Good find Duane. Definitely an article with a depth of important advice which isn't surprising given the author. Christine Churchill operates a very successful SEM firm with varying sizes and types of clients.
One challenge I would expand on in setting expectations with clients. Many don't really understand the complexities and time consuming nature of this type of work.
The article mentions setting a finite scope of work and this is very important. I intentionally disengaged from two clients due to their substituting additional work in the midst of another project.
Even though they were made aware this was additional work that would require additional charges and agreed, after that more urgent work was completed they wanted all of the original work completed without any additional compensation.
In both cases they pointed out that they had already paid me what we had agreed upon for "that" work and were resistent to paying for the work already completed.
This issue is partially due to my payment structure of being paid in advance (and a very good reason WHY I use that structure as I prefer to focus on my work and not collecting).
In hindsight I would recommend that if that situation occurs that the fee for the additional work be established (and in my business model paid) rather than agreeing to use time negotiated for other work.
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