Contracts and Proposals
One of the best ways you can do to protect yourself as a freelancer is to have a contract on every project you work on.
Unfortunately, it can still be a jungle out there for freelancers. You don’t have the protection you can find in a lot of 9-5 jobs.
That means you need to take care of this on your own.
Making a contract is the best place to start.
How Landing New Clients (Often) Works
In general, the freelancing process is relatively straightforward. The reality is a lot of the brands you are going to interact with hire freelancers on a regular basis so they know what they want and how to proceed. Take your cues from them as they move the process along.
The process goes something like this, in general:
You see a job listing on a job board, or you send out an LOI or a pitch to a prospective client
You email about yourself, send your portfolio samples, etc.
Client says ok this looks good; here’s what I’m looking for; what are your rates?
You negotiate rates and other basics
Client agrees
You write the piece
Client approves
You get paid
Let’s cover this a little bit more.
You are basically going to come across two main types of clients.
One is going to have their sh*t together.
What that means is when they post the job they are looking for or respond to your LOI/pitch is they know exactly what they want. So your communication might go something like this:
You send out your LOI.
They respond:
Hey, your experience sounds like a great fit for what we need. What we want is 3 posts a month about personal finance topics for retirees. The posts need to be between 650-750 words. We’ll give you an outline with the title and the keywords we want included. We want you to provide one image and write copy for 1 x of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook posts. We pay $250 a post by PayPal at the end of every month.
When you get something like this, it’s great. This client clearly has a process for working with freelancers down pat. They’ve given you a lot of information, and you have a very good idea of what’s expected of you and them.
The other type of client is looser with what they want. Maybe they haven’t worked with a freelancer before, so they might respond to your LOI with something like this:
Looking for a writer, 2-3 posts a month on finance.
Hmm ok, well not a ton there to work with.
The second type of client is the one that potentially causes new freelancers problems. Most new freelancers want to push ahead at breakneck speed, especially with a first client. So they will ignore the fact that this gives little to no information. This can set you up for trouble.
Here’s what to do instead.
The Information You Need BEFORE You Agree to Write a Single Word
Before you do anything with any client understand exactly what you are writing and how the process is going to work between you and the client. This is called the scope of the project.
Do not agree to any work on any project before you understand this completely. Depending on your risk level, you want this in writing in an email or via a contract (or a proposal).
Remember, you are a business owner and this is a business negotiation. So you need to take this part seriously.
It’s up to you to define exactly what you are going to do for the money you are getting paid.
When you are in this early negotiation phase with a client here’s what you really need to know before you move on to the next step:
How many posts are required each month
Approximate range of how many words should each post be
What are the topics that are going to be covered
Are you responsible for adding images
Do you need to include social media copy (i.e. you write out tweets that go with the post)
How the assignments need to be delivered
When the drafts (and revisions) are due
How many rounds of revisions are allowed
At what point are the posts given the final ok
How should payment be submitted
When will you be paid
No matter what kind of job you do, you need to know the answers to these questions before you start. If the client does not tell you and leaves it fuzzy, ask them.
Many potential clients, especially the ones that have experience working with freelancers will lay all this information out for you right at the start. Basically, as you can see with client 1 above.
With client 2, they have given you basically no information. It is your responsibility to find this out from the client.
One golden rule I have on anything involving freelance writing is that any time you are not 100% sure about something a client tells you or the client’s process or what they want, ask.
You are always better asking versus trying to be a mind reader and guess what the client wants.
Sometimes, I get emails from people who ask me what the client means after they've already agreed to write, versus asking the client. Since I am not the client, I can't tell you what they want, only they can. You have to put your big person pants on and find out.
I get that it feels scary to ask, but it feels worse to find out that you’ve agreed to do a project that you’re not clear on or realize is going to take a ton of time so you get paid peanuts.
And, frankly, if the client can’t be direct and clear with you, then that’s probably a red flag. You might want to bow out gracefully at the start of the negotiations which is totally fine.
Knowing all this stuff before you agree to anything also helps with something called scope creep.
This is when a client tries to get you to do more than you originally agreed upon.
Usually, it shows up in the form of a small ask to do something that will just “take 5 minutes” but those 5 minutes add up and you deserve to get paid for them. If you’ve got a contract or a written proposal or agreement in place this helps you remove scope creep.
Creating a Contract
In my experience, there are two main ways to approach contracts.
You create the contract and send it to clients.
Clients will have pre-set contracts that outline all the information and they send them over for you to sign.
Let’s look at each.
First, if you are worried that a contract will make you look bad, don’t worry about that. I think that if you send over a standard contract with reasonable terms and a client says no, then that is a pretty big red flag.
So don’t be afraid to include a contract in your communication as a standard part of your business.
To keep things really simple, a contract is just there to help list out basic guidelines for your working arrangement. How much you are going to get paid and when, how a client will determine your work is done, and if you can display your work for your portfolio.
In most cases, your contract only needs to be a page or two long.
Here’s what you can include:
Introduction: This names the parties you’re the contractor and they are the client plus an overall statement on what you are going to do for them.
Terms and conditions: This will cover in detail the services you are going to provide (the deliverables) including the number of posts, number of words, due dates, pricing, when and how you’re going to get paid, etc.
Project scope: This is to prevent that scope creep we talked about before, it will tie into the terms and conditions and you can note the point where things will be outside of the agreed-upon scope and when a new contract can be created.
Revisions: Be sure to cite how many revisions you are going to allow. Most contracts I see say 2 rounds. That means you send the 1st draft, they want you to fix something, you send a second draft with the fixes, they get one more round of fixes. Anything beyond that they either have to pay you more or pay you what’s called a ‘kill fee’ which means you get a set amount (less than the price of the post) for the work you did before the project was canceled.
