Spent 2 years using a generic contract template from a friend, then a guy at a coffee shop in Portland told me my kill fee was vague

He pointed out a line that said 'cancellation fee negotiable' and asked if I ever actually got paid for a cancelled project, and I realized I never had because there was no real number to enforce, so has anyone else found a specific kill fee percentage that actually works across different types of work?

3 comments

3 Comments

finley_smith3d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, ask yourself if your clients saw "30% kill fee" and "50% kill fee" on your proposals, would they actually balk at the higher number or just accept both? That's the real test right there. I've found that a flat 40% works for most stuff like writing and design, but if you have to do a ton of upfront research or strategy, bump it to 50% because that's your time they're wasting. But here's the thing, does your "negotiable" line actually stop them from arguing later when you try to enforce any number? If you put a specific percentage in there, can you still offer them a lower one as a "goodwill" move if they push back?

rowanr883d ago

And that "goodwill" move you mentioned is actually the real secret here. If you start with 50% in the contract, you can always come down to 40% or even 35% if the client pushes back, and they feel like they won something. But if you start at 30%, you've got nowhere to go but down to 25% or 20%, and that's barely worth the paperwork. I've started putting 45% as the standard number in my contracts for any project that takes more than a week of my time, because it covers the lost opportunity cost of turning down other work while their thing was supposed to be happening.

knight.uma2d ago

Yes exactly, the 50% starting point works so well because you can always offer 40% as that goodwill move and they think they won.