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Freelance copywriter invoice template for Customer Service

are you using a freelancing contract to protect yourself and your work we really should be a lot of people hear the word contract and freak out but I'm here to tell you it's actually pretty simple so if you're a freelancer or an aspiring freelancer watch this video because I'm going to give the five reasons why you need to have freelancing contracts how to make one and how to get a free template if you're new here my name is Colleen Welsh I'm a freelance copywriter with 10 years of experience seven as a freelancer I've worked with clients like Olay Gucci Beauty Milani Dyson etc etc etc etc and this is a freelance writer's guide where we talk about freelancing but also we talk about like you know personal development and mental health and just being chill also for legal reasons I just want to tell you I am not a lawyer I am not a lawyer so none of this YouTube video constitutes legal advice I'm just telling you what I know about making contracts in my own business if you need legal advice you should speak to a licensed attorney okay let's get into it it's free Lance writer's guide [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so what is a freelancing contract a freelance contract outlines the services that you perform for the client and the compensation that you will receive from the client for performing those Services the contract also includes other information like who owns the rights to the work can you use it in your portfolio when is it due what happens if the client doesn't pay you on time what happens if they want to change the project what happens if there's an earthquake that's all included if you have the resources I recommend that you hire a lawyer to just like put together a standard template for you that you can reuse for all your clients but there are also websites that offer free contract templates for Freelancers like Bonsai and I'll include a link for Bonsai in the description box below and I'll talk a little bit more about them later alright so here's five reasons why you need a freelancing contract number one freelance right in contracts help you get paid now we've all heard horror stories of Freelancers who haven't gotten paid for their work I have some as well I mean we all have them we all have them it happens and while a freelancing contract cannot force a client to pay you because you'd have to go to like a collections agency or like small claims court for that clients are less likely to skip out on payments when they sign a contract and hopefully you'll never need to take extra steps to collect payment other than just like reminding them that they've signed a contract number two freelancing contracts make sure that you are fairly compensated so this one has to do with a little thing called scoop creep scope creep happens when the client asks you to complete tasks that were not included in the original project scope if you're working hourly this doesn't matter you have to do extra work but you're going to get paid extra for it but if you are charging a flat fee for your projects which is what I recommend that you do and the client asks you to do extra things that they didn't ask you to do initially when you gave the estimate the proposal you should just be able to charge more for that you are entitled to be paid for doing additional work even if it's just little things like can you like add some stock photography suggestions or I'll just upload this to our website for us or like oh can you just make an Instagram post that goes along with this yeah I can do it if you're gonna pay me to do it so using a freelancing contract protects you from scope creep because in the contract you're going to clearly Define everything that you're going to do for the project you can also have a section in your contract that talks about what you guys are gonna do if they want you to do extra things that are not in the original scope and listen if this happens to you which this is very common speak up most client don't realize that they're doing this they're not trying to like be nefarious it's just like needs change especially if you're working with like really big companies and there's like a huge team involved just speak up just stand up for yourself it's totally normal it's expected and if you don't people will walk all over you which you don't want to do confidence confidence okay number three freelancing contracts protect your clients your contract says that your client will receive your work for their money so they know that you're not just gonna like Take the Money and Run especially if you charge up front like I do this makes the client feel safer and creates more of a sense of trust which there should be because you are trustworthy I hope number four using freelancing contracts positions you as a professional if you're new to my Channel or my content then you might not know that my whole thing is about like up leveling our services and our skills so that we can charge more and work less that's my whole Spiel so anything that you can do to position yourself as a professional I recommend that you do so when you send over a contract to a client like they know you mean business and you know what you're doing I won't tell if you don't if you don't know I won't tell number five freelancing contracts weed out Shady clients like trustworthy clients are not gonna have any problem signing a contract they know that that's just like a standard business practice Shady clients on the other hand will try to talk you out of it so whether you decide to work with a client who refuses to sign a contract is up to you but like I would never do that I think that's a huge red flag I would not do that okay so let's get into the nitty-gritty of actually like writing that freelancing contract now as I said before if you have the budget just work with a lawyer like through or something to make a template that you can just reuse for all your clients and just like change the scope a little bit and you can just like have like little places that you change it to like update it for each project if budget is a concern you can also download like a free template