10 Things You Don’t Charge Freelance Clients For But Definitely Should

Revisions take time. Any creative service requires revisions even if its adding a couple of sentences to a blog post or completely redesigning an entire page of a website.

If possible, try to place a limit on possible revisions, clients try to take advantage of "unlimited revisions" or add a fee for every revision.

Scope creep is when a client requests more work than what is allowed in the original contract. It starts as a couple of tweets but eventually it will snowball out of control and will lead you to doing free work all over again.

To mitigate this, have a set rate for scope creep or charge an hourly rate for extra work and add it to the cost of your quote. However you decide to handle this, be sure to include an allowance for it in your contract and remind your clients of the fee when they request extra work.

If you offer a service that might require ongoing support, charge a fee for it. 

Clearly state in your contract how many hours of technical support your project includes, and if a client needs more, charge them a fee for the extra work. 

It’s perfectly reasonable to charge clients for the tools and software needed to complete their project, provided it’s something they’re asking or requiring you to use. Social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer or photo editors like Photoshop or Canva are all fair game.

However, if it’s a tool or software that you would reasonably use with other clients, don’t charge a specific client for it directly.

If you work in the freelance industry, there will come a time that late payments will happen, thus, the late payment fee. 

Of course, it's necessary to mention this fee to your clients when signing the paperwork so that both parties are on the same page about expectations and consequences.

Cancellation fees don't solve the problem of clients cancelling out of the blue but they do help. 

Include a clause in your contract specifying how many days’ notice your client must give before cancelling, and charge a fee if they cancel within that time frame.

This will give you a little bit of cushion time to find a relacement client without having to worry as much about your projected income.

Almost every online payment platform takes a cut from what you earn therefore with every transaction you still end up with a minus.

To fix this, add a small percentage to your quote to cover these fees.

If a client asks you to complete work faster than your standard turnaround time or over a weekend or holiday, you’re well within your rights to charge them a rush fee.

They’re asking you to do something that’s more than your standard, and to do so, you’ll have to make sacrifices — whether that means staying home from the lake on Labor Day, or re-prioritizing your other work.