Extra Eagle

Andy Clarke wrote a great article a couple of months back that I only just discovered called Contract Killer which every single freelance or small design/coder shop should read.

Andy is a pretty phenomenal graphic designer and very well known in the web standards community. His article first talks about why contracts are vital to freelancers and small design shops. Please go read the full thing when you finish here, but check out this passage in particular:

If signing a contract I didn’t fully understand made me a stupid son-of-a-bitch, not asking my customers to sign one just makes me plain dumb. I’ve not always been so careful about asking my customers to sign contracts with me as I am now. Somehow in the past I felt that insisting on a contract went against the friendly, trusting relationship that I like to build with my customers. Most of the time the game went my way. On rare the occasions when a fight broke out, I ended up bruised and bloodied. I learned that asking my customers to sign a contract matters to both sides, but what also matters to me is that these contracts should be more meaningful, understandable and less complicated than any of those that I have ever autographed.

I described a similar situation where I personally got into a contract dispute in my article Pragmatic Contract Law for Programmers.

If you haven’t had anything like that happen to you, you probably will, which is why it is so important to have a well written, readable agreement that both parties fully understand. I can’t stress how important it is that both parties understand it.

I have started a project to Refactor the Consulting Agreement for exactly these purposes. Let me just repeat the last paragraph in the quote from Andy above:

… but what also matters to me is that these contracts should be more meaningful, understandable and less complicated than any of those that I have ever autographed.

Andy also actually does os the favor of sharing his contract template with us. With his permission I’ve Agree2ized it and added it to Agree2 where you can use it straight away and have your own clients sign it.

Andy’s Killer Contract is a masterful piece of writing and insight into the human mind. It is based firmly on his own experiences and on his field of work.

So rather than having 2-3 paragraphs of boilerplate liability protection that someone wrote 70 years ago because a horse drawn carriage crashed into a steam train, he actually covers issues that he has experienced personally, such as the clients changing needs:

What appear at first to be a straight-forward projects can sometimes turn long and complicated and unless you play it straight from the beginning your relationship with your customer can suffer under the strain. Customers do, and should have the opportunity to, change their minds and give you new assignments. After-all, projects should be flexible and few customers know from the get-go exactly what they want to see. If you handle this well from the beginning you will help to keep yourself and your customers from becoming frustrated. You will also help yourself to dodge bullets in the event of a fire-fight.

Another refreshing aspect of Andy’s writing is humor in the contract. I’ve always thought it a good idea as well. Perhaps blog post specific to this is a good idea. Basically I think anything that doesn’t of course compromise the agreement, but makes someone actually want to read the it is a good thing. An example from the Contract Killer:

Just like a parking ticket, you cannot transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission.

It doesn’t change the meaning, but covers a serious subject in a light way.

We also use humor in our own Agree2 User Agreement to cover a very serious issue:

However we do not want to go to jail for something you do, so we will follow local rules. Which is exactly what you need to do. If you plan to do something with Agree2, that could get you in trouble at home, please don’t. We can not take responsibility for learning all the laws of the world.

We are men of principles, but stronger men than us have changed principles with 3 hovering black helicopters over them. If you know what I mean.

Anyway now go read Andy’s Contract Killer and then go use it or one of the other Freelance Agreements on Agree2