PSA: That one client who kept saying 'just a quick tweak' ended up costing me 14 hours last month

3 comments

3 Comments

Did you read that article from last week about how 'scope creep' is basically the biggest profit killer for freelancers? It's crazy how those little "while you're at it" requests add up way faster than anyone expects. I swear some clients think our time is just a resource that magically regenerates overnight.

paige_craig7d ago

Quote their price up front or they’ll bleed you dry.

the_drew4d ago

18 months of invoices from a single client taught me that the real bleed isn't the extra work itself, it's the goodwill tax. @the_felix mentioned scope creep, but nobody talks about how clients use "we're a family" to skip the formal change order. I had one person ask for "just a quick logo tweak" that turned into four rounds of revisions, and when I finally sent the updated quote, they acted shocked I was charging for my time at all. If you don't put a number on every little thing before you start, you're basically telling them your hours are up for negotiation. That's not a price quote, that's a hostage situation with extra steps.