Contracts and Paperwork for Local SEO, Web Design, etc?

I write all of my own contracts. I call them service agreements or proposals myself. If you want a rock solid contract you should go to an attorney, tell him the exact terms and rules you want for your standard contracts and have him right it.

Or write your own. First make a list of every way you want to protect yourself in terms of billing, what your responsible for etc. Then make a list of everything a potential client would want protection from. This would include you being responsible for giving them reports, so they know what they paid for. For web design they want to know how many changes can be made or what happens if they find out something doesn't work.

So list them out and think of headers for different sections. Things like General Terms, Refunds/Billing Terms etc.

Then open up Word and write it up yourself.

Thanks Maxwell!

Get a recent business agreements book from amazon.com. They have standard contracts and proposals that you can modify and adapt for your business.

I always provide the customer with a Quote from my accounting software which lists all the things we provide and expect.

We then require the customer to provide us with a purchase order at which time we turn the quote into a invoice and send it off for 50% deposit before we start their work and remaining amount to be paid at the agreed time.

We do this for all jobs under $2000 and if there is hosting etc it is all included in the quote.

Anything over $2000 we ask the client what they want for their records and in most cases they are happy with the above otherwise we do up a specific contract for the job.

Most businesses will have a limit they can do purchase orders for and this is the way most business is conducted in the real world. In reality it is deemed a contract by all courts.

I used to do contracts however you need a good Lawyer and make sure there are no loopholes or anything that can get you into a lot of trouble.

By doing the quote/purchase order/invoice you have a clear agreement and legally a lot more secure arrangement without all the fluff.

So the quote is the offer, the purchase order is the acceptance of the offer and the invoice is request for payment according to the offer and acceptance.

Quentin

Thanks again!