[thelist] how do you manage/respond?

Barney Carroll barney.carroll at gmail.com
Fri May 29 10:44:02 CDT 2009


Read the subject line and realised I still don''t really know.
But dealing with your issue specifically: I've had them. The cover-all
response for unreasonable people like this is: I'm extremely busy. ue to
your lack of response, I've weighted my time budget to other projects.

In future draw up time-sensitive contracts where yours and the clients'
deliverables are given projected timescales with margins of error; set a
limit on the number of revisions included in your per-service charge; charge
by the hour for work beyond the spec.

There is a huge tendency for people to believe that web wizardry is just
that — some kind of connection to the ether — and that they are essentially
paying for you to mutter the magic words, click your fingers, and make
internet happen. It's very important to make people realise that your work
is not just know-how and intelligence, but genuine effort, consideration and
creative process too (and data entry too, although it doesn't sound as
important ;).

I once had a client who was initially very shocked during the pitch when I
explained her site would take 2 weeks of development. 3 months later she'd
finally completed the arduous task of revising the ~1000 words of copy into
an acceptable form. During that period I was called almost daily with new
design requirements that always had to take place 'in the next day'. That
was a long time ago. Next time I end up in that situation I've got the
contract to cover it: I tell them that the relationship is no longer
tenable, deliver what work has been done and ask for payment. The end.

Good luck with your particular case ;)

Regards,
Barney Carroll
Web designer & front-end developer

web: www.clickwork.net

mobile: +44 (0) 7594 506 381
home: +44 (0) 118 975 0020

twitter: @barneycarroll


2009/5/29 Bob Meetin <bobm at dottedi.biz>

> We all have multiple projects in the queue.  Occasionally you get a
> client who is slow to move on a project but then whenever they do their
> piece, they call and expect you to jump immediately with your next
> part?  Jump - how high?  Personal assistant describes the situation.
> --
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