GENII Magazine’s review of Sign Here

Reprinted from Genii Magazine’s November 2014 issue, written by Danny Orleans

Sign Here
Todd Neufeld $30
: Easy-to-read 200-page book for freelance entertainers on how to write contracts for gigs. Written by a professional variety entertainer/New York lawyer. Great tool. Great investment.

TWO YEARS AGO, a Fortune 500 client of mine shuffled their tradeshow marketing directors around and I got a call canceling four trade shows. I was very disappointed, but so glad that I had signed contracts because, without even so much as a letter from my attorney, they respected the contracts and paid me a cancellation fee of $16,000.

That’s a lot of money—and a rare example. But it’s also just one of a whole bunch of good reasons why any freelance entertainer, full or part time, should have a legal contract with his or her client, whether it’s for a kid’s birthday party or an upscale corporate gig.

Thanks to Todd Neufeld, you can now create a great contract without having to pay a lawyer a fat fee. Todd is the only full-time balloon twister/ magician I know that passed the bar and still maintains credentials to practice law in the state of New York. And he’s written a straightforward book with many sample contracts, templates, and important clauses to choose from. In short, he’s made it easy to send your client a customized contract for any type of gig.

What you’ll like best about this book is that it’s written by a variety entertainer, for a variety entertainer. Even though Todd is a (non-practicing) lawyer, there is a minimum of legalese in this book. At times it’s actually funny! And you can read the whole thing in less than two hours. He totally understands the communication issues that we have with real-world clients about private parties and special events. He knows that contracts for most gigs can’t be too complex. He shows you how to think about contracts in sections so you can easily draw from a “bank” of clauses to customize a contract for a specific client.

There’s more. His book shows you how to actually use your contracts as a marketing tool to further promote your business. He starts at the beginning, defining what a contract is, the different parts of a contract, mistakes to avoid, payment terms, fine print, and a whole lot more.

If you read my column, then you know that I review items from the perspective of a working pro that deals with real-world performance and business challenges on a daily basis. If you are a performer that gets paid for gigs, I not only recommend, but I insist that you buy Sign Here and read Todd’s advice on how to create and use contracts to increase the accuracy of client communication, your business efficiency, and your income.

Sign Here • Todd Neufeld • $30 • www.balloonacademy.com/sign-here