Deleted a $60 contract template and dodged a payment trap

I had this boilerplate retainer agreement I bought off a legal site for $60, thought it was solid. After 3 months of chasing a client in Phoenix who kept adding scope, I realized the template didn't have a cap on revision cycles. Rewrote it with a hard limit of 10 changes per project, and the next guy with the same demands just walked away. Anyone else find that pre-made contracts are part of the problem?

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1 Comment

kim_davis11d ago

Oh man, that hits close to home... but here's the thing nobody talks about. The real trap isn't the template itself, it's the trust you put in it. I had a similar deal where the contract said "reasonable revisions" and the client took that as a blank check to rewrite the whole project three times. A template can't know your client's personality. You gotta read the room before you even send the thing over... if they're the type to nickel and dime you on the first call, no paper is gonna save you. The $60 template is just a starting point, the real work is building in your own red flags before you sign anything.