Hit 50 projects without any written scope of work and it finally bit me hard

I crossed 50 freelance web design projects last month without ever making a formal scope document. The 51st client in Portland kept asking for 'just one more page' until I was 12 pages over the original quote. So here's the debate: do you use a simple email list of deliverables, or a full legal-looking contract? I'm leaning toward the contract now. Has anyone else hit a number that forced them to change their process?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanr882d ago

Man, that is a painful way to learn the lesson. Fifty projects without a scope is impressive discipline until it breaks, which it always does. A formal contract with a clear page limit and a per-page rate for extras would have saved you from that Portland client. I switched to a simple one-page contract after a client asked me to "just tweak the color scheme" across 15 different pages. It cost me a whole weekend of unpaid work. Better to have the legal-looking paper in place than to explain to your bank account why you worked for free.

nancyramirez2d agoTop Commenter

Honestly, how do you even get a client to agree to a per-page rate for extras without them feeling like you're nickel-and-diming them from the start? I've tried hinting at that before and got the whole "we're a partnership, not a transaction" speech. Tbh it sounds great on paper but in practice, that Portland client would've probably just argued about what counts as an "extra" on each page anyway. Ngl I'm curious if you just tack on a flat % fee for any changes or if you get real specific with the contract wording.

webb.hannah1d ago

Flat fee for changes is the way. Saves both sides from having to define "extra" like it's a Supreme Court case.

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