Service providers too often have struggles and battles with their clients. The lower end of the spectrum is misunderstandings, doing out-of-scope tasks, injust bad reviews. The worse end is; disputes, not being fully paid, and legal action. A client should never have power over their service provider (or vice versa). Money is usually the weapon, but luckily almost all this avoidable through preventative communication. Contracts aren't about settling problems, they're about preventing problems. When deciding to adopt a contracts management tool, it shouldn't be invasive to how you currently work or require a learning curve. After all, you're trying to reduce friction and wasted time.

If you research the difference between service providers in survival mode, and those with a more frictionless existence with higher-paid & more agreeable clients, skills are not a prime factor. Many people are good at what they do. There are 2 big variables. Your professional network, and communication. We'll focus on communication here. Those with 'better' clients have learned to communicate the scope, boundaries, expectations, etc before they start any work. It acts as a filter so that the end result seems almost lucky to have realistic and agreeable clients. Then these good clients go on to give referrals, and so a positive cycle of reputation happens. The 'good' clients are also much more profitable as you don't waste endless hours and resources servicing them and chasing invoices.