How to deal with long delays

[artmaknev]

Earlier I posted about how to deal about extremely tight deadlines, but now I have another dilemma, the project doesn't seem to end... been going on for 3 months on and off. It was initially estimated for 4 weeks, but was put on hold, then was brought back to life, on and off without an end in sight...

 

How do you usually deal with this type of projects?

 

I charged them base price that included 3 revisions, and then extra charge per revision, we are now on 8th revision with no end in sight, so I am not getting paid until the final renderings..

[marcellabbe]

I do pretty much the same, except i call them preliminaries, not revisions. 3 included within 3 months maximum.

As for being paid before the project is over, unless you put a clause in the accepted contract, you can't demand a payment. Having said that, depending on your relation with your client, you can talk with him or her about it and ask (not demand) for a percentage.

Happened once with an architect with whom things were normally good and then, no come back. Then i found that his own client was in California for a vacation so we had to wait. Small project, no problem.

 

Even if you know in advance it's gonna be dragged on over a long period of time, it makes you loss time. When your in the middle of the project, you remember every details. But when you have to go back in an old project, you have to review it a bit to remind yourself of specifics of the project and your client's demands.

 

So, unless you provided in writing for that possibility, i think it all goes down on how good is the relation with your client.

[Tommy L]

schedule should be in the contract, including the project deadline. The deadline is for both parties, the client must be made aware of that. The payment terms (eg, net 30) should also be in the contract.

[CliveG]

I dream of some of my projects getting "delays"

[John Dollus]

research 'progress billing'. It often prevents the black hole projects

[petesedlacek]

This is the bane of my freelancing career. Juggling projects is rough enough, but when this happens all bets are off. You need to have something in your contract stating that at a certain point, the extra work is billed straight hourly. Then the client can decide if a new revisions is worth is based on X cost (your hourly rate x number of hours needed.) Then, you get to APPROVE this request if it's outside the initial scope. If doing more revisions past the initial number isn't in the contract, you aren't obligated to do them, and if you do you must be able to bill for them.

 

The second thing you need in your contract is an end date. This is so tricky because in reality things happen, but at some point the client must know they are weeks past the "deadline" and you can't be locked up on a project forever.

 

Lastly, it's good to not schedule projects back to back. Give at least a week buffer between them if you can. I enjoy being busy, but coming off a crazy 4 week project right into another one the next day is very rough. You need some time off in between. And if one goes long, at least that buffer is there.