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Shoutout to the client who paid a $500 kill fee instead of arguing, changed how I run every contract now
Everyone in this group says you should never work without a deposit and I mostly agree, but I want to push back on the part where people say a deposit is enough. I had a client in Tampa pull the plug on a $4,000 website job two weeks in, and instead of fighting me he just paid the $500 kill fee from our contract and we both walked away. I started adding that fee to every single contract after that, and in 14 gigs since, three clients have used it with zero drama. The trick is you write it as a thank you for their time, not a punishment, and people actually respect it. It costs me nothing when a project finishes, and it saves me from begging for money when one dies. Is anyone else using kill fees, or do you just eat the loss when a client bails halfway?
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joseph_green135d ago
Watched a buddy of mine learn this the hard way last month with a band he was recording. They got four songs in, decided they wanted to go a different direction, and just vanished. No contract, no fee, nothing. He was out maybe 20 hours of mixing time plus the room rental. Now he texts me every other day asking how to word a kill fee in his own deals. The part you said about framing it as a thank you is what I keep telling him. Most people hate feeling punished but they will gladly pay for a clean exit. Three out of fourteen using it actually sounds about right too.
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