1. First things first, you want to collect your leads personal information. This includes their full name, best numbers to get in touch with, the best email address, their preferred times of contact (and method), as well as their home address.
2. Document timelines as best as you can. Certain dates you may have to ballpark. Give a ballpark timeline on how long it takes furniture to be delivered, so they know and understand what to expect through the process - as well as when you are expected to begin and end the project.
3. Your consult fee. If you choose to keep your consult fee separate from the project fee, be sure to add those details into your contract.
4. The cost of the project. Whether you are doing a flat fee, or an hourly rate, you want to make sure the agreed upon rate is documented. Don't forget to add everything into your rate, including the cost of either purchasing or renting the furniture, any needs to hire third party vendors, etc.
5. A specific guideline of what the project entails. What rooms will be worked on, the amount of work that will be put into them, the amount of furniture and the pieces to be purchased, etc. You don't want to overload in details, because you’ll know more during the shopping process, but you want to make the project specifications very clear with your customer so there is no confusion in regards to what they are getting.
6. How will you handle revision requests? If a customer wants a piece of furniture changed out, or they aren't in love with the room, how do you plan to go about resolving this? Make sure this is made clear. Always be sure you give an outline of your project, prior to getting started, so your client approves it. This is something we'll go over in further modules, but by having your design concept approved prior to shopping around and doing the legwork, you'll save yourself a lot of headache. In any case, always place a clause in your contract if a customer is wanting a change. Especially if they request significant changes.
7. Termination or contract cancellation guidelines. The next chapter within this module goes over steps you can take if a cancellation was requested during different stages within the project.
These are the main topics you want to include within your contract. You can also input additional information that fits the way you want to run your decorating business.
