This is probably basic, but I’ve started saying yes to scope creep because I’m scared the client will walk. Fixed fee, and every 'small ask' is now a normal Tuesday. I already put assumptions and exclusions in the SOW, but when they email 'can you also…' I just do it and bill nothing. Keeps the relationship safe, keeps the margin gone. I can’t afford to lose this account yet, so what actually works when you’re not in a strong position to push back?
Solved
How do you stop fixed-fee extras from eating the month?
What a useful answer should help achieve
Walk away with a practical way to stop unpaid extra work without losing the account.
Already tried
Added assumptions and exclusions to the SOW, but still says yes to email asks.
Constraints and unknowns
Can't afford to lose the client yet, so scared to push back.
Cybersecurity Consultant · Independent Consultants · Growing Team · This snapshot stays with the question when the author updates their profile.4 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
Accepted answer
0Isaac MehtaAuthor & Educator · Professional Education BusinessesNew Zealand·Growing Team·6d ago
I used to treat every small ask as relationship insurance. It isn’t. It trains the client that scope is negotiable by email, and the ones who leave when you set a boundary are usually the ones you were losing money on anyway. We tested a line in the next SOW: extras under 30 minutes are free once a week, anything after goes through a change request and is billed. I expected pushback. There was none. Two clients left over it later, both were exactly this kind of client, and I don’t regret either. What I’d do differently: say the free-extra rule in the kickoff call instead of hiding it in the document. It changes the conversation from 'you’re charging me' to 'this protects the schedule you’re paying for.' If you can’t afford to lose the account, at least make the next one cheaper to service.
Why the asker chose this: This is the one I am acting on — thank you.
0Adaeze IbrahimLanguage Tutor · paid newsletterNigeria·Scaling·6d ago
Are the extras inside the original risk area, or genuinely new work? I stopped negotiating each ask emotionally once I separated those two. The first is under-scoping. The second is change control, and it needs a same-day cost line, not a bigger SOW.
0Mutiso MwangiCareer Coach · self-paced courseKenya·Established Solo·6d ago
I send the quote before I do the extra. No addendum, no free hour. One client walked.
0Tariq A. FaroukMarketing Strategist · sponsorship & adsUnited Arab Emirates·Scaling·6d ago
Don’t offer the free first thirty minutes. You’re still teaching them extras are free until an invisible line. I tested both. The thing that stuck was a change order template I could send in two minutes. It says what’s added, what it costs, what it replaces. Client signs or we don’t start. Most sign. The few who didn’t were never going to pay. It removed the conversation I was dreading.
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