7 signs your client is eating your margin

Not every revision costs you, but...

Some revisions are included, that's the charm of design work. The problem starts when "a small change" stops being small and you don't have the language to call it out.

Here are seven signals worth catching faster than on Friday evening over the invoice.

1. "Or actually, v1?"

The client approved v2, then v3, and now goes back to v1. Every rollback like that is hours of work. An iteration closes the decision - if you want to go back to v1, you approve the cost.

2. Third email with the same subject

The first email is the brief. The second is a clarification. The third is already a new project. If the revision conversation crosses three emails, you're missing one document everyone can see.

3. "Just one detail, but..."

After "but" there's always a conceptual change. Move the logo. Add an icon. Different font. Two "details" in one round are often an extra hour of work.

4. WhatsApp at 10 p.m.

A decision over WhatsApp gets lost. The next day: "but I wrote something different" - check, find, prove. All feedback in one place, even if the client prefers to write at 10 p.m.

5. The client asks about time, not about cost

"Will you make it by Friday?" is a question about the deadline, not money. The Friday question + two new notes = the designer works at night for free.

6. "_FINAL_v2_really_final"

The filename tells the truth. Every "_FINAL" after the first is unpaid hours. If your disk grows a collection of "final versions", the project has long left the scope.

7. No document where it all shows

The worst sign: there's no single place showing who agreed on what. Emails, WhatsApp, calls, screenshots - rescue scattering for the client, expensive for you.

What to do about it

Start with the simplest step: one link where the client writes notes straight on the project. You see how much there is. They see how much there is. The rest - iteration pricing - comes naturally, because you have material to talk about.