A few questions about clients...

[jibble]

So the short story is this. I've been freelancing for about a year now, and for the most part it's going good, except I keep having recurring problems with clients and need to resolve this matter.

First of all, how can i keep a client on task? Meaning, I can only work as fast as a client can get content/info to me. I CONSTANTLY have to go after people asking them over and over again to keep up with me so i can get their job done, and get paid basically. Right now i have at least 4 projects halfway done awaiting the client to get me the info/assets i need to complete them. Is there a trick to this or should i just accept it and plan on clients being slow?

Second, the ever evolving job. I quote a job, and the client ends up asking more and more until it becomes, basically, twice the job. Whats a good way handle situations like this. Is it a bad thing to leave the quote open and say "a general ballpark figure of $xxxx" depending on the specifics?

[frankster]

You need to do a search for "contract" in the business issues section, using the advanced search options for this forum. There is a tonne of discussion here on contracts and how to prevent this type of client behaviour by using them effectively. :)

[budafist]

Keeping clients on task.
When you first meet or converse with the client about a job you should be working to a deadline right from the beginning. At this stage, you should also work out the deadline for the client to get the content to you so that you can meet their deadline. I have a section in my contract that if the client is late with content, that the final deadline of artwork my get pushed back.

Email your client a day or a few days before their content deadline is due.

If the deadline passes, I would email and call them almost on a daily basis to see when the file is coming.

Never come across as pushy. I've been told many times that clients have been impressed with my efficiency. If you think that you will no longer meet their initial deadline, you will need to remind the client of this.

The ever evolving job.
My quotes say something along the lines of estimate $xxx for 6 hours design.

The moment you are near the hours you have quoted your client, let them know. Example, I quote client 6 hours for a job. When I email them a proof and I am nearing the 6 hours mark, I will let them know what the running total of hours is so far. When I go over 6 hours, I tend to email a running total of hours with each pdf proof.

That way there are no nasty suprises when the client gets invoiced at the end of the job.