A previous client has the source files, and wants some “small changes” made for free. These changes would probably take me 15 min. max, but the entire reason they wanted the source files was so they could update them as needed without paying me. I had a lot of misgivings about giving them the source files in the first place, but they pressed for them and to keep the relationship going smoothly, I gave them up.
What’s a tactful way to handle this? Charge $x per change? Tell them to do it themselves per their own directives? It’s possible that more of these changes would be coming through in the future, because the client has no idea how to use ID. I’ve even told them they can make these types of changes in Acrobat, which would be way easier than using ID for them – but they seem to ignore that bit every time.
Answer
Bill them by the hour, half hour, quarter hour.
If you have an ongoing relationship with them and want to “give” them this one, keep track of the time, and tack it onto another job. If this is the only thing you are ever going to do for them, bill them.
I have numerous clients that I do many small changes on things throughout the month. I usually just keep track of the small things and bill them all at once.
If I have a client that I only do big jobs for, and they ask for something small, I usually just eat it. If they start coming back at me for more and more small things I bunch it together and bill them.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : TCDesigner , Answer Author : GoofyMonkey