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How do you respond to scope creep or changes in scope or a change like a work order change? These are all different terms to describe the same thing in which you are now getting to territory where what you thought you were getting into has gone beyond that. The number one thing I love to do, and I'm going to start with a power tip on this episode, is to charge appropriately. So little changes are not a problem for you at all. And I tell clients this upfront. So we're going to address this, right? We want to speak out all the unspoken objections so that people are put at ease to say something like this. Most clients who work with me are a little shocked or surprised that I charge 20 to 30% more than other people, more than my competitors. The reason why I do this is because I anticipate there are things that we talk about and things that are not known. The unknown unknowns. And the last thing I want to do with you is to do a nickel and dime situation where every little thing, every sneeze, you know, you want to make it 2% bigger. I'm going to send you a change order and make you pay extra for that. I find, and this is what you say, I find that that wears down our relationship and it causes one of two things to happen. One is you start to feel like Chris is really petty. He's always asking for little things. Number two is you're going to get reluctant to call me and say, hey, I'm thinking about this knowing that another bill is coming and this is not all included. I personally like to work with clients who want premium work and premium service to go along with that. And I need to charge accordingly. If that's not for you and you want the bare basement price, I can give that to you with a caveat that you understand that anytime you make a change, because giving you the bare bones bid, that I'm going to ask you for a change order. And now you and I are both doing paperwork and instead of focusing on what's really, really important now, think to yourself too. Where have I been where I feel really well taken care of, that I enjoy the experience so much versus the time in which. You know what? I feel like I'm getting screwed over here. Let me give you an example. And maybe things have changed, but my last reference point, I've owned a couple of BMWs, right? The base price that's listed on the website seems relatively attractive for any series 3, 5, 7 or any of the even number ones. And then you start adding things like leather seats or lane assist or a good stereo system. And before you know you've added $18,000 on top of this, it starts to make you feel a certain way. It starts to make you feel like you got the old bait and switch that they put out an attractive price. But no one wants a bare bones luxury vehicle. It doesn't even make sense. That's like an oxymoron, right? A stripped down luxury thing. No such thing. I much appreciate really higher end car companies where you only have decisions to make like colors and fabrics, but it's kind of already expected. Now there may be some wild things that very few people want that might be an add on, but that seems to be pretty reasonable. Notice the difference in feeling there. Like you've anticipated what I want, you're going to reduce the decision fatigue. And this whole like feeling of being price gouged and being taken advantage of as I walk in the door and you've taken care of all those things. That's how I would do it. Now having said that, though, many of you aren't in that place where you feel confident enough where you can start asking for premium prices. Right? Let's live in reality for a second here. So here's the thing. When you submit a bid, it's more important that you put in what the clients are going to get and the milestones in which they're going to get them at. Then the amount of time you're going to spend on a project. Because time is not really a great measurement of anything except for time spent on a project. This is where it's important. When you spell out the scope, you're going to get two changes, you're going to get four comps, and you're going to get, and this is going to be done in four weeks. Whatever the scope is. When the clients start approaching the end of changes or the rounds of changes you've included in vid, you have to tell them before they get to that point because now they're going to feel held hostage and then they must make the change or suffer the consequences. It's not a good way to build a relationship. So let's say you've included three changes. So the first change you will say to them, this is change one of three, just to let you know. And then when they get into the second change and they change it again, you're like, okay, so here's the thing. We only have one more round of changes. Need you to be aware of that because once we approach that and if we go over that, I Have to charge you more money. And I do not want to do that. I want to be able to deliver this project on time and on budget for you. What can we do to consolidate all the feedback that you have so that we're really, really close? So that the last set of changes is going to be very, very minor, if any at all. So you're asking them for help. You are enlisting them in the process and allowing them to make decisions so they don't feel like, hey, what a surprise. You can't charge me more arbitrarily. And I didn't even know this was going to happen. I would have said. Said something different the previous time. Here's what you don't want to do. This is a big, big warning for you from doing this for decades. Here's how it begins. And there's an expression. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Now, they must have been thinking about that one. Whoever came up with that expression. Okay, all right. You're like three changes in. You're like, okay, we're three changes in, but let's just give them another round of changes. They're not gonna be a problem. So now you have four round of changes then. And you already won over. You're thinking to yourself, now, how do I bring this up? Okay. And you're reluctant to bring it up. And now you're in the fifth or sixth round of changes. And finally, like, you know what? I can't do this anymore. We're already six rounds of changes, and we've only budgeted for three. The clients are going to do this. Watch this. Oh, my God, Chris, you should have told me before. I would have gone down this path. Oh, my God. I don't see myself as that kind of person. And I don't know what it is, what we bid on, or if this is a big change or a little change. I just have no idea. Right? And they're going to say that. Because that's their right to say that. They didn't say, let's just do this last change. Let's get this thing done on this last change, and if I do another change after that, I will pay you. So now you're four changes over the originally agreed upon thing, and you're not anywhere closer. What happens is you start to feel. How do I say this? You start to feel not good feelings of resentment, anger, frustration. And it's going to come out of how you speak to them, how you carry yourself. And possibly it can impact work. We know creative people are really creative because they're really vulnerable human beings and you're kind of prone to these mood swings, if you will, of like feelings of gratitude to feelings of resentment. And it might affect how you do things where you're like, well, have them. I'm just gonna do this and I'm gonna be done with it. So all the sacrifices you made thus far have been for nothing because at the end of it you're gonna burn the relationship anyways. This is why I caution you, let them know where they are in the change process. Let them know that this is the last round and to try to consolidate all their feedback so that there's no more changes after this, no matter how big or small. So you don't have to have this conversation, but the best hack of all is to do what I said at the very beginning. Charge premium price so you don't have to deal with this at all.