As an online coach or consultant, you help clients reach their goals in whatever endeavors they have. No doubt, seeing your clients succeed is the high point of your day.

However, it’s also essential to look out for your interests…just to make sure you are protected! After all, any business comes with a lot of risks and liabilities. Without ensuring that you receive payments correctly and that you limit your liabilities, you may have to close shop on your coaching business.

Luckily, you can protect yourself, your clients, and your business by being clear about expectations and terms — and you can do this with a service agreement template that you can use for all of your clients.

However, what is a service agreement? What’s in one? Most importantly, how do you draft a solid service agreement?

Learn more about service agreements with us. Find out how you can create yours even without any experience in drafting legal documents using our service agreement template.

What’s a Service Agreement?

A service agreement is a legal contract that outlines the terms and conditions of the services you agree to provide your client. For an online coach or consultant like yourself, the service agreement is critical as it lays out the specific services you will offer your client, the payment terms, and other essential provisions.

Think of the service agreement as a guidebook for your clients. More specifically, it’s a guide that tells your clients what they can expect from you. Also, the agreement must be clear about what you expect your client to do, like paying on time and how to use the information you’ve provided.

By having one signed by you and your client, you formally enter into a professional relationship. As long as you have the signing witnessed by a notary, the agreement becomes legally binding.

What’s in a Service Agreement: Clauses and Conditions

A service agreement contains terms and conditions that govern the coach-client relationship. It’s a collection of stipulations and clauses that govern various aspects of your dealings with clients.

You can include any conditions in your service agreements. At the very least, your agreement should have the following clauses.

The Description of Your Services

This section should provide a clear and concise description of the services that you will be providing to your client. It can include everything from video calls to one-on-one coaching.

Payment Terms

This section should outline the payment terms, including the fee, payment schedule, and any other relevant details. Other conditions you can include are your accepted methods of payment. By adding payment methods to your payment terms, you’ll make payments easier for your clients — and your accountant, especially before tax season.

Terms of Agreement

How long will you be with the client? How long can your client expect to receive your services? You’ll answer these questions in the terms of agreement section.

This section specifies the duration of the agreement and any conditions for renewal or termination. In short, the terms of the agreement contain how long your coach-client relationship will last.

Confidentiality

The last thing you want is for your intellectual property to leak onto your potential competitors. Make sure to outline any confidentiality obligations that you or your client may have.

The confidentiality section must be about what your client can and can’t disclose. You can also throw in sub-clauses that mention the consequences for violating the terms in the confidentiality section.

Liability

This section should limit your liability for any damages that may arise from the services provided. The liability section also includes any exceptions to this limitation.

Termination Clause

This section should outline the conditions under which either party may terminate the agreement. You can include provisions on due notice and refunds, if applicable.

How To Draft a Service Agreement

Creating a service agreement for your online mentoring or coaching business doesn’t have to be difficult. You just need to ensure that all the clauses mentioned in the earlier section are in your service agreement.

Once you’ve drafted your service agreement, get a notary to look at it. A notary can review and edit your service agreement draft. Of course, you can have your agreement notarized too.

What To Do if You Don’t Have Access to a Lawyer?

We understand. Not every business owner is open to hiring a lawyer to draft their legal documents — and that’s fine. If you would rather draft your agreement yourself, you can with the use of a template. We recommend one that’s drafted by an attorney.

A service agreement template is an amazing tool for online coaches and mentors. With a template, you’ll be able to create a legally binding agreement. As a bonus, all you need to do is fill out the fields on the template. You won’t have to go to a notary, and you won’t have to create a service agreement from scratch.

Do You Need a Service Template Agreement? Get It From Drafted Legal

Now, you might be wondering where to get a service agreement template.

At Drafted Legal, we offer a variety of templates for online coaches like yourself. Our service agreement templates are easy to fill out and set the tone for your coach-client relationship.

Get your service agreement template today from Drafted Legal. These templates are drafted by attorneys to protect service providers.