Scope Of Work Template: Fill & Download for Free

Looking back it's almost funny.Back then it was painful.My first project taught me the most important lessons ever about freelancing.The client called me up.Mad.“It's been three weeks and we haven't gotten a single sale through our online shop.”She had paid me $300 USD for a Wordpress website including an online store.I gave her a logo design and stickers on top of it for free.And I drove to the sticker place to pick them up.LESSON 1: EXPECTATION MANAGEMENTNever close a sale without defining how you can be successful at the project.Never take on a client without knowing exactly what they consider as a “completed” project.I thought I had gone above and beyond for the client until she called me complaining that she hadn't gotten any sales yet.If I had known that the expectation for me was to build a website and ALSO be held accountable for whether they created sales through it, I wouldn't have taken on the project.LESSON 2: ALWAYS SIGN A CONTRACTBack then I didn't want to have an uncomfortable conversation to write down a detailed scope of work or create a contract.I thought a contract wasn't necessary if both parties trusted each other.I also didn't know how to create a contract….I thought you needed a lawyer to draft a contract … It took me months until I put together my first contract and even more time to discover AND CO’s contract template. They teamed up with Freelancers Union to create the first standard freelance contract ever and I use it on every single project. It's absolutely free. I wish somebody had told me about it when I was just starting out. You can get it for free over here on their website Contracts | AND COLESSON 3: STICK TO THE SCOPE OF WORKNever add in random things for free just to “delight” the customer. They may end up turning into liabilities.I thought it was “not a big deal” to also give her a simple logo design.The “simple logo design” somehow ended in me also designing labels for all her products, editing the products so they all had transparent backgrounds, and driving to a printing store to pick up stickers.Defining the scope of work, setting the right expecations, and signing a contract are definitely among the top 10 moat important factors for successful freelance projects.It sounds basic but if you only do these three things you're already ahead of the curve.

For reader clarification, a SoW (Scope of Work) is an agreement for a vendor to do work for a customer. In includes the exact work that the vendor will do and what the customer will pay. It's like a blueprint or a road map- it keeps everyone together and knowing where a project begins and ends.These agreements are to prevent what is known as “Scope Creep,” which is where the boundaries of a project keep expanding- and the vendor starts to lose money because the customer keeps adding work to the project without additional compensation.Generally, a Scope of Work is requested by the customer, then outlined by the vendor, then reviewed and discussed by both. If revisions are needed, they are agreed to by both parties, then put into the SoW.Both the customer and the vendor sign the SoW once everything looks good to both, and the project begins.You can create your own SoW template or find some on the internet to modify.

You definitely need a contract and a detailed SOW (Scope of Work) agreement. From your comments you have the basics of this already. That’s a really, really tight schedule, so I hope your client has/had the bulk of the content already collected.Structure your agreement to include:DeadlinesCalendar of deliverables - tie this into when/how you get paidAct of God clause (you get sick, they get sick, life happens. Figure at least 20–30 days for that)Resolution agreement ie. mediation before litigation clausePayment when, how much, non-refundable or kill feeNumber of revisions and extent of revisionsEditing and grammar/proofreading passesCopyright who owns it and when do you release it (usually upon final payment)For help with examples:Sample Letter of Agreement30 Ready-to-use Scope of Work Templates & ExamplesDon’t go overboard with details. Try to keep your SOW to one or two pages. There are hundreds of websites that can help with this, but I suggest Writer Ghostwriter Agreement for a quick, short, easy-to-understand form. Good luck!