Posted by Robert Frost-Bridges on 10/13/26 11:22

saz wrote:

> Always have a contract. Specify exactly what is expected from both
> sides. If they give you something to do and then go back to the way it
> was, charge them for that extra time - it is not part of the contract.
>
> You're allowing your customer to run your business. I once said to a
> customer "I don't tell you how to run your business, please don't tell
> me how to run mine". He is still a customer, but now he's very
> reasonable in his requests and listens to my input.
>
> If I had lost him after the comment, no big deal. Like your customer,
> he was more trouble than he was worth.

Thank you all for your comments. Our client has today asked us to do some
further work but wants a quote on a fixed price for it. He has hardly even
mentioned what the work is. We're going to email him tonight to put
ourselves on a proper footing from now on. We have actually incorporated
ourselves and that has now come through (this came from our client too,
they were having a tax audit and they wanted to know who we were and what
our tax reference was). So they way I see it, they want us to be a
bona-fide web design company for their taxman and a student and his mate
for their accounts-payable.

I have taken all your comments on board and we will definitely be a bit more
forceful from now on and hopefully business-like. I suppose we are lucky to
be in a position where we don't need to take any job, but if we do I would
like to make sure we do a good job.

--
Robert
http://brightonfixedodds.net

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