to keep exploring, keep learning, and keep articulating insight. Eventually it feeds on itself and then you step into your expert clothes and really fill them out.

For the least amount of friction, consider crafting a simple contract that covers the basics that all projects would require.

say, “See, this is what we agreed to!”