Book excerpt: Service Agreements for SMB Consultants: A Quick-Start Guide to Managed Services by Karl W. Palachuk is an essential guide for I.T. Consultants. All forms are available to download online.Everyone knows it: Spoken agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on.The SMB Consultant is facing changes we never imaged a few years ago. Managed services are everywhere. Franchised tech support is taking off. And now big corporations are trying to compete in the "SMB Space." Whether you like it or not, you need to make some changes in order to meet the challenges of the next few years.Service agreements literally define your business. If you're not using them, you need to start today. If you are using them, great! Just make sure that they truly represent who you are and how you want to define your business.Whether you sell your services hourly, in blocks of time, or with a Managed Service plan, you need a good service agreement.As with his other books, Karl gives you more than just the forms. Service Agreements for SMB Consultants includes best practices and lots of great information to help you run your business more prosperously.