3 Ways to Avoid Scope Creep as a Freelancer
Whenever I post about scope creep on social media, I always get a lot of comments and DMs from folks. And I get it. It's a big, frustrating issue. It's the proverbial monster hiding under the bed of every service provider, especially the folks in corporate contracting.
So today, I'm going to break down 3 ways to avoid scope creep as a freelancer or consultant in corporate contracting.
Making these changes is a great way to chart your course to scope creep free waters and ensure that you're actually getting paid for all the work your client asks you to do.
In this article, I'll talk about:
The 2 main issues impacting scope creep
How to figure out how much money you're losing to scope creep
How to fix vague payment terms in contracts to avoid scope creep
How to fix conditional payment terms in contracts that are gateways to scope creep.
Let's get into it.
To Avoid Scope Creep You Need Better Boundaries
Before we get into the nitty gritty of things, it's important to understand the root cause of scope creep. In my experience working with folks, there are 2, but one is more important than the other.
The root causes of scope creep are:
Contract terms that make it easily accessible to your client
Boundaries.
But my general rule of thumb is that if you aren't good at boundaries, then you're probably a victim to scope creep. Even if you have the perfect contract terms written to prevent scope creep, if you're not able to hold a boundary with your client to enforce those terms, then the contract terms become worthless and the scope creep happens anyway.
That's why when I'm talk about how to avoid scope creep with lowercase legal members, I start by asking how they are with boundaries. If they suck at them, then I walk them through a scope creep audit, which I outline below. As I explain below, a scope creep audit helps you see how much money and time you've lost to scope creep. This transforms scope creep from a theoretical pain point to a measurable harm.
Once folks can tangibly see the harm that scope creep is causing, they’re usually ready to do something about it. That’s when we turn to fixing the contract terms.
If you don't have issues with boundaries, you can go straight to fixing your contract terms. For you, holding the boundary isn’t the issue. You already push back on clients who try to extend the original scope of the contract. What you need is contract terms that back you up.
When you have contract terms that have your back and the motivation (whether it’s inherent or created via a scope creep audit) to stand your ground, you’ll find that scope creep becomes a non-issue in your business.
Now let’s get into the details of each issue and what you need to do for each of them to avoid scope creep.
Know How Much Scope Creep Costs Your Business
The #1 scope creep mistake I see people make is not knowing how much it costs you.
People generally know they've been a victim to scope creep. They know scope creep is the worst and it eats away at their time, money, and energy. But they never know how much. They can never put a number to the damage scope creep has cost their business.
If you've been here awhile, then you know that this is a big no-no in my opinion. To do something about the harm, you need to be able to measure it. Otherwise the harm continues to be theoretical in nature and I find that people are the most motivated to change their situation when the harm is tangible and visceral.
That means if you want to avoid scope creep, then you need a number. You need to know how much money your business is losing to scope creep. You need to know, on average, how much time you've personally lost to scope creep by doing unpaid work.
When you put numbers to these things, it makes it harder to ignore or excuse away by saying "Well, it sucked, but that client hired me for a new project." That's great, but for scope creep purposes, we need to know how much money you lost on the first project and how much you inevitably lost on the second project once your client knew you were a person that didn't enforce boundaries.
It's harsh, but it's true. And if you want to learn how to avoid scope creep for good, then you need to see the problem clearly. That means you need to do an audit.
How to Do a Scope Creep Audit
Luckily, performing a scope creep audit is easy. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of what to do:
Find all the projects you did over the past 12 months that had scope creep. It will be easier than you think. Resentment creates strong memories, lol.
For each project, write down the work you did that was outside of the original scope of the project.
Write down how much you would have charged for the extra work you did.
Next to that write down about how much time it took you to do the extra work (guesses are fine).
You should now have a table where the columns are: client/project, extra services performed, cost of unpaid labor, time spent on unpaid labor.
