Master Services Agreement Template
This is the agreement you’ll want to use as a foundation between all of your clients and you. This isn’t a contract specific to any particular project. I use my Master Services Agreement (MSA) either during my preliminary meeting when I’m requesting sensitive financial information from project leads or right before I invoice a new client for Roadmapping.
What the MSA provides:
- Ensures you get paid.
- Establishment of key contact personnel (so that your project doesn’t devolve into a committee-driven mess.)
- Requires your clients to cooperate based on your established expectations.
- States that it’s up to you to determine resource allocation (this legally permits you to outsource to others.)
- No poaching. If you’re working with others, the client can’t go behind your back and work with them directly.
- Non-exclusivity. You’re able to work with similar clients as long as you aren’t sharing any intellectual property specific to your client’s business.
- Non-disclosure. You won’t violate their trust by sharing sensitive data about your client, and they won’t do the same to you.
- You’re independent and not an employee.
- The client owns any intellectual property you develop for them after you’ve been paid in full for it.
- Allows you the ability to terminate your agreement.
- If you end up going to court, it’ll be in your backyard.
The Master Services Agreement template is included with the Complete Course of Double Your Freelancing Rate.
Statement of Work Template
You’ll use this template when entering into a project engagement with a client. If you have a client who hires you first for Roadmapping, and then for a large project, and then wants to retain you monthly, you’re looking at creating 3 Statement of Work (SOW) documents. Your Master Services Agreement (MSA) will support each of these SOWs.
What the SOW provides:
- Inherits all the legalities that are contained in your MSA.
- Cost estimates (if billing for time) or total cost (if fixed.)
- Billing rate, if applicable.
- Scheduled start date, estimated completion date.
- Any relevant phases or milestones, including payment schedules.
- Deposit amount and payment terms.
- Your expectations of your client (review turnaround, meeting attendance, delivery of assets.)
- Any included services, like daily email updates, weekly meetings, quality assurance, etc.
The Master Services Agreement template is included with the Complete Course of Double Your Freelancing Rate.
Proposal Template
This is the template I use when issuing proposals. This can either be used as a deliverable for your Roadmapping engagements or as a regular project proposal.
What the Proposal template provides:
- A recap (with financial anchoring) of the problem behind the project.
- The financial upside they’re looking to realize, along with an overview of what tomorrow should look like for the client.
- An overview of the high-level requirements you plan on completing.
- Any risks that accompany the project, and how you plan on countering them.
- Your uniqueness and why you’re the best for this project.
- Options, including terms and pricing, for reaching the end goal of the project.
The Master Services Agreement template is included with the Complete Course of Double Your Freelancing Rate.
