Timeline for How do I prevent a client from bleeding me dry with small questions and tasks they expect to receive for free?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
40 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 27, 2023 at 21:22 | comment | added | Uncle Dan | Sounds like a bad client. Get rid of those and only keep the good ones. | |
| Mar 27, 2023 at 18:01 | answer | added | fectin | timeline score: -1 | |
| Nov 7, 2016 at 19:38 | comment | added | Bradley Thomas | Take some tips from attorneys, they handle this routinely, using gatekeepers and charging for nearly every second of their time, rounded up e.g. in 10 or 15 min increments. And often double-booked to more than one client for the same time (which I believe is unethical and wouldn't recommend) | |
| Nov 7, 2016 at 17:29 | answer | added | amphibient | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 28, 2016 at 21:01 | answer | added | MrDuk | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 17, 2016 at 2:28 | answer | added | Elliot | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jun 14, 2016 at 13:04 | comment | added | Radu Murzea | Related question: How should I charge for programming things which take two minutes to fix? | |
| Jun 13, 2016 at 18:38 | comment | added | Dan Henderson | Comments are not for short answers. | |
| S Jun 13, 2016 at 18:26 | history | edited | Giacomo1968 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added the freelancing tag as its relavent to the question
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| S Jun 13, 2016 at 18:26 | history | suggested | Ram |
Added the freelancing tag as its relavent to the question
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| Jun 13, 2016 at 18:18 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jun 13, 2016 at 18:26 | |||||
| Jun 13, 2016 at 14:12 | comment | added | Nick Young | @Kilisi - Instead of adding it after the fact to the invoice I would add it to the invoice from the begining. Have a line item durring the intial Scope of Work that says, Post-Deployment Assistance (X HR included, $99.99/HR thereafter) | |
| Jun 13, 2016 at 12:40 | answer | added | Phil H | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 13, 2016 at 9:24 | comment | added | AStopher | You should make it clear in your contract that any additional work completed outside the project brief will be at additional cost. | |
| Jun 13, 2016 at 1:18 | comment | added | Evorlor | Ask them to put you on retainer. When they inevitably say no, they will understand you don't work for free. | |
| Jun 11, 2016 at 16:35 | vote | accept | PBeezy | ||
| Jun 11, 2016 at 5:34 | answer | added | TOOGAM | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 19:33 | comment | added | Loki Astari | Put in your contract 5 hours of Miscellaneous courtesy time. Then random requests come out of this 5 hours. Update the client after each request on this number. | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 14:55 | comment | added | user15729 | Begin billing them. How else would you make it clear that your time is money? | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 14:24 | history | protected | Jane S | ||
| Jun 10, 2016 at 14:16 | comment | added | Pieter B | shouldiworkforfree.com | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 14:16 | answer | added | Jay | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 14:16 | answer | added | Kate Gregory | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 13:53 | answer | added | thomij | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 12:58 | answer | added | user8365 | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 9:58 | answer | added | rumtscho | timeline score: 11 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 9:19 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackWorkplace/status/741198170055675905 | ||
| Jun 10, 2016 at 9:05 | answer | added | Raoul Mensink | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 7:46 | answer | added | user45590 | timeline score: 21 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 7:31 | comment | added | user41761 | @TechnikEmpire, stop using absolutes in your comments! ;) | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 7:30 | comment | added | user41761 | @Kilisi Yeah I should change my wording. There are definitely cases where this can be done and have a positive impact. I think it's just a bit of a potential slippery slope and should be done under special circumstances or well after you have established a good, professional relationship. I recently gave part of a project for free to a client as a gift for his patience with a crazy setback that came up, for example. | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 7:28 | comment | added | Kilisi | @TechnikEmpire I do that sometimes, part of the invoice will have time spent and zero cost with a note that cost is written off. It serves a purpose. I do it for customer relations, so that they see they got something for nothing. When the tsunami hit here a few years back some of my customers had nothing to pay for 3 to 6 months until I judged them back on their feet. I still invoiced everything, just wrote off the costs. So they can still see the work that was done. It was a big loss for me, but I have incredibly loyal customers these days. | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 6:55 | comment | added | user41761 | @Brandin you can do this, but the problem is that it turns into this shady kind of thing where you're falsely leading your client to believe that they're getting freebies, but really just making up for it in a billable item. Even if you're not doing this, why is your client getting something for free at all? Do you owe them something? What happens when you need to support something that was free? "Too bad, that was free." It's a mess that should altogether be avoided. | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 6:50 | comment | added | Brandin | If you decide to do some part of the job for free, it should be listed on the invoice (with zero charge) so they recognize they got service. | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 4:33 | answer | added | paparazzo | timeline score: 51 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 4:17 | comment | added | Kent A. | Are you aware of Freelancing.stackexchange.com? This question might get some great answers there (or might have been asked and answered there already :). | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 3:40 | answer | added | user41761 | timeline score: 211 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 3:37 | answer | added | keshlam | timeline score: 38 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 3:35 | answer | added | HorusKol | timeline score: 56 | |
| Jun 10, 2016 at 3:01 | history | asked | PBeezy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |