A web design contract is just a good idea for any business. Over the course of Media Surgery, I have never had to enforce the contract in any legal capacity. However, I have had to point the client towards the contract to clarify points.
I generally use the contract if the project exceeds £5000. I should really use below that, but I feel anything above is getting into the territory of - If a few projects go wrong, then the cash flow will be getting dangerously low.
One reason Media Surgery hasn't run into any significant issues with clients is that I vet companies quite well. Many agencies feel the client is going to vet you, but it's a two-way street. You should vet the company for which you will be creating a website, too.
One question that weeds out potential bad clients is talking about money early. You want to be upfront about your pricing. You can tell a lot about a company in response to something like, "We will invoice the second part of the project in early November, and we expect to be paid within 30 days; does that sound ok to you?"
If they ramble about getting paid, then beware. A good client should have plenty of money in the bank to pay for a web design project. Anyway, I'm talking about rambling - that's what I'm doing a little here! This is a post about why you should have a web design contract in place; another blog post is coming soon with vetting clients. Short point about the above? You don't want to enforce a contract; vet companies by talking about money early so you don't have to enforce it. The last place you want to end up in is court - it's stressful, time-consuming and expensive.
If you are starting out in web design, I'd just keep it simple - have a contract in place for every project you do.
#1: Sets out when you get paid
A contract should state how many payments should be made and what fee at each stage. This makes it crystal clear and can save a lot of hassle down the line. In a standard web design project that we do, you get a deposit of 50% and the final 50% once the project is live. Some agencies won't put the site live until the second payment has gone through. That's quite a hard line; you may want to do that, but as above, if you vet clients well, you shouldn't have issues in getting paid. Choose your clients well, but have clear payment details in the contract.
#2: Legal protection
Media Surgery has been going for over 20 years. We haven't been to court for a project yet. Touch wood. A well-written contract is, of course, legally enforceable. A pragmatic bit of advice I got from the lawyer when I got this contract checked was that you could have pretty much any condition or statement in the contract, but just make it crystal clear in the explanation. The Media Surgery contract doesn't include any wacky and obscure conditions; it's straightforward, but if you are going down a route with an unusual rule, then I would just play it safe and get it checked by a legal firm. In 9/10 situations, our contract should be adequate for a web design project even in the high 5 figures.
#3: Level of professionalism
To some businesses, having a contract shows you are a professional. Businesses are regularly signing contracts for their other business dealings. They should be used to it and some may even raise a flag if you don't have a contract. I wouldn't say all businesses have this opinion, but there is a level of competency in having a contract in place.
#4: Ownership of work
There are reasons and scenarios when designers like to have ownership of the finished goods. In graphic design, some even rent the design work for a number of prints. I try to keep things simple here at Media Surgery; once paid in full, the clients get all the material. They can use the logo, website, copy, and colours as they like.
#5: Confusion of scope
You and the client should have communicated to one other what exactly is involved. However, some clients will be new to the web design process and will look past what they thought they knew. Take, for example, search engine optimisation (SEO); some clients may have the expectation that the site should rank high on the search engines. Media Surgery makes it clear from the off that unless clearly stated, no expectations whatsoever should sites rank for any key term. While it should be possible to rank a site by its business name, this isn't as straightforward as it seems. Should the business rank across all regions of the world? What if there is a competitor with the same business name? This should be discussed upfront and in the contract. The Media Surgery contract states that you, the designer, have no control over the search engines and are not responsible for ranking any term. In the contract, state in good detail what you are providing.
That concludes, look out for further blog posts on the topics mentioned above.