One of the first lessons that most freelance designers learn is the importance of using contracts. Hopefully that lesson is learned the easy way by taking the advice of others, but for most of us it has been learned the hard way. Just using any contract is not enough. If your contract isn't solid or complete it may not prevent the issues that you are trying to avoid. One contract can certainly be more simple or more complicated than others, and some of the necessities of the contract will be dictated by the size and complexity of the project. But even for small projects there are essential elements that should always be included in your web design contracts. Here we'll take a quick look at 5 of these important things to include.

1. Scope of Work

Scope creep can be one of the biggest nightmares for designers. A solid contract is probably the best defense against projects that keep getting larger and larger. Your web design contracts should clearly state the specifics of what services are being performed and what work is being provided under the terms of the contract. You may even want to list some specific things that are not being provided, depending on the situation. Of course, projects will sometimes evolve and the client may require work that wasn't included in the original contract. In these situations if you have a solid contract you can charge an additional fee for the new work that has been added.