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Most consultants face Scope Creep at one time or another—the client just keeps adding things on to the project without adding on to the fee. Here are a few suggestions from the Bay Area Consultants’ Network meeting on April 22, 2005 for ways to deal with this phenomenon.

• The best thing is to create a clear scope of work in advance— it can be too late if you’re in the middle of the job and have no process for dealing with changes.
• Only work for reasonable clients.
• Back off the emotional reaction and pause to treat it as a selling opportunity: ask the client questions about where they want to go and what else they need and say “This is wonderful–it’s off contract, of course–would you like me to do a proposal?”
• Have coffee and re-negotiate the letter of agreement
• Give every person you’re working with a copy of the contract
• Treat it like a kitchen remodel: her contractor has no problem saying “Do you want that? It’ll cost that much.”
• Negotiate, negotiate—insert a clause saying “Anything outside these specifics is on a time and materials basis” into every contract. Then refer the client to the contract when they ask for more.
• Be very careful about not getting hooked in emotionally to the client’s needs without actually making an agreement about the money
• Think about it from the client’s point of view. Your client is probably too overwhelmed to realize what’s up for you

How do you deal with Scope Creep? Post your suggestions in the comments section or send them to sallie@fileslinger.com

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