Field Guides / Pricing
How to get paid for everything you deliver: the scope checklist
Free extra work isn't generosity, it's a boundary you never wrote down. Six checks that keep the work paid.
The checklist
- Write the line before the job starts. Deliverables, revision rounds included, and what happens past them. One paragraph in the quote. Every scope argument you've ever had was really an argument about a line that didn't exist.
- Count the revision rounds out loud. "Two rounds of revisions are included" changes the third ask from a demand into a purchase.
- Charge for the invisible work. Pre-production thinking, scripting help, project management, sourcing, the calls. It's work. It goes in the quote as work.
- When they ask for more, sell it instead of absorbing it. "Happy to. That's a variation, here's the cost." You're not saying no. You're saying what it costs. The clients worth keeping respect it.
- When the budget is short, cut scope, not price. Dropping your price teaches the client your first number was padded. Dropping a deliverable keeps the price honest.
- Invoice on the agreed schedule, not on the client's mood. Getting paid on time is part of the job you priced.
The rule of thumb
The moment you hear "just one more small change", check the line you wrote at item 1. If there's no line, this checklist starts on the next job, today.
Go deeper
Charging for the invisible work · Revision rounds · Drop scope, not price · Pushing back without losing the client