Freelancing Basics: Dealing with Job Creep and Interruptions

One of the biggest headaches in freelancing is the dreaded scope creep—when a project starts morphing into far more than you expected it to involve, and the client expects you to absorb the additional work at the same project fee, and/or within the same original hours.

Some of this happens because the client hasn’t thought through the nature of the project before hiring you to work on it. Some of it is because the client changes their mind—or has it changed for them—in mid-project. It could be because you didn’t confirm the specifics of the project before accepting or starting work on it. Sometimes it’s because the client doesn’t know what they want until they see something from you that they don’t want. Regardless, we can’t make money if we don’t control creep.

There are several ways to deal with scope creep.

• Protect yourself before it happens by bulleting out project details, or checking them carefully in your agreement, and including language in your agreement or contract along the lines of “Anything beyond this scope of work will incur additional fees.”
• Charge enough—regardless of model (/hour, /word, /page, /project)—to cover all the various demands and not feel taken advantage of. Some of us don’t mind doing more work than originally planned as long as we get paid, and paid well, for it.
• If the project is on a per-hour basis, keep track of all time and charge for all of it. Even if the rate isn’t ideal, at least you'll feel better about the time you spend.
• Eat the difference for the first issue or project as a learning experience and propose a more realistic hourly rate, or a reality-based project rate, for subsequent ones, whether for the same client or future ones.
• Do only what you were hired/asked to do. If asked to do more, say something like, “I’d be glad to do this additional activity, but please be aware that there will be an additional charge for it. Please let me know if that’s OK and I’ll focus on the new element.”

Similar to scope creep is what I call activity creep—when you suddenly find yourself immersed in countless, constant email messages, phone calls, and other interruptions that suck up your time and energy, and distract you from getting your real work done. It doesn’t matter if those interruptions are about the project in hand or not; the fact that they break your flow when you’re trying to focus on something that requires your complete attention is the problem.

• When bombarded with requests that don’t relate to your project, respond with, “This isn’t part of my assignment. Please check with So-and-so” or “Thanks, but I don’t need to be in this loop.”
• If there’s no clear-cut job description, create one—and stick to it.

If the messages are relevant to your project, consider “stockpiling” them to deal with at certain times. Tell the other people ahead of time that you’re focusing on whatever-urgent-current task and will respond to e-mail requests at a specific time: “I have two phone interviews with sources and then will be writing up my notes, and I would appreciate not being interrupted for awhile. I'll be available for other matters after 3:00 PM.” If any of the messages are really urgent, they’ll let you know.

Sometimes we just have to have a sit-down/showdown with a client (or colleague/s) about time management. If the flow of e-mail is interfering with getting your work done, you have to speak up. If it’s just a factor in an undefined role, you may have to redefine your role, or put up with it until this assignment is done and you can ask for clarification for future ones.

Related to that is being asked to do tasks other than those originally agreed to—not so much revising something you’ve written or doing yet another editing or proofreading pass on the project, but being asked to add more to the piece, interview more sources, change the entire angle, add more chapters. You may have to practice standing up for yourself by saying, “This isn’t in the original agreement. Before I go further, we need to discuss additional payment for the additional work.”

Project and activity scope are inevitable at some point in every freelance career. Be prepared, protect yourself ahead of time and stand firm when they occur.

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning, long-time freelance writer/editor, presenter at STC local and national conferences, and owner of Communication Central (www.communication-central.com), which hosts an annual conference for freelancers every fall (27-28 September in Rochester, NY: http://www.communication-central.com/2013/events/2013-conference/).