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Discussion on: What is the most overworked you've ever been?

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sunnysingh profile image
Sunny Singh

I had a client as a freelancer that kept changing the scope of a project. This was when I was still in college, so I was also overloaded with class projects and my own side development projects.

Worked 2 all-nighters to finish the project, which still ended up being not what they wanted, and worst of all I did not get paid for the 3 months of work.

Obviously it was my fault in not setting up a contract and requesting half payment up front. Lesson learned the hard way 😅

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kmwill23 profile image
Kevin • Edited

I had a similar situation that led to me not working with the client anymore. I delivered the product, working great, looking snappy.

His issue wasn't scope creep though. He complained constantly about pixels being in the wrong places, and wanted it exactly to spec. I had to explain to him that while webdev tools are great, the detail he was after would cost a lot more.

He at one point asked me what HTML is 😆

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Monica Macomber

Ah that's the worst! Is it just me or are the pickiest clients also the ones who balk over paying the most?

I've learned that same lesson about taking payment up front from my husband's construction business. It must just be universal to contracting work.

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Paweł Kowalski

Yes, this seems to be true even when companies are "big" and price is smaller. There are ways to mitigate the risk though, like retainer (never fixed price, because scope is never fixed), pay per phase, higher price (this will discourage those who dont want to pay for quality in the first place).

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Ben Halpern

Yikes. I got myself into similar situations when I was freelancing early in my career. Learned a lot of valuable lessons about getting paid!