Initials Product Development Agreement Template Made Easy

Index logo contract

- If you're a creative who's working with clients on projects, then you absolutely need to have a contract. In this video, I'm gonna tell you the three reasons why and also give you some advice for putting one in place. (bouncy music) Let's start with the most obvious reason, shall we? Having a contract will help you get paid on time. When you issue a contract, it'll include details of the exact amount they're going to pay you, when that payment is due, and also the products or services that you're gonna be providing to them in exchange for the payment. When you've got a contract laid out like this, there's no room for miscommunications or misunderstandings about due dates or payment amounts, it's all there in black and white and you've both signed it. In a good contract, everything will be clear and nothing will be left up to chance. In my contract that I use with my clients, I have a clause that says that I won't hand over the final assets until they've made that final payment. And it also means that the deadline for handing over those final assets is extended by how many days the client is late paying it. So, I can't be the one who's late on the deadline if the client hasn't paid yet. Having this in the contract spells it out and the client knows the consequences for not meeting the payment deadline and also I'm not left wondering what to do when the client doesn't pay on time. The second reason why you should absolutely use a contract is professionalism. If you want to be seen as a professional in your industry, you've got to act like one. A contract isn't just there to protect you as the designer, it's also there for the benefit of the client. It's an agreement between two professionals about how you're gonna work together on this project. So a contract should detail the exact work services that you are going to provide to the client in exchange for their fee and that way, they know exactly what to expect from you and it's all there in writing. Part of being a professional is dealing with copyright and the legalities of, you know, licensing your work or transferring your ownership to your client. And a contract is a great way to handle this. In my contract, for example, I detail that the client doesn't own the assets until they've paid the final amount. So, until they're paid up in full, the work isn't theirs and it still belongs to me. And this benefits the client too, because after the work is complete, they'll have a legal document that says what their rights for using the work are, whether that's licensing rights we've agreed that they can use it for a set number of years or for a set purpose or uses, or whether they own the work outright. Overall, having a contract in place...