In my experience with sending/receiving/signing contracts, I think they are pretty ineffective if you use them solely and entirely as a derisking tool. This is

In my experience with sending/receiving/signing contracts, I think they are pretty ineffective if you use them solely and entirely as a derisking tool. This is because there are many mechanism that one side can use to inflict pain to the other side and no contract can protect against all of it. This is why binding arbitration is a thing. But as an entrepreneur, I use contracts as a way to set expectations early on in the relationship. Our side agrees to do X, your side agrees to Y, this is when we agree to do it, and lets mitigate some basic and common miscommunication. The excessive legal back and forth for small businesses and mostly friendly deals is probably unnecessary in a lot of situations, but failure to effectively communicate expectations is a killer, because a client can decide not to pay and tell you to "fucking sue me."