Who Can Draft a Business Contract or Service Agreement?

You’re likely wondering if you need an attorney to draft it. Unless your industry uses very specific contracts or is prone to a high risk, the answer is no, typically an attorney is not required for a basic service agreement for professional services.

Do you use a template you found on the web or is included in your software? You can use it as a model or starting point, but please do personalize it and make it clear and readable. Don’t just use the template as is. They sound truly awful and use arcane language.

Recently I have helped clients draft a simple and inclusive service agreement providing

  • Business photography services
  • Digital marketing services
  • Small private party bartending services
  • Household management services

And I’m certainly not an attorney; but if you have any doubt at all, please do consult with an attorney.

The Contents of the Service Agreement

If you elect to draft your own contract, what should it include? Here are important sections to include.

Introduction

This is where you describe your business, you as a professional, what you provide, your mission, anything that helps the client understand your value proposition and the scope of your work.

How You Work

In this section, go over what your process entails. Not giving away any “secret sauce” or proprietary systems, you do want to manage expectations and to help the client become comfortable with your workflow. You can stipulate any limitations, such as, “weekends are family time and if you reach out to me, you can expect a prompt response on the next business day”. Basically, your clients are not mind readers, so tell them how best to work with you.

What You Can Expect from Me

State your promises, as a professional, such as – arriving early to an appointment, being prepared with supplies and dressing appropriately; or keeping details of a session confidential and meeting in a quiet and private space.

What I Will Expect from You

What do you need your clients to do while you’re working together? Do they need to bring something with them, be prepared, pay you up front? Clients must give you as much detail as possible for you to do your job appropriately. They should be available for questions and decision making, and in the case of consulting sessions, be fully “present” and not multi-task on the computer or phone. State your expectations for payment or information within ‘x’ number of days, etc.

Risk Management

Include a section that covers “When stuff goes wrong”. Force Majeure, illness, unavoidable happenings, etc. What’s your cancellation/refund/rescheduling policy? Please note that most clients will be very understanding if you cannot fulfill an appointment for circumstances beyond your control, and they would simply rather reschedule than to cancel the session, if at all possible.

How To Deliver the Contract

  • Do you email the agreement and assume they’re ok with it? (no)
  • Should they physically sign it and send it back? (too much trouble)
  • Does their signature assume they’ve read and agreed? (never)

Look, people sign agreements all the time without reading or understanding. At. All. They just want to move on and then they’re taken aback when their lack of understanding comes back to bite them.

Create a better process by sending them the agreement in a Word Doc first and scheduling a short zoom call. 15 minutes should do it. During this zoom meeting, you go over the agreement (even if they complain they’ve already read it) and then ask, ‘do you have any questions? Does all this look good to you?’.

If they say yes at that point, you send them the DocuSign version and have them click to sign and submit. DocuSign and products like it are not expensive and are worth every penny.

In summary:

  • Unless your business is very restrictive, you typically do not need an attorney.
  • The content of your agreement should be focused on how you work; managing expectations on both parts; and covering cancellations and refunds.
  • Never take their word that they read it – go over it with them on a zoom call.
  • Use an electronic signing tool like DocuSign that takes seconds.

I welcome your weird and wacky ‘contract’ stories. Has your client ever asked you strange questions or made odd stipulations on a contract? Everything is a learning experience!