Let’s take bets, shall we? I received all those calls at the end of last week from clients who needed work done this week. It’s Friday. Despite being out for two days, I returned to see my in box empty. That’s right. Those must-have-it-this-week round of projects have yet to show up.
So I’m betting at least one shows up today at 4 p.m. with this caveat – “We need it by Monday.” Great! That’ll be double my usual rate, for weekend work is optional on my part. If my weekend rate doesn’t suit, I’ll settle for getting it to them by Wednesday at the usual rate. If in fact it can be done by Wednesday….
What irks me is I cancelled a lunch play date with Devon (sorry, sugar) because all this work was coming in. You know, all the work that isn’t here yet. I’m on a slow burn right now. Perhaps it’s the way I was raised or the way I’m used to conducting business in a corporate setting. If you tell someone you need their help within a specific time frame, you either show up or hey, let them know what’s going on. I can understand it with one client as they were still tying up loose ends on the project before handing it off to me. But does an email take all that much time to type out? How about a “We’re still getting the project info gathered. Look for us to show up next week instead.” That could’ve been sent oh, I don’t know, on Wednesday or Thursday. Because I was expecting all this work, I planned nothing extra. And here I sit. Playing on Polyvore or researching future articles. But not much else. Oh, the articles I could’ve started and finished in this time! Sheesh.
On a good note, I did manage to score an impossibly hard interview time with a client today, so the day isn’t a total wash. And as I said before, I take projects in the order in which I receive them. Your deadline is important to me, but my time has to be equally important to you. That I’ve blocked out my entire week for work that hasn’t arrived doesn’t make me too anxious to wait around for work that may or may not show up at all.
Question for you writers – Kristen asked this a few weeks ago, but let me repeat it. Do you charge your clients for the time you spend waiting for them? If so, how do you determine when to charge and when not to charge?
I’m curious about this: What do you do about the projects you had lined up for NEXT week that are now going to be screwed up as a result of all this late work? I encounter these types of situations a lot, which is why I usually have one slow week every month and three where I’m working 10-12-hour days. In fact, it’s probably my number one freelancing gripe.
That’s just it, Kathy. I didn’t line anything up because of one immense project. Now I’m not sure it’s coming.
Here’s what I’m doing – I’m sending off queries today and starting some new articles. If I’m busy when they call, they’ll have to get in line, I’m afraid.
I read Kristen’s post about this to and I must admit I’d never thought much about it before. I do charge a consultation fee for traveling to meet clients face to face (cause I’ll be hopping mad if I burn up all my gas to travel 30 miles out to meet a client and discuss a project and nothing comes of it!). It is food for thought…
Simple. I don’t schedule anyone’s work on my calendar until I have received the deposit check and signed agreement. I’ll pencil them in, but let them know they can be bumped if there’s a delay in getting me the above two items.
Great solution, Eileen. That takes the guesswork out of the entire process!
I love Eileen’s solution.
I act somewhat like a doctor’s office or the airline. If you book me and then cancel me without proper notice, you still get charged.
And if you don’t get me the work when you say you will and then panic because you’ve created the emergency, the price goes up.
Wholeheartedly agree, Devon. I charge for others’ emergencies. It’s funny how quickly those emergencies dissipate when the rate doubles. Look, I can’t work miracles, but I can drop other things IF you’re willing to pay for the privilege. The added stress on my day and my nerves has to be compensated.
Now that the Labour Day weekend is coming up here in Canada, I’m experiencing the exact same thing! I’m still waiting on a word count from an editor who needed the article finished last Friday, two new clients have pooped up with gigantor projects and the website that was taking weeks to go live is now all ready for me to get cracking. I’ve already told everyone that I’ll be out of town for the long weekend, to which they’ve all replied, “Oh no worries.” Ya, no worries for you!
Hahaha, I said “pooped.” You know what I mean.
Well depending on the level of the client’s project, you may have been right the first time, Amanda. LOL