A client's logo redesign took me 3 months instead of the 2 weeks I quoted

I had a client in Austin who wanted a simple logo refresh, but they kept changing the brief after every round. What I thought would be a quick job turned into 12 rounds of revisions and endless back-and-forth emails. It completely threw off my schedule for the rest of the quarter. Has anyone else had a 'simple' project blow up like this, and how do you protect your time?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryanburns1mo ago

Man, three months? That's rough but honestly, it happens to everyone. Maybe the real problem was not having a hard stop in the contract. After a couple rounds you gotta be able to say the next one costs extra, or you'll never get your time back.

wade_hall1mo ago

Sounds like you got the classic "just a small change" special. That's the worst when they keep moving the finish line. You gotta start charging by the hour after a set number of revisions, or you'll be working for free. Learned that the hard way myself. A clear contract is the only thing that stops that kind of scope creep.