How to Write Down What You Will Do for a First Client

The four things that must be written down

What you will do. What it costs. When it happens. What happens if something changes.

What you will do has to be specific enough that a stranger could read it and know when the job is finished. "Tidy the garden" is not that. "Cut the front and back lawns, strim the edges, cut back the hedge along the left fence to shoulder height, take the cuttings away" is. Use the customer's own words for the things they named, so they recognize their request in your sentence.

What it costs is one figure for the work as described, plus how materials are handled if you are buying any. The arithmetic behind that figure is its own job, and pricing a client job covers where it comes from.

When it happens is a start date and a finish date, both said as days rather than durations. And the change line is a single sentence saying that anything added gets quoted before it is done.

Why what is not included matters more than what is

The inclusions are the part you both already agree on. The arguments live in the space around them, and that space is invisible until someone stands in it.

So write the exclusions out. "Not included: moving the furniture, taking away the old unit, paint, the second bedroom, anything behind the wall if it turns out to be rotten." Four lines of that will save you more grief than anything else in the message.

The items worth naming are the ones a reasonable person might assume. Disposal. Cleaning up afterwards. Materials. Parking. The second visit if the first one uncovers something. Whether you are putting things back where they were.

This is also where you protect yourself against the thing you cannot see yet. On any job that involves opening something up, name the unknown explicitly: if there is damage underneath, we stop and I quote that separately before touching it.

Write it as a message, not a document

Send it in the channel you are already talking in. A text or a chat message gets read. An attachment gets opened later, which means never.

Use plain sentences and a read-back opening: "Just so we are both clear on what we agreed —" then the four things, then the exclusions. Five or six lines. Do not paste in clauses copied from a template you do not understand, because you will not be able to explain them if asked, and being unable to explain your own agreement is worse than not having one.

Send it before you start, not afterwards. Sent beforehand it reads as organized and gives them a chance to correct you. Sent after the first day it reads as a defense, and it invites the question of what went wrong.

Keep the tone the same as your normal messages. This is not a moment to switch into a different voice.

What a reply from them is worth

Ask for a specific reply. "Reply yes if that matches what you were expecting" gets you a word you can point at later. A silence is not agreement, and a thumbs-up is thinner than a sentence — take it, but ask a question they have to answer in words if the job is worth anything.

What you now have is a shared record: two names, a timestamp, the words, and an acknowledgement. That is a very different object from two people remembering a doorstep conversation, and it changes the tone of any disagreement that follows because there is something neutral to look at.

The part people miss is that messages disappear. Threads get deleted, phones get lost, apps close accounts. Screenshot the exchange the day it happens and put it somewhere that is not the phone — an email to yourself works. If you would rather have something with a signature on it, free tools for signing a simple agreement covers what exists at no cost.

Handling a change once the work has started

The change is coming. It arrives as "while you are here, could you just —" and it is asked casually, which is exactly why it needs an unhurried answer.

Stop before you start the extra work. Say out loud that it is an addition. Give it a price or say when you will have one. Send one line: "Adding the shed door, extra amount as discussed, pushes the finish to Thursday — ok?" Wait for the yes, then carry on.

That is thirty seconds, and it is the difference between a favor and a dispute. Absorbing changes silently is how a two-day job becomes five days at the original price, and how the customer ends up genuinely surprised by the final figure — they never agreed to the extra, because nobody told them there was one.

If the change alters the money enough that you would want part of it up front, that is a separate call, and taking a deposit from a first client covers the trade involved.

What this note actually is, and what it is not

This is a shared memory between two people. Treat it as that and it will do its job.

It is not legal protection, and nothing here is legal advice or a claim about what any message does or does not create in your country. Rules on agreements, consumer rights and what has to be provided in writing differ by place and by trade, and some kinds of work carry requirements that a chat message will not satisfy. If the money involved is large enough to hurt, or the work is regulated, ask a free local advice service or a legal aid line what applies to you before you rely on anything.

What the note reliably does is remove the honest misunderstanding, which is the failure that actually happens on small jobs. It also gives you something concrete to refer to if payment goes sideways, which is why the writing-down step is the first thing in getting paid without being stiffed.

And it does nothing at all against someone who never intended to pay you. Do not let a well-written message talk you into a job you were already uneasy about.