Contract Clauses Part 1
Hi Weekend Club Members!
I just want to say again thank you so much for being a part of this community! This year has been different for sure, lots of life changes and events both good and bad, some planned and some unexpected, and it's definitely affected our business a lot. That's something that is unique about freelance and running your own business - your personal life bleeds over much more and affects your job more than if you work for someone else. So I just want to say thank you for being patient with us, we are grateful for you!
Changing gears, I want to do a series on the contract clauses that we have found to be helpful for us and give some examples of when we have enforced them. I think that getting a contract in place is one of the most important things you can do when starting to work on a new project, even with clients you have worked with before. When we first start out, we often don't realize just how important this is or sometimes we're blinded by the name of a big company who approaches us and think we don't need to protect ourselves.
There is a story that we've mentioned a couple times on Per Our Last Email that made us realize that we needed to always have a contract. This happened to us early on, we had a contract (much shorter than the one we have now) but we had a big brand reach out to us after they saw a photo on our Instagram that we took with their products.
Over the phone they asked if we would do a test shoot for trade and I said no, we only work for financial compensation. They said ok and we moved forward with the shoot. Because I knew and loved this brand in my personal life I trusted them and didn't bother with a contract and I also didn't follow up with written confirmation of what we had agreed to via email.
I definitely recommend having both a contract and also always following up a phone conversation with a written review of what was discussed and agreed to. Anyway, we did the shoot and delivered the images. When I sent the invoice (which was literally for a few hundred dollars which they could absolutely afford) they responded and said "oh, sorry for the miscommunication but this was a shoot for trade so we can't pay this." We were so disappointed in both this brand and ourselves. A mistake that cost us a few hundred dollars and that could have been avoided just by sending a contract.
I don't want to be jaded or think that every brand is out to get photographers, but I have seen so many photographers be taken advantage of, and it's happened to us on more than one occasion so the best thing you can do is protect yourself. It doesn't mean that you can't still give the benefit of the doubt and believe the best in people, it means that you are taking personal feelings out of your business and protecting yourself in a professional way.
A contract also protects your client because it also holds you accountable to produce the work that they are paying for. This is what I will tell a client if they don't want to sign a contract, it's in the best interest for both of us to have an agreement of our working relationship.
So now let's start getting into some of the clauses that I think are important to include in your contract. First I need to say that I am not a lawyer and I am not giving legal advice. I live in California in the United States and so some of the things that we include in ours may be different than what you can or should include in yours based on the laws where you live so I always recommend consulting a lawyer before you start to use a contract that you have purchased or written.
And speaking of purchasing, I would be a bad marketer if I didn't mention that we have our own contract template that you can grab here. If you're a Saturday or Sunday level member don't forget to use your discount!
SERVICES
The first clause that we include is about our services. This clause is used to lay out and make it super clear exactly what you are responsible for during this project and what the client can expect to receive from you. We list out every single aspect of our responsibilities, for example, "Weekend Creative will produce, style, photograph and retouch 15 still images and 1 stop motion gif up to 15 frames". We also state that any additional work requested after the contract is signed will be subject to an additional fee per image/gif if we are able to accommodate.
This is also where we list out our office hours and preferred method of communication (for us this is email). We let the client know how quickly they can expect to receive a response from us within our office hours.
We state that we have the right to only release the images/gifs that are within our creative standards and that the delivered images may not include every image that we shoot. This allows us to have the freedom to not deliver images that just didn't turn out and lets the client know that changes may happen on set that will result in images that are slightly different than planned for.
We also let the client know that we are the ones who will decide the format and resolution that the images will be delivered in (usually based on the usage that is purchased), this allows us to not be forced to give high resolution images to a client who only purchased web usage and eliminates the risk that they will print them anyway.
We also state that we are not responsible for the quality of the work if the client doesn't reproduce or display the images correctly. There have been many instances where we have seen our work displayed on a website at a low resolution that looked terrible. When we see this we reach out to the client to ask if we can assist them and we've never had a client try to come after us for their own issues with this but it could happen so it's better to protect yourself just in case.
The last part of this clause says that we have no obligation to store or retain any of the images after we have delivered the final work to the client. Now of course we will archive our work and keep it for our own purposes but this protects us in case our work is somehow lost (knocks on wood). Always back up your work, but know that issues sometimes happen outside your control and you shouldn't have to be responsible for backing up your work for your client, they should back up their own content.
FEES
The next clause is a fun one - fees! This is probably the one that we have enforced the most because it outlines how much, when, and how we will be paid. This is probably one of the most common issues that we see over and over with freelancers, they don't get paid on time or at all.
This is where we list out the deposit amount (make sure to say if it is nonrefundable) and the due date. Then we state that the client must pay the remainder (and state the amount) plus any expenses accrued during the shoot by a specific date.
We state that the client must compensate us for all work that was created during the project regardless of if the client chooses to use the final work. That statement is included because we had a client who decided after we delivered the final work that they actually didn't need one of the gifs that we created for them. They said that because they wouldn't use it, they didn't want to pay us for it even though it was a gif that they had requested.
Sometimes we will throw in additional work we create during the shoot if inspiration struck, but if there is something that was agreed upon or requested then we need to be compensated for that even if the client changes their mind later.
This also protects you if the client just doesn't like the work and doesn't want to pay which has happened to us. We do our best to have all work approved by the client prior to and during the shoot and always do what we can to make sure they get what they want, but there are times when this is just not possible due to communication issues or other reasons. In this case, we still need to be compensated for the work that we created.
We state the payment methods that we accept and also list out the additional expenses that the client agrees to pay for ie talent, props, studio rental, etc.
Then we state the fee for late payment. This is one of the most important things that you can include in your contract. Make sure to look into laws in your area because some places have laws about how much you can charge as a late fee, but we charge an accruing 5% for each month that the payment is late. On a large project this adds up really quick, last year we made over $2,000 on late fees alone and sometimes we make even more than that.
Sometimes we have clients who object to this fee when they receive it and I sometimes give them grace the first time with a 5 day extension but I also explain to them that we are a small business and delays in payment can affect our cash flow. At the end of the day, they knew and agreed to the payment schedule and rates from the beginning and they shouldn't agree to something that they can't afford.
PROJECT TIMELINE
This clause outlines all of the due dates for all deliverables. It allows your client to know when they will receive things from you and which days you expect to get feedback which keeps the project moving along. Typically the things we include in this section look like this (although your process may be different!):
DATE - Retainer due
DATE - Shot list or final brief from Client due
DATE - Shoot plan delivered to Client
DATE - Adjustments to shoot plan due
DATE - Final shoot plan delivered to Client (if changes needed)
DATE - DATE - Production
DATE - Shoot date
DATE - Final payment due
DATE - Images due
DATE - Last date to request re-edits
There you have it for today! I have 10 more clauses to share with you so stay tuned! Whether you already have a contract or not, I hope this series will be helpful for you! I would love to hear your thoughts or comments so feel free to share below!
Is it the weekend yet?
Elle