Terms before work
Agency Contract Templates
Client, employee, vendor, partner and NDA templates: the agreements our members sign their work on. Each one comes with the quarter of the mastermind that builds it, so the terms exist before the work does.
- Clients and partners
- Employees and contractors
- Vendors and NDAs
Who you sign with
- Clients and partnersMSAs, SOWs, IP, jurisdiction and disputes
- Your teamEmployees, and contractors across borders
- Your vendorsVetting, QA and payment terms
Written byHamid MahmoodFounder, serial digital entrepreneur- Weeks of roadmap behind the templates
- 52Weeks of roadmap behind the templates
- Agencies in a mastermind cohort, at most
- 20Agencies in a mastermind cohort, at most
- Bootcamp session where staff augmentation contracts are taught
- 12Bootcamp session where staff augmentation contracts are taught
- Staff the lead coaches run across New York and Lahore
- 75+Staff the lead coaches run across New York and Lahore
Before it becomes an emergency
Overview
Most agencies treat contracts as paperwork until the day they become an emergency. The scope gets disputed, the code a contractor wrote turns out not to be yours, a vendor misses a delivery your name is on. By then the agreement that would have settled it is the one nobody signed.
The Agency Contract Templates cover the agreements an agency actually signs: with clients, with employees, with vendors, with partners, and the NDA that sits in front of all of them. They are built in the third quarter of the mastermind, which sets up vendor management, QA and compliance and builds internal and external contracts, alongside the book’s chapter on legal protection.
For agencies selling abroad the clauses that matter change by market. MSAs, statements of work, IP transfer, jurisdiction and dispute clauses are where agencies that have exported for years still find exposure they did not know they had, and the international track covers them market by market.
One line is drawn plainly. This is coaching, not legal advice. You arrive at a lawyer knowing exactly what you are asking for, and anything that needs a licensed professional in a country, from a jurisdiction clause to a filing, goes to one.
Who you sell to
- Clients and partnersWho you sell to
- Your teamWho you employ
- Your vendorsWho you buy from
Who you buy from
Who you sign with
What Is Inside
The agreements in three groups, by who sits on the other side of the table. Choose what to compare, and each group answers.
Who you sell to
Clients and partners
Read more about Clients and partnersWhat it covers: Client and partner agreements: MSAs, statements of work, IP transfer, jurisdiction and dispute clauses, and the NDA in front of them
When the year builds it: The third quarter, with internal and external contracts and the book’s chapter on legal protection
Who coaches it: Hamid Mahmood, with the international track for each market
Who you employ
Your team
Read more about Your teamWhat it covers: Employee contracts, and contractor agreements, payroll options and compliance when your team is in another country
When the year builds it: The third quarter for the internal side; cross border hiring sits in the international track
Who coaches it: Hamid Mahmood, and Umair Amjad on staff augmentation
Who you buy from
Your vendors
Read more about Your vendorsWhat it covers: Vendor and subcontractor agreements: vetting, contracting, QA and payment terms for the suppliers you depend on
When the year builds it: The third quarter, with vendor management, QA and compliance
Who coaches it: The systems track, in the third quarter
That is who you sign with. This is where to start.
Start from the agreement in front of you
How To Use It
Pick the situation closest to the one on your desk, and see which agreement covers it and where the year builds it.
Client agreements
What it should settle
The exposure usually sits in the clauses you did not know to ask about.
- What the templates cover
- MSAs, statements of work, IP transfer, jurisdiction and dispute clauses, market by market
- Where it comes from
- International Setup
Employee and contractor agreements
What it should settle
Every hire should start on paper, wherever they sit.
- What the templates cover
- Employee contracts, and contractor agreements, payroll options and compliance for a team abroad
- Where it comes from
- Quarter 3, and the international track
Vendor agreements
What it should settle
A supplier you depend on needs terms you can hold them to.
- What the templates cover
- Vetting, contracting, QA and payment terms for the vendors you depend on
- Where it comes from
- Quarter 3, vendor management and QA
Partner and staff augmentation agreements
What it should settle
Staff augmentation is infrastructure, and the contract is part of it.
- What the templates cover
- The contracts behind placing resources with a client, taught alongside the buyer, screening and the replacement bench
- Where it comes from
- Bootcamp session 12, with Umair Amjad
NDAs
What it should settle
Confidentiality belongs in writing before the first real conversation.
- What the templates cover
- NDA templates, and the confidentiality and IP terms that sit inside a client agreement
- Where it comes from
- Quarter 3, internal and external contracts
Read next
Related Resources
The pages closest to the contracts.
- The agency templates libraryEvery kind of template members work from, with where each one is built.
- Quarter 3: SystemsThe systems quarter, where the agency’s rules get written down, contracts first.
- International SetupEntity, banking, contracts and buyer expectations for each market you sell into.
- Systems & OperationsVendor management, contracts, SLAs and the rest of the operating system.
- Section 5 of the book: The ExpansionThe section that holds the chapter on legal protection.
Built in the third quarter
Get Access
The contract templates come with membership. The bootcamp’s cohort tiers carry the contracts and agreement templates, and the mastermind builds every agreement in the third quarter, with the coaches who cover them.
Coaching, not legal advice. Anything that needs a licensed professional goes to one.