http://www.appBuilderTV.com http://www.udemy.com/how-to-freelance-for-mobile-developers/ How to Freelance for Mobile Developers Lesson 4. In this episode we will discuss what a service agreement is, why you need one for every project and how to go about putting one together.

1. How to Freelance for Mobile Developers
Lesson 4 of 6
Creating Contracts or
Service Agreements
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2. The Biggest Mistake Most
Freelancers Make
● Probably the biggest single mistake new
freelancers make is taking on a project without
doing up a formal written agreement.
● If you operate without any kind of written
agreement, you will get burned, it's just a
question of time, so don't take the risk.
● People new to freelance often think that doing
up a formal agreement will scare away
customers or that they don't have the money to
pay an expensive lawyer to create one.
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3. Keep it Simple
● No need to get all legalese on anybody
● Keep your agreements simple
● Keep it clear
● Use plain language
● Keep it short
● Bulleted lists work great
● The majority of problems that will happen on a
project usually revolve around a mismatch in
expectations

4. A Few Things Every Service
Agreement Should Have
There are some basic things every service agreement should contain, which
includes:
● The name, address and contact details for the client and the freelancer
● The scope or description of the project and work you will be doing for the
client.
● The responsibilities that you will take on during the project
● The responsibilities that the client will take on during the project
● An indication of time estimates and finishing dates
● Your rate or estimated cost of the project and payment schedules
● A termination clause
● Tax information and retainer info
● IP and ownership
● A place for a signature and date for you and your clients
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5. Contact Details
● Your service agreement should have your name
address, company name (if you have one), postal
code or zip code. You'll need the same info about
your client which you may need to look up or ask them
for.
● You'll want the name of the person who actually signs
the contract in addition to their company name if they
have one.
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6. Scope and Description
● You'll want to state, in clear and simple terms the
nature of the work you will be doing for the client.
● You are obligating yourself to do anything on this list,
so be as clear as you can. “Build an App” is not
sufficient. What kind of App? What features will it
have? What technologies will you use? How will it be
tested?
● If you are to loose with the scope of your agreement,
what happens quite often is clients ask for more and
more little things to be added or changed and may
expect you do do them for free.
● Be very clear in your agreement that items and
requests that fall outside the scope are billable and
may add additional costs.

7. Your Responsibilities
● In addition to clearly describing the work you are about to
undertake you should also establish other ground rules before
the project starts like:
● What your contact hours are and the modes of communication
you will use. Are you a 9-5 type and prefer talking on the
phone? Maybe you'll work on the weekends and use Skype to
talk with your client.
● You may wish to state that you are not responsible for any
marketing and business development for the App, unless you
are providing this service.
● You should state that you will notify the client when a request
falls outside the scope of the agreement.
● You should state that you will make the client aware of any
events and obstacles that come up that could impede
progress and change the timeline.
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8. The Clients Responsibilities
● You may wish to state that the client is responsible for all
marketing and business aspects of the App, unless you are
providing these services as well.
● You should state what assets the client is expected to provide
for the project, including text, images, audio or any other assets
that you won't be providing.
● You should state when and how the client is responsible for
paying you. I would recommend you break the project up into
chunks and schedule payments upon initiation or completion of
each chunk. Waiting for one big payout at the end of a project
has just about done in many a freelancer.
● You should state that the client is responsible for providing
timely feedback and answering any questions you may have.
● If the App needs to be approved by Apple, the client should be
aware you can not guarantee that the app will be approved.

9. Time Estimates and Finish Date
● You should usually provide some kind of time
estimate as to when different parts of the project will
be done and when things will wrap up.
● Unless you are absolutely sure you can get
something done by a particular date, always state that
they are estimates and could be subject to change.
● Unexpected things will always pop up in pretty much
every project, so make sure you have some wiggle
room as far as time goes to deal with this.
● I usually like to give a rage estimate. (ie I think this
feature will take 3-7 days to implement).
● Don't forget to actually keep track of the time you
actually spend on the project.
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10. Your Rate and / or Project Cost
● If you are working hourly, than the agreement
should clearly state what your hourly rate is. If
you don't work weekends, and a client puts the
rush on you, you may also have a higher rate
you charge for rush jobs.
● If you are quoting a fixed price or range for the
project cost, this should be clearly stated in the
agreement so there is no chance of confusion.

11. Termination Clause
● Despite your best efforts, sometimes things don't always
work out.
● Locking yourself at the hip with a client can be bad news.
● Here's the deal, if you aren't happy working with the client,
and they aren't happy working with you, then you
shouldn't be working with each other.
● Provide a way for you or the client to bail out if need be,
so things don't get ugly.
● Because I do all my projects in an Agile phased
approach (think small chunks), I allow my client or myself
to get out at the end of any given phase if things just aren't
working out.
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12. Tax Info
● If you will be collecting taxes, you should state your
local tax rate and your tax or business number so
you can account for this properly.
● If you are under a certain yearly limit, you may not
have to charge or collect taxes, so check with your
local tax authority.
● Be careful, because once you do pass a certain level
of earnings you will most likely have to collect tax on
your projects, regardless of whether you are a
business or not.

13. Retainer
● As I had mentioned in a previous video, I always ask
for a retainer on any new project.
● A retainer is typically an upfront initial payment, that
is non-refundable and can rage from 20 – 50 percent
of the project cost.
● You should state in the agreement that you will require
a retainer, how much it is, and that the project can
start as soon as they sign your agreement and
provide you with the retainer.
● You should also state that the retainer will be applied
towards the project cost and is not an extra fee.

14. IP and Ownership
● IP issues can a factor that can complicate a project.
Watch your back.
● While I usually do not claim ownership on most
projects, I always maintain the right to re-leverage
knowledge and skills acquired while working on any
given project on future projects.
● The main reason for this is that you can't constantly be
re-inventing the wheel as a developer.
● I also usually state that I will not use code or
techniques derived on a project with a direct
competitor.

15. Signatures and Dates
● You should have some kind of clause at the end
of the agreement to the effect that “all the
parties involved have read, understood and
wish to enter into the agreement”.
● Make sure there is a spot for your signature and
the clients as well as a spot for the current date.
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16. The Agreement is Signed...Now
What?
● In upcoming episodes we'll be discussing:
● Strategies for dealing with challenging
clients
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