Bad form. Obviously, your ethics are above reproach. But don’t assume that everyone else HERE is a crook.

And, just sayin’, if you want to raise the ethics in your industry, raise them. Be wonderful. Be remarkable. Be endearingly transparent.

But bashing is a bad strategy. Name ONE company/freelancer/artist who EVER got anywhere by saying “Everybody is a cheating charlatan, except us.”

I’ve heard the most ridiculous stories over the past 10 years from potential clients about competitors in this industry. They promised the site would cost X amount of dollars but in the final delivery it was 3Xs the cost with no scope creep.

I’ve heard about SEO companies charging $1,000 per month on attorney websites to bring them higher rankings and when I checked the site, the law firm didn’t even have meta tags.

I’m calling BS on the comments. Most of you would not tell the client, you’d keep your mouth shut and keep the money.

I’ll give you an example of real ethics – I was managing a client’s Google Ad Words campaign. The Reporting GUI was only displaying the previous week impression/clicks/total cost and the budget ran over what my client wanted to spend. It was my mistake. I told the client about the error – she said “no big deal, don’t worry about it.” I replied, “Absolutely not, it was my mistake, I’ll pay the difference.”

Well the difference was over $2,400.00. I paid it.

I’ve been in this business for over 10 years and the ethics are worse in this industry than a car mechanic. I’ve had clients tell me they paid people and they dissappeared – literally never came back, never provided any service. Nothing.

I’ve seen multi-million dollar companies screw Government agencies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and can still sleep at night. So let’s not kid anyone – most of you wouldn’t say anything to the client. You’d pocket the money, take your girlfriend out to a nice dinner with a shit-eating grin on your face.

Just tell the truth next time and stop pretending that you’re a monk or a priest just because your comments are online. You know damn well what you’d do – you’d keep your mouth shut and raise your prices.

You are a very hard worker and you have had the 2100 fee for quite some time. Then this happens and it acts as a spark, a spark that pushes you to the next level. With your added value you up the bar and you become a better designer, or whatever it is you do.

This has nothing to do with the client, the client has already said yes, that’s sorted. It’s all about you and weather or not you feel you may have being undervaluing yourself.

It’s about being honest with yourself, not the client.

Paid up front – admit the error and re-send my invoice.

Paid upon completion – make a note for myself to reveal the error when discussing the finished project. From experience in a different industry, if you wait until the job is done and impress the client with the work, you have a slightly better chance of getting paid the extra anyway, even after telling the client of your initial mistake.

They’ll not only be appreciative of your honesty but will likely spread word of your honesty, professionalism and excellent work; their satisfaction with your overall service.

Who knows, some clients might agree to meet you in the middle. Then you make a little more than you intended and they are pleased with your honesty and will tell other potential clients about that quality of yours.