An Easy Way to Create a Freelance Contract for Your Projects

We all know that having a solid contract in place is a key element of your freelancing projects. A contract helps ensure you’ll get paid for your work and it will protect you from having to do out-of-scope work. But…

we all also know it’s a hassle to create contracts. If you’re a solo freelancer or a small agency, chances are, you already have way too much stuff on your plate. Also, you might not have the necessary legal background to be able to create an effective project contract.

This is where Bonsai, a resource that provides free contracts for freelance designers and developers, can help you. They had a Stanford-educated lawyer write a contract template that’s easy to understand, and have decided to share it for free. Here are the steps for creating your own freelance contract using Bonsai:

1. Click the Create a Contract button.
2. You’ll then be asked what contract you’ll need. You have three choices: Development, Design, or Development & Design.
3. You’ll then be asked to fill in some details about you and the project — basic info, scope of work, payment terms, and the time frame of your project.Fill out some basic info.Describe the scope of work.Specify how you’d like to get paid. Specify the timeframe/schedule of the project.

After all of that, you’ll end up with a customized freelance contract that looks something like this: This is a pretty good service that Bonsai is offering for free. It seemed too good to be true, so I emailed the co-founder of Bonsai, Matt Brown, to see what the deal was. “The contracts are totally free and will always be, since we don’t think we should charge for something that should be standard,” Brown said.

“We’re working on other products that more directly help freelancers get paid and we’ll take a cut of revenue from that.”

Related Content

• 6 Good Tips for Your Freelance Design Contracts
• Avoiding Unscoped Work from Unreasonable Clients
• A Beginner’s Guide to the Business Side of Freelancing

Jacob Gube is the founder of Six Revisions. He’s a front-end developer. Connect with him on Twitter.