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March 8, 2014

Know the Scope

You’ve probably already f igured out that a lot of what we write about on ourblog is based on our own f irst-hand experiences. This article is nodif f erent. The lesson today is Know the Scope (of work).

Here’s what prompted this article…

We were invited to submit a proposal f or a data cleaning job and the jobdescription stated the work should take no more than two hours work.“Awesome!” I thought, and submitted our proposal (with a f ixed rate). Wewere awarded the project.

To put it nicely, I will never submit another proposal f or a data cleaning job at a f ixed rate. Honestly, I think thiswas my last project at a f ixed rate – Period.

The project involved going through numerous documents and extracting the people who met a certain criteria.The f irst document I opened was a 25 page PDF made f rom a 9pt f ont Excel document. Each page ended uptaking 10-12 minutes to extract the required data f rom, which put me at over 4 hours on this one documentalone. Not good.

As contractors and small business owners we all need to be protective of our t ime. It is our right andduty to know the scope of the work bef ore accepting a contract to complete the work. If you ask the client tosee the documents bef ore the work is awarded – be leery. You may of f er to sign a conf identiality agreement incase that is why the prospective client doesn’t want to show, but if their answer is absolutely no yours shouldbe too.

Honestly I should have known better then to submit a proposal on a f ixed rate basis – we’ve always gottenburned by projects that were much bigger than init ially thought in the past. I f ailed to know the scope of theprojects, and in the end the clients made out much better than we did.

Never again.

What do YOU do to ensure you know the scope of the projects you are submitt ing proposals for? Arethere certain questions you ask up f ront? Please submit your answers in your comments f ield below.

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Kim Sutton is a f ounding partner of Sutton Creative Studios, an agency specializingin social media management, graphic design and virtual assistance. She is agraduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she earned herBachelor ’s Degree in Interior Architecture. In her f ree-time, Kim cherishes the timeshe gets to spend with her husband, Dave (her business partner), and three children.She also enjoys reading, knitt ing and writ ing. You are invited to f ollow SuttonCreative Studios by f ollowing our blog, subscribing to our newsletter, orf ollowing/liking us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest. In addition,please comment and/or contact us with any questions.