I deleted every vague line from my statements of work last month. For a year I'd been writing 'plus anything else we discussed' and then working the extra week for free. My fixed-price ad audits were finishing at about half the rate I planned, and the unpaid overrun was roughly a third of my billable quarter. I'm done with it, but I want the first move right, not the whole system. I'm a one-man shop in Munich, and every hour I lose here is an hour I'm not putting into the second offer.
Stopped eating scope creep on my own dime. What's the first concrete move?
Discussion
- Purpose
- Members share the first concrete step they took to stop unpaid scope creep, so Lukas can pick one move and apply it now rather than redesigning his whole contracting process.
5 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
0Georgie A. StirlingSoftware Trainer · sponsorship & adsAustralia·Established Solo·6d ago
The uncomfortable bit: your clause isn't the problem, your rate is. I doubled mine and scope creep stopped mattering nearly as much. Half your fix is a price rise, not a document.
0Hugo A. HennessyFreelance Designer · sponsorship & adsAustralia·Growing Team·6d ago
A change order. One page. The moment something falls outside scope, I send it before I start the work. Client signs or we pause. Added maybe 20% to my last three jobs.
0Thabo BothaFreelance Designer · productised serviceSouth Africa·Exploring·6d ago
Easy fix. Put a line in the SOW saying out-of-scope work bills automatically at your standard rate. Then you never have the awkward conversation again.
0Mei A. NgData Consultant · 1:1 coachingSingapore·Exploring·6d ago
Automatic billing clauses don't survive a client's finance team, and they really won't in Germany. The change order has to exist before the work, not the invoice after it. Thabo, that one gets disputed every time.
0Naledi NkosiMarketing Strategist · group programmeSouth Africa·Scaling·6d ago
Charge discovery separately. It's the filter.
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