I took on a graphic design job recently and I quoted the client for 36 hours of work. About half way through the project the client got stalled out because of upper management's indecision and because of that, many little changes started being made to the project. I am now up to almost 80 hours on the project and foresee another 10 before it's finished.
This is my first job with the client and I would like to continue receiving projects from them and hopefully procure a long-term relationship with them.
Should I consider this an investment and just charge them for the quoted work? Or should I re-quote them and if so, how should I go about doing that? Should I re-quote them the full amount?
What is the general practice for a situation like this?
Thanks!
Answer
This time: Pekka's answer is good.
Next time: Pay attention to how many hours you're putting in. As you approach the estimate mark, you send a note to the client, saying "Hey, I quoted you for 36 hours, which was to cover services X, Y, Z, A, and B. We're only done X and part of Y, and I'm up to 30 hours already. I'm happy to continue working with you through the completion of the project, but I don't want to sock you with a surprise bill. I can work up a new quote for you based on the progress we've made so far, or I can just bill you at $X hourly rate. How would you like to proceed?"
This shows the client:
- you're paying attention to the client's bottom line as well as your own
- you're willing to be flexible about payment BUT you're also not going to let yourself get railroaded
- you're considerate enough to give them wiggle room before the monetary deadline, so they have room to renegotiate on their own side
If the client asks "how did we end up with so many hours?" then you give them the breakdown as Pekka outlined.
In this case, it's easier to get permission than forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment