Do you know how to turn requests for free work into billable work?
Updated by Brady Stroud [SSW] 1 year ago. See history
Often clients will call up asking for a short task to be performed. You need to know how to let them know that the time will be charged.
"Let me remote into the server to investigate"
❌ Figure: Bad example - they don't know this will be billed
"If it was a quick 5 mins I would do it for free, however I need to do a little investigation. First impression is that it might take me a couple of hours... if that is OK, let me know."
✅ Figure: OK example - Making sure you won't work for free
"Let me see if I can get you a booking for tomorrow"
✅ Figure: Good example - Booking in a day of work minimises context switching, and trains the client to book you for 1 day at a time.
Figure: Careful! One small free task can turn into a dam-breaking torrent of free work.