Contract Templates for Freelancers

Contracts have been an essential part of business for years now. Even today, when a lot of work is done online, contracts play a leading role in the success of different collaborations. Consequently, freelancers also had to start using them when signing deals on the web, but seeing a lawyer for each and every contract can quickly become overwhelming.

Luckily, someone somewhere came up with the idea to create contract templates and enable freelancers to get them online. However, as some people still doubt the credibility of these web-based documents, we outlined their pros and cons, so you can see for yourself whether they are worth your time.

Pros of Using Contract Templates

The fact that many freelancers nowadays use contract templates shows that these documents meet the requirements of the online world. Here are the main advantages of using contract templates for your freelance business.

Easy Way to Draw Personalized Contracts

Contract templates have made it easy for freelancers to draw personalized business agreements in a few easy steps. On websites like Honeybook, you can find numerous contract templates and adapt them to suit your particular business needs.

All you need to do is sign up, find a contract template you like, and follow the steps on the screen. The process is completely hassle-free, so you’ll be able to draw a great contract even if you don’t have much experience in this niche.

Cost-Effective

The freelance business has become so demanding in every way possible that a good freelance contract is a must these days. If you were to do things by the book, you’d hire people whose job description includes drawing these legal documents — lawyers or other legal experts.

However, these people are usually very busy with other important stuff and an hour of their time costs quite a lot. On the other hand, if you decide to download a contract template from the web, you’ll only have to register and eventually pay a small subscription fee.

In this way, you can save a lot of money and get a pretty decent contract you can use at the start of your freelance career.

Created Instantly

All that talk about lawyers being busy is even more relevant in terms of the time needed to draw proper contracts. Before a contract is in your hands, the legal expert will have to draft a professional drawing of it and clearly state the nature of your work and what you want the contract to grant you.

Then, this person will have to find time in their schedule and reserve it for drawing your contract. If you’re lucky, you can get the contract ready within a week, but in most cases, it takes longer than that.

Contract Template Drawbacks for Freelancers

Although contract templates are a great instant solution for freelancers, there are still a few disadvantages you need to consider. Here are the most common issues that may arise when using online templates for drawing your business contracts.

Questionable Legal Advice

Although most websites offering contract templates have professional legal teams overseeing the documents, this is unfortunately not the case with every platform. Some of them are just copying other people’s work or drawing the contract templates themselves, which can make your contract inadmissible in court in case of any trouble.

Therefore, if you want to be entirely sure that your contract has been drawn by a professional lawyer, you’ll have to visit one and prepare a considerable amount of money.

Limited Contract Clauses

Even if they have fantastic customer service, the website offering contract templates won’t be able to personalize your documents in detail. Yes, you will be able to make it suitable for your particular business needs, but the contract surely won’t cover every aspect.

These contracts are created to cover the essentials of a business agreement and often miss clauses crucial for your specific area of expertise. Consequently, if you end up in a legal dispute, these missing clauses may cost you a fortune.