Add up the totals for the cost of unpaid labor column and time spent on unpaid labor column.
Once you have the totals, think about what that extra money could have done for your business or your personal life (what could it have paid for) and how you could have used the time you lost (on naps, family, marketing content, other projects, etc).
This simple exercise will give you the numbers you need to have a more accurate picture of how scope creep is impacting your business. When I do this exercise with freelancers and consultants I work with, I find that people become extremely motivated to make the changes they need to make to prevent scope creep from ever happening again. Once that happens, then we're ready to look at issues in the contract.
How to Adjust Your Contract to Prevent Scope Creep
Once you're properly motivated to do something about scope creep, the next step is to look at what's going on with your client contracts.
In my experience, there are two major areas of your contract you need to pay attention to if you want to avoid scope creep. The first is the section where you're actually defining what services you'll perform and what deliverables you'll provide to your client.
The second is the section that defines how and when you'll get paid. Oftentimes that section is missing key details that make it clear when payment is due from your client and the vaguer that section is, the harder it can be to hold your ground when your client sends on of those "one more thing" emails.
Let's look at each of these issues in turn and how to fix them.
Clearly Define Your Services and Deliverables to Avoid Scope Creep
Me and many other lawyers talk about this issue ad nauseam because it is so important for service contracts. Every single service contract you have with a client needs to define very clearly what services you're performing for the client and what you're delivering to them. When you're creating proposals for your client, the key thing to figure out is whether there is a difference between the services and deliverables. Sometimes those two things are the same, but often times, the services are one thing and the deliverables are another.
Here's how I like to think about it:
Services: The actions you're taking in service to your client.
For example, if you're an operations consultant, maybe you're observing how a particular team at your client's company functions, identifying their key pain points, documenting what processes need to be standardized, creating standard operating procedures for that team, and training them on it. Those would be the services.
Deliverables: The results that your actions produce.
If we use our same example, the Deliverables might be an initial report summarizing your observations and proposing a plan of action, the actual standard operating procedures you create, the training workshop you deliver, and any training materials you create that will be used to onboard new team members in the future.
Do you see how this is much more specific than saying your services and deliverables include performing the duties of an Interim Director of Operations, such as developing and organizing SOPs, creating employee onboarding processes, assisting with strategic planning, writing relevant job descriptions, being a thought partner to other executives, and streamlining project management?
In the example I provided, you can tell exactly what the person will be doing and the results that will provided to the client. In the second example, a number of things could be included in the services and there aren't clear expectations about what results the work will yield.
When there aren't clear expectations about what you're doing or the results you're delivering then there's ample room for scope creep to wiggle its way into your project.
Some of you may find it helpful to create a scope matrix for your client where you give them a visual representation of what's in and what's out in terms of your services and deliverables. You can include that scope matrix in your proposal and in the actual contract as an easy point of reference for both parties.
Either way, the most important rule of thumb to follow when you're defining your services and deliverables is this: Integrity is in the specificity. The more specific you are, the clearer the expectations, and the easier it is for all parties involved to get on and stay on the same page.
Once you have the services and deliverables clearly defined, then you need to turn your attention to the payment terms.
Conditions on Payment Terms that Lead to Scope Creep
The other place in contracts that lead to scope creep are sections that discuss payment terms. Specifically, those sections sometimes place conditions on payment terms that make it way too easy for your client to demand additional work from you without giving you additional pay. I’ll start by explaining what I mean by conditional payment terms and then tell you where to find them in your contracts so you can avoid scope creep.
Scan Your Contract for Conditions on Payment
Oftentimes, your client will condition your payment on their satisfaction. Some of the more common language is as follows:
Client shall only be obligated to pay Contractor upon approval of the Deliverables and such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.
Client shall only be obligated to pay Contractor for Deliverables that meet Client's reasonable satisfaction.
Upon Client's acceptance of the Deliverables, Client shall be obligated to pay Contractor for the services, provided that Client's acceptance shall not be unreasonably withheld.
