Paying for Meetings
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- mydo0
so does this mean you don't charge for meetings as such, but just factor that time into the overall project.
I've been doing this recently as i realised i the amount of time i was spending doing this.
have you ever had the situation where you've been asked to come in for a long meeting and felt you need to charge, can you add that on as scope creep?i think it would be interesting to bill clients like a psychiatrist or lawyer though.
- mydo0
how about making phones £1 a minute. invite clients to call you when they want to tell you about a really good website their girlfriend likes.
- babaganush0
I think you just need to factor in how much business/profit this clint is worth long tm. If they're not worth much just be straight up and have a small 'meeting' :) about their time management and as a business you can't afford to have long meetings unbilled. However, if they are a cash cow and have loads of projects that they assure you will be getting long term it may be wotrh it.
Or you could ask about a retainer. i had an problem like this with one of th largest co.s in the world, kept asking me to head over for meetings for 'possibl'e 2k jobs. I was straight up and politely said, 'Your projects cannot afford me, let's chat when you have something suitable - 2 weeks lat I got a 10k job.
- set0
I am very lucky in that I have managed to whittle my client base down over the years to the point I am now where I'm on good, understandable terms with my regular clients. Almost all my work is done through email which is great. I do get the odd client like one last month that just expects you to be able to up and come to a meeting at their whim. They got a little offended when I told them I didn't have the time to travel up to london and spend hours listening to them babble on when they could outline it all in an email and if I had any questions I'd call them. This is an idealistic and almost lazy approach but I have been lucky enough to be able to build up a client list of which the people are happy to do it this way...
The way I see it is why waste my time at meetings or on the phone having to take notes when they can make one big list of notes and email it to me... haha
- set0
Btw I think its very reasonable to charge for meetings if its encroaching on time that could be spent working.
- Projectile0
I've cut meetings short when they start babbling and rambling and making dumbass suggesions and demands, by simply saying "I'd really better get on with it, especially while all these ideas are still fresh in our heads."