It’s time to put it down on paper now. It’s all about presentation. I know some people email the clients the estimates. And others make it official by going in to meet the client in person and go over things. It will depend on each client. Some clients are very busy, so it may not be possible. While other clients have the time to sit down and make sure everything is good to go.

Two documents or just one?

What I like to do is give the client two documents, an estimate and a letter of engagement. There will be times when you have an on-going client, and just emailing the client is okay. Still, get the client to sign the letter of engagement. It’s all about protecting yourself and the client too.

If, by chance, the client wants to discuss and maybe change things on the estimate, then the letter of engagement will need to be replaced. Why? A letter of engagement tells precisely the scope of the work and the terms of compensation. I have been very fortunate with past clients that they agree with the estimate and go ahead and sign the letter of engagement.

Sample templates on contracts and agreements

If you search for contracts or agreements in a search engine such as Google, Pinterest, Yahoo, you can take one of those templates online. Great. But, would you know what it means? I know I didn’t. A past client asked me what was written on this contract, and vaguely gave him an answer. Unless you know how to read the linguistics of a contract or agreement, go for it. I wasn’t that smart for that. And I knew I needed something better than that.

Letter of Engagement

So, a letter of engagement came along. It tells precisely the scope of the work and the terms of compensation. You could also include what you won’t do, which is what I do too to cover myself just in case I have to take a client in small claims court if it comes to that. Making life more comfortable, I have attached a Sample Letter Engagement. This was extracted from my own document of Adobe InDesign, but not sure who has what, I have saved the file as a rich text format file, so any Microsoft Word or Text editor should be able to open this up. And you can copy and paste this into any other program such as InDesign, Illustrator or Word.

The one thing I still do, is I get the decision-maker or business owner to sign the letter of engagement. Yes, one could do a digital signature, am just well, old school, that I want their official signature to make it more official!

Protect yourself, nobody else will!

Customer retention is crucial to sustainable company growth. Without customers, how would a business grow and thrive? Crucially, you need to ensure that the steps you take today don’t themselves create additional problems for the future. And how do you go about that?

Start on the right foot! It doesn’t matter if you are going to be a business owner, freelancer or consultant; always get in writing if you are planning to do the job. Huh? After meeting the client or business, if you decide to follow through on the work, get them to sign a letter of engagement. If they like you, they may even offer you a contract or an agreement if they want to hire you as an employee. Or if you are a freelancer or consultant, and you are providing services to them such as a website or logo design, then sign an engagement letter in what you will do for them.

Learning from the hard way

I was offered to design a flyer for a supermarket back in the 1990s. It was cool because I even shopped there, and my cousin had also worked there at one point in her life.

I designed a double-sided flyer for them for a Fun Run. The brochures were printed and distributed by the commercial printer. And then I asked for payment from the ‘Sponsor’ Fun Run. The company decided not to pay for my services. They had asked if I signed a contract. I did not. But, I did have a paper trail of emails. That was my saving grace.

I knew as soon as they said “contract,” I was in trouble! A learning mistake. A month pass by, no payment. I even tried to give them a discount if they paid by a specific time. And still no payment. I tried to add a penalty fee, and that didn’t work too. Luckily I asked a friend who was a lawyer, and she said to ask the contact person for their legal team phone number so she can contact them about the missing payment. Guess what, a cheque was courier to me that afternoon!

Learn from my mistake

Granted, the company could have called my bluff, and my friend and I could have gone to small claims court. It probably would cost me more money for taking my friend (lawyer) out for dinner and beers than getting my invoice paid. But, it did teach me a lesson, have a signed contract!