Comments on: Web development tasks never take just 5 minutes

By: David

David — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:13:46 +0000

A few thoughts

- Your contract with client should have standard things like - minimum 15 minutes work for anything. You are then able to say - hey that only took 5 minutes I wont bill you for it.

- Second - 24/7 support - The client pays for you to be on call, and if they actually call they pay agreed minimum amount of time, more if you have to do something and more if you have to go on-site. This means when the idiot tech rings because they dont know how to do X/Y/Z it doesnt happen often.

By: Leonard Michael

Leonard Michael — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:44:42 +0000

We can bitch and moan until cows fly, but what it all comes down to is “time”…and “time” is money. Period. End of discussion.

And we all (yes, even you reading this) have only so much “time” until they bury you in a hole and throw dirt on top of you.

So…while you’re living…bill them for the damn time. If they don’t like it, let them go somewhere else, you don’t need nit-picky clients that need their diapers changed and binkys replaced.

And that’s just the way it is.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:21:28 +0000

@Brian - perfect example of a misquote, I didn’t say I don’t “agree”, the other 4 words surrounding the word you chose to pick out made for another position altogether: “I agree to a degree”. Not quite ‘dont “agree” ‘, don’t you agree?

Anyway, bit of a duff argument you have there anyway, sorry to be blunt. If I was daft enough to offer 24/7 support where only me, myself and I was available to provide that support, then I’d ask myself if I really made the right decision offering that service to the client. You’re example gets added to the “Turning on my computer takes me sometimes at least two to five minutes” pile of lame excuses.

Hey, Eureka, lets change the working day to 4 hours either side of an 8 hour sleep! That way we can charge clients a 16-hour day!!! I promise to share my new-found riches with you Brian. Genius!

Nuff said.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:01:08 +0000

@Dave- OK if you don’t “agree” with charging for 5 minute jobs, lets put it another way. Say you offer your clients 24/7 support. You get a phone call at 2am (while you are asleep) to make a 2 minute change on a web site. Lets assume your computer is on, and the whole process only takes you 5 minutes until your back in bed. Since that client has interrupted your sleep, do you really expect to be back asleep instantly? Not to mention the build-up of sleep required to reach R.E.M. again.

By: james f

james f — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:40:36 +0000

I agree with the premise that these small changes can interrupt your workflow, but ultimatley I think that your level of service will reflect upon your character and worth as a contractor/employee.

A few free mintues leads to many more paid hours IMHO.

By: Jan (Aysberg)

Jan (Aysberg) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:19:43 +0000

Expand this thought and think about your email-client. You might have set it to poll for new mails every five minutes or so. Once there are new mails you tend to check - and interrupt your workflow. Well, maybe there’s a five-minute job in there ;-)

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:01:59 +0000

@Andris: unbelievable statement! I really hope I’m just missing a joke and you’re not serious!

Ouch. I agree to a degree, but I have to take issue with a couple of nuggets mentioned.

I don’t give a hoot about how long it takes to boot up your computer, or if you need a coffee break afterwards, or if you have problems multi-tasking. They’re problems with you, why should the client pick up the bill?

Fair enough, many small jobs do a big job make, but common sense has to prevail.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:19:41 +0000

Yes but:
The tasks often take me only 30 seconds, to be honest. But it took many many non-billable hours to set up a system that lets me do that. So I need to charge to offset that.
There are times when I don’t charge for these. It’s the clients who have one little “five-minute” change every week that I make sure to bill for.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:09:33 +0000

Good point… I also realize that almost every 5-minute task that I do uses 20 minutes at minimal. Reality is that I don’t think about that and simply agree to do that, later realizing that it produces some kind of butterfly effect - “yes” at first, and finally you have to do big job.

By: Media Surgery Design

Media Surgery Design — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:34:40 +0000

Good post!

Couldnt agree more, these 5 minutes jobs, (mostly not paid for) hinder concrentration and productity, greatly.