My fees are my fees. This is what I state, but this is not always how I operate. What do you do, as a consultant, when a project runs hours over what you initially estimated, and it is not your fault, but the fault of the client?
I had this experience recently. I was brought in to work on a project that another consultant had worked on and messed up badly. The other consultant was paid for her work, but ultimately left the project, leaving the clients with the impression that the project was not only completed, but also a fundable grant proposal.
Representatives of this organization asked some of my regular clients to offer an opinion on the proposal, before planning to submit it as was. My regular clients immediately recognized the work as substandard, and asked me to come in and do a complete overhaul of the project.
My initial assessment of what needed to be done indicated that the project could be fixed in a certain amount of hours. My new clients were a little stunned by the estimate, because they had already paid a consultant to do what they believed to be quality work. Therefore, I was working in a delicate environment: I not only had to persuade them that I could fix their problem, but that it was also worth their while to pay ME in addition to the consultant who abandonded the project. They agreed.
To put it mildly, my estimate was off. However, this was largely due in part to the fact that conditions changed weekly, and then daily: The proposal underwent major revisions. During the last week of the project, before its deadline, I probably worked more than the number of hours I had initially estimated for the project-- on top of work I had already done during the previous month leading into the deadline week. However, the work had to be completed, and I was determined not to leave the clients in the same lurch as their previous consultant. I had a choice: I could either tell them that the estimated hours were complete, so they should pay me and then muddle through on their own, or I could see the project through and then determine how to charge them.
I didn't send them an invoice until nearly three weeks after the proposal was submitted, because I was troubled. The client had already paid one consultant. They were not an organization with limitless funds, and if I were to charge them for the work I actually did, the fee would come to more than double what they had initially balked at. Of course, it was not my fault, nor my problem, that they had initially paid someone for substandard work. However, as I worked with the client, we formed a close relationship. The work on the project was intense, but it was very much a collaborative effort. I grew to like the clients, and also to believe in the overall good of the project. It was a project with a soul.
During the time period that I mulled over that invoice, the client contacted me and asked me if they could refer me to other organizations for work, and also made it clear that they would like to work with me again.
This infomation clarified some things for me: If I charged the clients an exorbitant fee, that would effectively eliminate the possibility that they would recommend me to another organization and also that they would ever consider working with me again. I decided that my reputation and my future endeavors were worth more than extracting a pound of flesh for one project. Therefore, I contacted the client and let them know that a) I had probably worked the estimated hours during the last week of the project alone (which they already knew, having been in constant communication with me during that week) and b) that I understood their budgetary limitations, and would very much like to work with them again and also to receive referrals for other work; I was taking those factors into consideration with my fees. I ended up charging them the equivalent of one month's salary, plus a little extra to cover the taxes I would have to pay on the income. They were extremely appreciative of this.
