Welcome to the first installment of Ask Me About It, where freelancers can write in and ask me questions about problems they are having and any advice I can give. Our first question comes from a web designer.

I have a client that keeps adding features to a project. We’ve already agreed to some extra features, but he keeps adding more on top. He is not keen on additional costs, but I feel like I need to come up with a walk-away price on this, and want some advice on whether I should suck it up or not.

This is a fairly common occurrence, especially in web and software development, and it’s called scope creep. You’ll quote and sign a client based one set of requirements and they keep adding new ones on- then complain about you going over time and over budget.

I would say that unless you’re really hurting for work right now, give him a walk away price and if he accepts, he accepts. Otherwise bill him for what you’ve done and hand over what he’s paid for. You could also tell him that you’ll stick with the original plans and original quote and anything new you can work out in a phase 2 of the project- new contract, new quote.

If you do ’suck it up’ it sets a precedent where he thinks he’ll be able to just add features at no cost. He will keep taking advantage of you that way. If he’s given you a down payment, bill him for the rest of what you’ve done and send him packing- he can find another designer.

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I get a lot of questions from people seeking advice on how much to charge, how to handle a certain type of client, and other freelance related things. Following the mantra of every teacher ever, if one person has a question more people probably have the same one. So I figured why not post a question every week from a reader and I will answer it, and of course leave it open for comments.

So here’s a call to action- Fill out the contact form or email me at joe@freelancingthenet.com with a freelance question you have. I will publish the first question/answer next week. If you’re not sure what you should ask, here are some things I consider myself very good at:

• Being a student/freelancer (that’s all I was up until May)
• Finding Work
• Web Development
• Client Relationships

I look forward to hearing from you!

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Especially when you’re just starting out, finding work can be a difficult and intimidating process. You might not be sure where to look or exactly how to word that email. Fear not: I’m here to help. Today I’m going to talk about three ways to find work, what to look for, and how to keep it coming.

Tags: clients, Freelance Switch, gigs, networking, people, referrals, relationships, work | Posted in Advice | Comments Off

Way back in March I started using FreshBooks as my bookkeeping tool of choice. This was the last time (hopefully for a while) that I changed my method of bookkeeping. Since high school I knew I wanted to keep my books and general accounting organized but when I was new to the game I wasn’t quite sure how. I did what made sense to me and used Excel. This actually went on for quite a while- well into college- because it worked for me, I wasn’t making that much money so I didn’t have a whole lot to keep track of, and it wasn’t costing me money. Then I switched because I wanted something more sophisticated- it was more of a need based thing. Whatever it is you’re looking for, really think about it so you’re not switching software or processes when it’s least convenient- information can get lost and you don’t want to have it in several places as opposed to one. Whatever you choose, it needs to work for you.

Tags: accounting, freshbooks, invoicing, productivity, tips, tools | Posted in Advice | 2 Comments »

When you talk to potential clients, it’s pretty seldom that one will say, “It doesn’t matter how much it costs, let’s get going.” Most want an estimate. I wrote about determining my prices in a previous post, but since most of us work on some hourly rate, we need to figure out how long it will take so we can give a proper estimate.

Tags: clients, estimate, price, productivity, rates, time | Posted in Advice | 2 Comments »

It’s been a while since my last post, but I can explain. Last week, I went to ACM South East, an academic conference for people in the field of computing. That got me thinking about the great opportunity freelancers have by attending conferences in their field. While ACM SE was a general purpose conference, there are tons of different conferences more oriented to each field of computing, and beyond that each professional field. Conferences overall can help your freelancing career by providing specific opportunities for you not really available anywhere else.

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