Be the First to Draft the Contract

Not only will you finalize the agreement faster, but you can also control the terms.

Overview

You should generally take the initiative to draft the agreement so that you possess more control over the terms:

...the party who introduces its boilerplate contract will have a significant advantage in the negotiation: even strategically placed defaults on important contractual elements (such as contract length, penalties, and termination clauses) are likely to be stickier when they are pre-written into the contract. (Malhotra & Bazerman, 2008, p. 18)