Should I charge my client for meetings or skype sessions with him?

Unfortunately with this client, you're just going to have to keep smiling, go through all the meetings, and finish the site.

I've been in your situation before with a job as well and realised that it's not something you can fix within the same job, but you can prevent it from happening with future clients.

Next time, when you send someone a quote or invoice, mention what the job includes and what it doesn't. I'm in a different field of work, but say something like "any errors found in my work caused by me will be fixed free of charge, an hour is included in the price to cover any changes that you, the client request. After this point, the hourly rate for modifications is charged at £##".

You need to accurately set the goal posts at the beginning of a job and really take charge of the process. You could even say: "2 x One hour brainstorming Skype meetings are included within every job. If you require further ideas sessions, these will be charged at £##. Face to face meetings are also possible within a 20 mile radius of #######, meetings are possible from further afield, however an extra cost of ##p per mile is chargable to cover extra travel expenses."

Don't feel too bad about going out of your way to help this one client now however, sometimes the jobs you invest the most in, end up with the most referrals for new work, due to the client highly recommending you to others.

grow some balls and tell the jerk to stop wasting your time unless he wants to pay hourly for your little meetings

if he has a problem with that then tell him you have to fire him as a client...

i have had to do that with plenty of clients because they wasted more time then they actually paid me for and no end was in sight.

this is the beauty of freelancing, you get to decided who to take on as a client!

Once you think he's exceeded what he's paid you (as far as your time goes), make it harder for him to get hold of you. Ignore a few calls, let the phone ring long if you do decide to answer and so on. I do it sometimes myself - these people just don't understand that you aren't their employee to boss around. On your side, the worst that can happen is that you never hear from them again and that's what you want anyway, right? Just start being an ass. It works. Soon money starts appearing in your account. I've got one guy that rings me at 10pm when I'm in bed. Lol, as if I'm going to answer that, even if I'm not in bed.

great thoughts.

1) If the meetings are getting out of hand, I would come up with a questionnaire of the things that you are going to go over in the meeting and send it to him ahead of time. Tell him to look at his site and fill in the questionnaire and have it ready for the meeting. This way you both know what will be covered and he will have actually taken the time to make some decisions before you two talk.

2) I would tell him ahead of time how much time you have to spend. " Great our meeting is at 2:00. I look forward to speaking with you and I will need to be off by 2:45 to get to my next appointment."