Took me 3 years to realize I was using the wrong contract template for service agreements

I kept having clients ignore my payment terms and just pay whenever. Turns out I was using a template meant for product sales, not legal services. A paralegal at a networking event in Austin pointed out my contract said delivery date instead of completion date. Anyone else had a basic contract mistake that cost them?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_roberts2713d ago

Swear I used to roll my eyes at people obsessing over contract wording thinking it was all just legal jargon nonsense. Then I had a client try to get out of paying me because my contract said "product" instead of "service" and suddenly I got it. That one word difference basically made my whole agreement useless when push came to shove. It's wild how something so small can completely change what a contract means in real life. Now I'm that person reading every single line of every form I use because I learned the hard way.

emma_jones13d ago

That "product" vs "service" thing is exactly what I heard a lawyer call a "loaded term" in a podcast about contract fails, meaning one word can flip an entire agreement. A friend runs a landscaping biz and her contract said "labor" instead of "services" and it cost her big on a dispute.