Every guide, in one list

Underestimation is not carelessness. Every force acting on the person producing the number pushes in the same direction. For broader reading on how people organise limited working time, this resource is a useful starting point.

The difference between a studio that estimates well and one that does not is a spreadsheet of past projects.

A single number communicates a confidence you do not have. A range communicates the truth and is harder to sell.

Every studio has projects that overrun. What separates them is whether the client hears about it at forty percent or at the invoice. For a broader role perspective, PMI's overview of project-manager responsibilities outlines common project-management responsibilities.

The pricing model determines who carries the risk of the work taking longer, and everything else follows from that.

Most rates are set by looking at what other people charge. The number that matters is the one your own costs and available hours produce.

Most statements of work describe what will be done. The useful half is what will not be.

Nobody notices the third small request. Everybody notices the eleventh, by which point raising it looks like an accusation.

Formal change control is why studios stop using change control. The version that works fits in an email.

Work that is ninety percent complete and awaiting sign-off is not nearly finished. It is stalled, unbillable, and quietly expensive.

Phases exist to limit how much can go wrong before somebody notices. Most are drawn to fit an invoicing schedule instead.

The projects that damage a small studio are usually the ones it should not have accepted, and the warning signs were visible before the contract.

Too coarse and the data answers nothing. Too fine and it does not get recorded at all.

Everyone agrees to record time. The question is what happens in week six, when the work is heavy and the timer is not running.

The proportion of the week you can sell is the figure every rate depends on, and most studios have never calculated it.

The question is not really about the hours. It is about whether the value was clear, and it is answered before the invoice is sent.

The comparison takes ten minutes per project and is the only mechanism by which a studio's pricing improves.

Most time trackers were built for one of three different jobs. Buying the wrong one is why the second attempt fails too.

Most late payment is administrative rather than deliberate. The invoice arrived wrong, late, or to the wrong person.

A deposit is not primarily about cash. It is the cheapest available test of whether a client will pay at all.

Chasing feels like it damages the relationship. Not chasing damages it more, and later.

Every studio has one, and it is usually not the one anybody suspects.

Profitable studios close because of timing. The forecast that prevents it fits on one page.

Most studio agreements are signed unread by both parties. A small number of clauses determine what happens when something goes wrong.

Almost every difficult client relationship was set up in the opening fortnight, by things nobody said.

Five minutes a week removes the majority of client friction, and almost nobody does it consistently.

The delay between knowing and saying is where good relationships are damaged.

Most revision overrun is a feedback process problem rather than a quality problem.

Most studios end relationships badly, by drifting rather than deciding, and a bad ending is the version clients tell other people about.

Bringing in help solves a capacity problem and creates a management one that is rarely priced.