Why Setting Terms & Conditions Is Important In Self-Employment

We’re conditioned to view terms and conditions as a boring set of words businesses use to cover their tracks. Nobody properly reads them whenever signing up for services or buying products. Nevertheless, they form a critical aspect of self-employment if you wish to become a freelancer or start a small business.

Neglecting to come up with terms and conditions is a terrible idea as it puts you in a bad situation. It’s far too easy for clients to take advantage of you, which is why working with specialists will help you set legal terms and conditions to cover your tracks. This is more integral than you think - and we’ll explain why below.

Clarify Expectations

Terms & conditions clarify expectations for clients. When they purchase a service, they know what you will deliver. More to the point, they can’t demand anything extra from you if it’s not written in the T&Cs.

One great example is this: you offer freelance writing services and write in the T&Cs that you’ll produce content up to the agreed-upon word count. One round of edits is included in the service price, but any others require additional payment. If a client tries to get you to make multiple rounds of edits without paying more money, you can point to the T&Cs to get additional payment. They signed the contract agreement, so there’s no way of avoiding this.

Having good terms and conditions also stops you from being taken advantage of and asked to do things beyond your scope of service. Clients may try to get additional services out of you despite only paying for one.

Limit Your Liability

Protection is one of the key aims of T&Cs. Not just from a financial standpoint, but from a legal one. That’s why many business owners work with corporate law firms to set their terms and conditions. Having a lawyer by your side means they can write the T&Cs to limit your liability as much as possible.

In other words, clients and customers can’t try to sue you if certain things go wrong. You’ve clearly laid out your liability limitations in the T&Cs, so there’s legally nothing they can do about it.

Ensure All Payment Terms Are Met

Do you want your business to thrive? You must ensure there’s a steady stream of income and this doesn’t always happen due to late invoice payments. Clients will always look to take advantage of you - or they simply forget to pay on time. It’s super common for payments to be drawn out, severely affecting your cash flow.

Setting a few clear T&Cs deals with this. You outline some clear payment terms that clients all agree to when they use your services. This puts you in a position of power; you can demand payments and take legal action if the terms aren’t met. It’ll ensure you’re always paid on time and can maintain a positive working cash flow.

As you can see, terms and conditions are far more important than you initially believed. They go beyond being pointless legal jargon and become something that helps your business be truly successful. Big companies always have them in place, yet self-employed individuals forget about them. Now’s the time to ensure you aren’t one of the forgetful ones.