Business Resources
Sample proposals for potential clients and aspiring freelancers
New to freelancing and need some help drafting a business proposal or contract? Well, I only know how to do it because someone showed me theirs, so please help yourself to two sample business proposals I’ve used in the past. One is a tiered proposal that helped a client pick the right branding package for her business, and one is an example of a more complex project with multiple phases of deliverables for a local restaurant opening.
I hope these resources will also help prospective clients to familiarize themselves with standard design business practices like signing a contract, paying a deposit, and agreeing ahead of time on the number of rounds for revisions. For more resources, check out the Design Standards of Professional Practice from AIGA.
My standard terms of agreement
I don’t know what the lawyers would say about this, and I definitely stole it from something I saw on the internet. But after years of updating cumbersome contracts by sticking together dozens of stipulations like a legal tumbleweed, this simplified contract seems to cover the bases:
You give me money, I’ll give you creative.
I’ll start when the check clears.
Time is money. More time is more money.
I’ll listen to you, you listen to me.
You want me to be on time, I want you to be on time.
What you use is yours, what you don’t is mine.
I can’t give you stuff I don’t own.
I’ll try not to be an ass, you should do the same.
Let’s create something great together.