You have a new client and you’re eager to impress her. The material she is asking you to work with is brand new to you, on a subject you’ve never heard of before, but you know that with a little research, you’ll be able to tackle it. She asks you how long it will be until the project is ready? You want her to know that you’re fast, so you tell her 2 days. You start the job and realize it’s going to take you longer than 2 days to complete. What should you do?

If you’re like me, you will fret about it and probably stay up day and night until it’s finished so you don’t have to go back on your word. Or you could risk a bad first  impression and tell the client you’ll be needing more time. What a pain! You have other projects that are being neglected just because you’re trying to save your own butt and potentially keep a new client happy and wanting to use your services again. The dog is begging for supper and your husband is wearing dirty clothes to work because you haven’t had time to do laundry as all of your waking time has been spent working on this project!

Here’s an easy solution: under promise and over deliver. Take some time to make accurate calculations on how long it will actually take and add 50%. Will the project take 4 days to complete? Tell your client it will take 6 days, then…here’s the kicker…deliver it in 4 days. Can you complete the task in one week? Tell your client it will take 10 business days and deliver it in half that time. Think about how happy you would be on their end of the project: “She told me she’d have it ready by Friday and here it is Wednesday and it’s already finished!”

Don’t think that you need to offer quick service to everyone. If he or she asks for it, be realistic and let them know if you can handle the job in the amount of time they request. But if you know you would need more time, BE HONEST with your client and yourself and tell him so. Maybe the job isn’t as urgent after all and the client is able to give you the extra time you need. It never hurts to ask.

By using this method of calculating job turnaround times, you will always have happy clients. True, sometimes you need to use all of the time to get a project done, but if you don’t over promise, you’ll have the extra time you need. The project will still be on time and your client will still be happy.