[thelist] Bill E-mail As Consultation Hours?

[aardvark]

are you doing more than project management?  to me, client 
management, project management, etc., are non-billable events 
(depending on the circumstances -- a pain-in-the-ass client who 
requires all sorts of hand-holding gets hit with an administrative 
fee)... i add on an admin fee to all of my invoices, so that helps 
defray some costs of doing bills and the like..

but once you start handing over expertise, that's *definitely* a 
billable event...

> From: "Aileen Wrothwell" <aileen at stonebikini.com>
>
[snip]
> and the majority of our conversation takes place on e-mail.  Until
> now, I've just considered these discussions, question-answering,
> guidance sessions as kind of a "value added" service included in doing
> business with me.  Clients comment that they appreciate the fact that
> I take the time to answer their questions.  However, lately I find
> that I'm spending more than an hour a day answering e-mail from each
> client.  I'm thinking that this should be billed as consultation time.