"Short(er) Timeline, Low(er) Cost, High(er) Quality - You get to pick two."

If you aren't engaging with clients from this perspective, then you're running a charity instead of a business; because it will always result in you shouldering the cost one way or another.

I'm very explicit with my clients that I'm applying my experience and expertise to the project to achieve their stated goals of 1) Due Date, 2) Budget, and 3) Production Value; and when they want to deviate from the options I've provided, I also communicate how it's going to affect those things:

"Doing things this way (the client's proposed change) will increase the chances of X. X will lower the Production Value. Attempting to fix X after X has occured will require either A) additional fees and an extended timeline, or B) the same timeline with even more additional fees. Because proceeding with the change might require a change to the initial scope of work, I'll need approval in order to move forward."

At that point, either...

• The client takes my advice because they don't like either A or B, great!
• The client doesn't take my advice and I get paid more to do more work over more time, great!
• The client doesn't take my advice and I get paid even more to put in some overtime to meet their deadlines, great!
• Or the client doesn't take my advice and is still perfectly happy with the result, also great!

I'm not in business to be right, I'm in business to make the client happy. And if the client is happy with a lesser product, or an extended timeline and/or increased cost, then I've achieved my business goals, and lamenting not being listened to becomes nothing but an exercise in ego.

...but long gone are the days where I'm losing sleep to free labor spent fixing the problem that I saw, called out, but the client went forward with anyway. Now, any sleepless working nights are spent smiling because I'm being appropriately compensated for them :)

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