Portfolio: Sometimes, you might end up ghostwriting for a client, so your name isn’t officially on the site or the piece. In that case, you can negotiate that you can still use pieces for portfolio purposes. So while you might not be able to tweet it out and say you wrote it, you can post it on your website.
Of course, there are other things you can add to any contract, and it never hurts to have a legal professional look these over.
You can also check out this basic template to get started. Select file > make a copy to get your own copy and make changes. You can also find it at the end of this section.
Getting a Contract from a Client
Many clients already have a contract that they use to work with writers.
All you need to do is read over the contract, and if you agree with it, sign.
If there are parts you don’t agree with, email your contact and ask for it to be removed or modified, you can submit the language you want.
Sometimes, this will be relatively easy. Sometimes, it will have to go back to legal for approval and can be a process. If they say no, or there is something in the contract you really object to, then you have the choice to walk away.
This is what a standard contract can look like. I’ve removed identifying features to protect the innocent.
What you should note here is there are two parts to this contract. One is the actual contract itself and then they include another section below that basically specifies exactly what the scope of the project is.
This is pretty common. A company will often use a basic contract that covers everyone and then add on another page or to that get into the specifics of the particular job they want you to do.
For example:
Hopefully, contracts will feel a lot more straightforward to you now.
Remember, you put yourself potentially at risk by not using one of these to protect yourself.
We are not legal professionals and are not offering legal advice so if you have more questions or concerns, feel free to chat with a legal professional to learn more.
Writing Proposals
A proposal is another way of laying out exactly what you plan to do for work for the client. It can help you look more professional.
These usually come after you’ve first chatted with the client a bit and they are interested but they haven’t fully agreed yet. You can tell them you’ll send over a proposal for them to look over and decide. The goal of the proposal is to help them see that working with you is going to help them better serve their clients.
I tend to do this via email, but I figured I would include a section here for general knowledge and in case you want to go this route.
I also think if you start growing your business or moving into larger projects (let’s say you end up with a team of writers and are doing large-scale writing projects or you decide to start consulting) proposals are going to come in handy.
Let’s look at the factors that go into a good proposal:
Understanding what the client wants and needs: The primary focus of your proposal should be on your clients. What you want to do is detail what they need and their ultimate outcome.
You want to create an introduction that speaks to the high-level view of their ultimate goal plus some of the ways they can look at success.
Here’s a basic example:
Over the next three months, Client wants to develop a content marketing strategy that will drive traffic to the website, educate readers, and move website visitors into the sales funnel.
The goals are to improve website visits over current levels and increase the number of people who subscribe to the email list.
How you are going to help them: Next, you want to dig into your expertise here and highlight some of the ways you can help them hit those goals.
So this will generally cover the actions you can take to help make those goals a reality. You can get more specific here, but it doesn’t have to be super granular. List 3-5+ things you can do. The more the better because you can develop these into packages. So as you get more experienced, add more stuff.
Here’s a basic example:
I will do the following to help you with your objectives:
Perform a keyword audit to determine what keywords you need to be targeting in your content.
Perform a traffic analysis to determine your best performing content and what is really speaking to your readers
Perform a content audit to see what can be removed, updated, combined, improved to better serve customers and improve SEO
Create a content calendar for the next 3 months
Write 3 posts a month in the 800-1,000 word range based on keyword strategy, plus copy for the social media posts
Create 3 content upgrades (1 each month) to drive up subscriptions
Ok, so those are your recommendations of what you can do to help them solve the problem. All of these are easy to understand, give a general overview, and tie into the customer’s stated goals.
Next, you offer your packages.
Package pricing: A lot of people like to offer packages because it gives the client some options and can help you make a bit more money.
Here is a basic example:
In this case, let’s just say this is worth two packages to make it very easy.
Package 1 is the audit strategy package: You will perform the audits and traffic analysis and give the client a clear idea of the posts that work best, the posts that need work, etc., and leave them with a list of ideas of what they should write moving forward. Basically, with a package like this, you do the work and leave it to them to implement.
This package is $1,250. (You are doing 1-4 from the list above)
Package 2 is the strategy + content package: You will do everything from package one PLUS you will write the content. In a package like this, the benefit is you do all the work, they leave the content strategy and creation to you based upon what you agreed on in part one. You deliver the content ready to go, all they have to do is click publish on the assigned day.
This package is $2,850. (You are doing 1-6 from the list above)
The next steps: The ball is in their court now, so you want to tell them the next steps for moving forward. You want to make this as specific as possible, with real dates so you get a firm answer and can start getting to work. Remember, be professional!
Here is a basic example:
Please let me know by DATE if you agree to the terms listed in the above proposal. Once I get a yes, we can start working. If not, let me know so I can open my time up to other clients.
All contracts and onboarding materials (this is the stuff you use to get the job up and running. It might be a call with the client, a questionnaire, etc., to get specifics, their login info for tools, etc.) signed by DATE.
Project starts on DATE. Please let me know if you need to move any of the dates around.
You can also let them know how long the proposal is valid for. Most will do something like 15 or 30 days. You do not want someone popping back up 8 months later trying to slide in on this deal.
That’s it!
You can tweak all of this as necessary, but it’s a general high-level overview of writing proposals.
You will see a lot of templates have a big section about who you are, but honestly, I’d keep that to a minimum. The client already knows who you are at this stage, so make it about them, not you.
Here are a few more examples you can check out:
Ready to move on?
Good.
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far but it’s important to know this stuff before you start approaching clients. With all the basics set up, it’s time to find some writing gigs and get paid!