from Bonsai or a similar website or you can create your own but regardless of whether you make your own or use a template make sure that it includes these elements the project details and scope of work so this is where you provide all the details of the work that you're going to do for the client be very specific about what you're going to do and also what you're not going to do know that you can also include some language about how to renegotiate the contract if they decide to change the scope of work ask you to do things that they didn't previously ask you to do invoicing and payments so this is where you're going to stay how much you need to be paid when you will be paid and how you will be paid you can also ask for a percentage up front you can ask for a 100 up front if you want this section will also tell the client when you're going to send them an invoice even if you're sending the invoice like with the contract and you should also say how long the client has to pay the invoice and what happens if they don't pay on time the next thing to include is copyright cancellations and confidentiality so if you're a new freelance writer honestly like at any level you're probably trying to build your portfolio but especially if you're new you're really working on that portfolio so you want to make sure that in your contract while it states that the client has the rights to the work you get to use it in your portfolio because you're going to use that to get new clients you also want to have a clause about confidentiality which basically says that you're not going to share your clients business secrets with others this is really important because typically as a copywriter you work in the same industry a lot like I'm a beauty copywriter I just work with a bunch of beauty clients basically so it's very important that I have signed something that says that I'm not going to share png's secrets with Johnson and Johnson as an example and vice versa I'm not like sharing the reports back and forth like I'm a spy that would be interesting career path what a corporate Espionage but that's not I don't do that also there should be something in there like what if the client decides that they want to cancel the project once again just making sure that you're getting fairly paid like if you charge 50 up front but you've done 75 of the work how are you going to get paid for that last 25 how much time do they need to give you like do they need to give you like a seven day head up if they're gonna cancel stuff like that and then finally and this does not apply to everybody but the right to terminate so this is for people who are offering monthly packages or like ongoing projects for example if you are writing monthly blog posts this describes the procedure for canceling the contract just like make sure that you add enough time to prepare for the loss of income so like you might want to say like they need to give you like a 30 day heads up so you can get another client to replace them all right so now let's talk about like physically how this occurs wait no first let's talk about when this happens when you send this contract you send this contract after you have a sales call with a potential client so you have a sales call you're negotiating the terms of the project and you're finding out everything that you're going to have to do to do this project then they're gonna say oh how much is this going to cost if it's something that is just like a standard package for you just give them a flat rate just tell them exactly what it is on the package because you already have a price list at least if you follow my advice and then you're going to say well let me take this offline I'll calculate everything and I'll send you a proposal and a contract and they'll say thank you and then you will go and figure out how long is is going to take you to complete this project multiply that by your hourly rate build your proposal with that and when you send the proposal you're also going to send the contract I also recommend that you send an invoice for the deposit if you're charging a deposit you should charge a deposit but you don't have to it's up to you I would though I would charge at least 50 up front especially if it's a big project that's going to take you a long time so physically how what is the contract you can use a platform like Bonsai that's going to allow you and your client to just do e-signatures and make it super simple if you wanted to write your own contract you could just write it in Google Docs download it as a PDF and then have your client sign it that way make sure you save a copy of it on your computer and you know name it like with the client name so if you ever have to find it again you will be able to you know if you're working with this client for three years and then like in three years like you have a new Point person and they're like oh can we see your contract because we're trying to figure out some stuff out and you're like oh like I'm just rambling sorry um yeah anyways do not start work on the project until you get that contract signed and if you're charging a deposit you get the deposit don't even put it on your calendar because sometimes clients will take six months to get back to you I literally just had a client that I sent them a proposal I sent them these materials a year ago and then they just got back to me and they were like okay we're ready to move forward and I'm like all right well my rate went up fifty dollars an hour so now it's gonna cost this much if you like this video give it a thumbs up and subscribe I upload weekly videos about freelancing productivity mental health Etc I also have a course called the freelance writer's guide of the Galaxy where we go into more detail about topics like freelancing contracts proposals invoices figuring out your rate creating packages finding clients and more and then I also offer one-on-one coaching and I'll have all the links to that stuff below if you would like a free freelancing contract make sure you check out Bonsai and I will also include my link for them below let me know if you have any questions and that's about it okay bye watch for dear ah I know that is um what is that thing okay uh and anything else [Music]