I turned "just one small thing" into a problem I could actually price — so I built a fix
Backstory: I went looking at what's actually costing freelancers and small agencies money, and two things kept showing up — scope creep (57% of agencies lose $1,000-$5,000/month to unbilled extra work, and 78% say they rarely or only sometimes charge for it at all — Ignition's 2025 Agency Pricing & Cash Flow Report) and non-payment (62% of surveyed NY freelancers have been stiffed at least once, 53% of those for $10k+ — Freelancers Union/Authors Guild, May 2022).
The pattern in the actual complaints (Hacker News, G2/Capterra reviews, freelancer interviews) wasn't "I don't have a contract" — it was "my contract doesn't have the specific clause that would've stopped this." No scope-lock clause. No change-order process. No late-fee clause with real teeth. No deposit ask, or no script for how to ask for one without it feeling awkward.
So I built Scope Lock: 15 fill-in-the-blank contracts with those clauses already in them, 23 scripts for the actual conversations, a pricing calculator, and a non-payment recovery kit. $67-$397 depending on tier (Starter/Pro/Premium), 30-day refund, one-time payment.
Genuinely curious from this crowd: if you freelance or run a small shop, does this match what's actually happened to you, or is the real pain somewhere else in the process? I'd rather know now than find out from a refund request.
The “my contract doesn’t have the specific clause that would’ve stopped this” pattern is interesting. I’d be curious whether the bigger problem is actually knowing what to put in the contract, or getting clients to follow the process once the work starts.