Contract
A written record of what each side promised — most useful long before any dispute, as the thing you both check.
A contract is the written record of what two parties agreed: what is delivered, what is paid, when, and what happens if something goes wrong. What it is for is widely misunderstood. Almost no small business contract is ever enforced in court, because enforcement costs more than the work was worth. Its real job is to be the document you both look at in month four when your memories differ, and they will.
Which means the clauses that earn their place are the everyday ones, not the dramatic ones. Payment terms and what happens when they are missed. How either side ends the arrangement, and with how much notice. Who owns what is produced. How changes are agreed. A one-page agreement that answers those is worth more in practice than twenty pages of boilerplate nobody read.
The habit that matters more than the wording: sign before the work starts. An agreement negotiated after delivery has begun is negotiated by whoever needs the other party less, and once you are three weeks in, that is not you.
Rules, defaults and enforceability differ by country and by the kind of work — treat this as the vocabulary, and have the agreement you actually use reviewed by a qualified professional in your own jurisdiction.
Also known as
- agreement
- terms of engagement
- client agreement
Relevant for
- Creators
- Sign before you start; an agreement negotiated after week three is negotiated by whoever needs the other party less, and by then that is not you.
- Business owners
- Its job is to be the document you both re-read in month four when memories differ, not to be enforced — write the everyday clauses, not the dramatic ones.