18 clauses that should stop you signing

Management contracts in this industry are written by the agency, for the agency. These are the clauses that reliably cost creators money or control — what each one actually does, why it hurts, and the wording to send back.

Check your contract free Is the offer worth it?
7 of these are deal-breakers. They can cost you your account, your content, or money you've already earned. If one is in your contract, don't sign it as written.

Critical — do not sign

Guaranteed-earnings promise The agency promises you a specific income figure.
Personal guarantee or liquidated damages You are personally on the hook for money beyond the business.
Termination fee or exit penalty You pay money to leave.
The agency controls where your money goes Earnings are paid to the agency, which then pays you.
Upfront or setup fees You pay the agency money before it earns you anything.
You must hand over account passwords The agency gets the login to your platform account.
You sign away ownership of your content Rights to your content transfer to the agency.

High — negotiate before signing

Automatic renewal The contract renews itself unless you cancel in a specific window.
Commission above 30% The agency takes this percentage of what you earn.
Commission on income they did not generate Commission applies to everything you earn, including from fans you already had.
Non-compete extending past the contract Limits on what work you can do, and for how long after leaving.
Term longer than 12 months How long you are committed for.
They keep taking a cut after you leave Commission continues for a period after the contract ends.

Medium — understand what you are agreeing to

Disputes handled somewhere inconvenient Where and how disputes must be resolved.
No right to see the numbers Nothing entitles you to verify what you earned or what was deducted.
No specific deliverables What the agency actually has to do is undefined.
They can change the terms on their own The agency can alter the agreement without your agreement.
You cannot discuss the terms Confidentiality covering the deal terms themselves.

Why nobody else publishes this

Search for advice on creator management contracts and most of what comes back is written by agencies. They are not going to tell you that a 50% commission needs to nearly double your income before you break even, or that a credential-transfer clause hands over your entire business.

We have no agency to protect. This list exists because it has to exist inside our contract reviewer anyway — so it may as well be public.

How to use it

Read the ones marked critical first. Then either work through your own contract by hand, or paste it into the free reviewer and let it quote the exact clauses back at you with suggested replacement wording.

This is an automated review to help you spot common problems — not legal advice, and not a substitute for a lawyer. We can miss things, and a clause that looks fine in isolation can still be a problem in context. Have a lawyer review anything you are about to sign.