In both of these cases, and others like them, payment is conditional on your Client being satisfied or happy with your work. And there's a good reason for this: your Client wants to ensure that they get what they paid for.
But the problem is that it leaves the door open to your Client sending email after email that starts with "Actually" or "I was wondering if you could" or "Just one more thing." And because the word "reasonable" is extremely vague and up to interpretation, it's hard to say how many of these emails asking you to do something else is reasonable. 1? 3? 10? 22? No one knows and the contract doesn't say.
This type of language puts you at the mercy of your Client and whether they mean to or not, it gives them leverage to take advantage of you because your payment depends on their "satisfaction.” This is why you should always ask to have any conditional payment language deleted and change the contract to say that payment is due upon completion of the services or the delivery of the Deliverable.
As a compromise, you can offer to include a round (or two) of revisions in your defined Deliverables so your Client feels confident they’ll be able to get what they need from your work. Then you can price the project for the potential revisions accordingly, properly manage expectations on both sides, and avoid scope creep.
Each requested change to the deliverables is a round of revisions. Once they exhaust the rounds of revisions included in the project deliverables, they have to pay an additional, predetermined fee for each additional round of revisions. Easy peasy.
Alright now that you know how to spot conditional payment terms and how to fix them, let's quickly make sure you know where to find them.
Where Conditional Payment Terms Live in Your Contract
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of places to look for conditional payment terms in your contract. The first is the main payment section of the contract that defines when and how payment will be made for your services.
The second place to look is in the Scope of Work. Sometimes the contract itself will say that you'll be paid according to what the Scope of Work says. I have opinions about this that I'll save for another article, but for now, just know that sometimes the conditional payment terms are in the Scope of Work. So if you're in the habit of reading the contract carefully but tend to skim over the Scope of Work, adjust your habits to ensure you read both documents carefully so you catch small details like conditional payment terms.
The third place to check for conditional payment terms and one that is equally important, is the termination section of the contract. Yes, you read that right. You need to check the termination section of the contract for conditions on payment because this is arguably the worst place in the contract for your payment to be conditioned on the client's acceptance, satisfaction, or approval.
Let me explain: if you and your client are ending the contract early for any reason, it's likely that your relationship is on the rocks. The last thing you want to be dealing with in that situation is fighting with your client to pay you for work you've already performed. If they only have to pay you if your work is acceptable or satisfying to them, then you could be fighting an uphill battle.
When a contract is ending early for any reason, you want the terms surrounding your payment to be clear, easy to calculate, and free from arbitrary conditions so be sure to check the termination clause for any conditional payment terms and negotiation them out of the contract.
Once you've reviewed these sections of the contract carefully for conditional payment terms and corrected any that you've found, you should be in a good position to stand your ground and avoid scope creep for the duration of the project.
Recap: How to Avoid Scope Creep in 3 Steps
Alright, so to recap, here the main things you need to remember when you're dealing with scope creep.
First, scope creep is primarily a boundaries issue. To fix it, you need to be motivated to hold your boundary and have the contractual legs to stand on to actually do it.
Second, to make your scope creep boundary tangible, do a scope creep audit to see how much time and money you've lost to scope creep. The more tangible the issue becomes, the better you become at holding a boundary. For folks who really struggle with communicating boundaries, I recommend taping a post it note to your desk or computer that says: "In the last 12 months, I lost [insert dollar amount] and [insert amount of time] to scope creep and I refuse to lose more of either." Let it be a constant reminder to you of why it's important to stand your ground.
Three, check the payment terms, Scope of Work, and termination section of your contract for conditional terms on your payment and negotiate with your client to replace any conditional terms with a defined number of revisions to the Deliverables.
If you need help standing your ground in your contracts, feel free to check out my other articles on contract negotiation or consider joining my newsletter where I share legal strategy tips that help savvy consultants and freelancers land better client deals.