AI Business › Resources › 2026-10-22
The myth is that a real agreement needs pages of legal language. It doesn't. For most small-business deals, six plain fields cover everything that actually goes wrong — and because they're short, the client signs without flinching. Fill these and you're protected; skip them and you're relying on memory.
| # | Field | What it stops |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who — provider and client, full names | "I thought you were working with someone else" |
| 2 | What — the exact work, in one or two lines | Scope creep and "I also expected…" |
| 3 | How much — the agreed amount | The price-memory game later |
| 4 | When paid — before / half / on delivery | "I'll pay you when I'm ready" |
| 5 | When delivered — the date or milestone | Open-ended "soon" that never lands |
| 6 | What if it breaks — the penalty / exit | The awkward, undefined fallout |
One line of "any other terms" — a deposit, a revision count, a cancellation notice — catches the specifics your particular deal needs. Keep it to a sentence. The power is in the completeness of the six, not the length of the prose.