@Claire – what a great story. You illustrate a fantastic point – contracts may seem “scary” or overkill, but they get everyone on the same page. You may think, “Of course the client would know that my travel fees are extra.” But clients may not think the same way we do – and that perceptual difference can cost us money (plus, make things weird with the client.)

Congratulations on keeping the client and being able to attend the meeting via conference call. I’m sure that was a hard conversation…

Thanks!

This post caught my attention as I had a contract related issue recently.

I have a client who loves meetings… preferably in London – 50 miles from my home on the South Coast. I charge by the hour. I charge ‘out of pocket costs’ – such as travel separately. Up until now all has been fine.

In my last quote, I dropped the line about ‘out of pocket expenses’ – due to would you believe – space purposes. I wanted my quote to fit neatly on a page.

For my latest project I was asked to attend a meeting – 260 miles from my home. Out of courtesy I asked whether the company would be happy for me to save circa 6 hours travelling time by train, by flying up for an extra £20 ($31). I am so glad I asked – as I was told that from now on the company would not pay my travelling and meeting expenses, as their web developer doesn’t charge for meetings. I was expected to give away a day of my time for free and incur the cost of travel – £100 ($157).

I suggested the web developer may charge for his time differently – by day, and would build in meeting time into his quote somewhere.

After a very difficult conversation – I will now attend the meeting via conference call.

But, in the back of my mind I am still thinking about the fact that if I hadn’t had asked the question about flying – and just attended the meeting – I would have been quite severely out of pocket!

So the moral of this story is – yes I totally believe in contracts. I like your idea of having a lawyer look them over. And will contacting one in the near future.

Thank you very much.

Claire

Thanks for your comment!

To answer your first question – a template contract is “just OK.” It’s more than nothing, but I recommend having your “own” contract ASAP. You can also take a template contract into an attorney and ask him/her to customize it – that may save some $$ in attorney fees, too!

To answer your second question…well, your question was SO good, that I think it will be next Monday’s video post. Stay tuned…and thank you! :)

I look forward to your next post on the subject of copywriting contracts.

There are, in particular, 2 issues that I’d love to hear your views about. These are:

(i) Your thoughts on template contracts that you can download from the web.

(ii) Small one-off copywriting jobs, where a contract may seem OTT for just a few hours’ work.

Just curious as to whether you’d be covering these 2 points in future instalments.