It’s wild how I misjudged this project. Thought it was a small job, but now I’m hitting 12-hour days just to make it work.
I’ve learned the hard way how crucial accurate project scoping is. Just wish I’d considered the possibility of things going over!
Been there. Now I just tell customers upfront that big jobs might need extra time.
That feeling hits hard. I made this mistake on a website rebuild last year. Quoted 40 hours but ended up working 75.
I started tracking my actual time on projects for a few months after. I found out I was bad at estimating debugging and revisions.
Now, I multiply my first estimate by 1.5. It’s way more accurate. Sure, I lose some jobs to lower bids, but I’m not working for peanuts anymore.
Scope creep kills profits faster than anything else. I see guys constantly thinking they’re being nice by absorbing extra work - you’re just training clients to expect free labor.
Define exactly what’s included upfront. I write out every deliverable and what’s NOT covered. When something new comes up, I stop and have the conversation before doing any work.
This job might be a loss, but use it to build better scoping habits. Your future self will thank you.
Same here. Just wrapped a project where I thought content updates meant quick edits. Client actually wanted completely new sections written from scratch.
Check-in points halfway through saved my ass. I do this now for anything over a week:
You can still negotiate extra payment sometimes, especially if you show how the scope shifted. Worth trying before you eat the loss.
I understand the struggle. I always add a buffer in my quotes to account for unexpected issues.
Also, breaking projects into smaller parts lets you see details that might get overlooked.