A client gave me a project. I thought it was something I could handle even if it took a bit longer. The cost was fixed price, and I was thankful to get my foot on the door even if it took longer to finish. Unfortunately it is now 3 times longer than I expected, and I’m still not done. So I’m starting to feel nervous about what the client will think when I’m at that point, not delivering yet. Everything is on my dime at this point. Getting in debt just trying to finish this. The client is very helpful, trying to even line up more projects for me. But I’m getting frustrated with myself, having underestimated that much, the workload of what needs to be done. I have no solution to this other than keep burning the midnight oil nights and weekends till its done.
Just wanted to share my experience. I hope I’m not the only idiot out here.
This is just a lesson you need to learn in scheduling, especially when freelancing. This is something I’ve seen almost every newish/intermediate freelance developer hit (including myself back in the day), usually in their first non-trivial job.
TBH, I consider it almost a rite of passage. Making this mistake, and eating those costs teaches you not to make it again next time. If you’re really thick headed like I was, it might take you a couple more times even.
When learning the ropes, you sometimes gotta takes your lumps.
But you will do it from time to time anyway.
Until you learn how to schedule accurately, yes. With enough practice, you will learn to be able to judge pretty accurately how long something will take you.
To be fair though, this can legit take years and years.
I think the biggest problem is not allocating enough time for learning new things. If you need to do a bunch of stuff for the first time ever, it usually takes forever, cuz you’re gonna make a hundred mistakes. People almost always underestimate learning curve time by a huge margin.
The best way to handle this kind of thing early on is just to pad the s#$t out of the schedule.
I, too, have been here. It sucks. 
Financials aside, what’s your completion deadline? Can you afford to continue developing until then? And is it enough time for you to finish whatever you have promised?
Just as importantly: what can you cut while still meeting your contractual obligations? Do not do any work which you do not strictly need to. One of a few common traps which leads rookies into situations like this is not realising that “simple” stuff often has a significant, long term, hidden cost. So always start by completing the minimum, and then do value-add work on top of that if you have time and budget. Never do it the other way around.
One other thing… how clear are the specs or brief you are working to? One of the other traps for rookies is taking feedback / direction from clients on fixed-price contracts. This is a good thing to do but must be managed effectively, because the risk is that their input leads to scope creep. This requires starting from a clear brief so that both parties know what to expect. Any changes to the brief should result in a formal process where you provide a quote and they accept or decline the change. You can quote $0 if you want, the real point is to ensure that they understand that changes = work and not expect them to be covered for free, and that you have a clear paper trail at the end.
Honestly, estimating is one of the hardest skills to pick up in general.
I think good aggressive scheduling without unreasonable padding is actually one of the marks of an expert in their field. This applies to any field where you need to build something non-trivial. Construction is notorious for running over budget. Films run over budget. Games are downright infamous for it. Anything complicated.
If you haven’t done more or less the exact project a couple times before, you need to just pad the schedule. If you’re new to a domain, double or triple your actual estimate is probably closer to the mark.
Well, either clench your teeth and work till it is done, or negotiate with the client for partial payment.
That’s the reason why I prefer hourly pay.
Not to be discouraging or mean, but one thing is interesting. The client is not only not flipping that its 3 times longer then you expected and is not done yet, but is lining up more projects… you must have offered them a very good price and they know it, and are taking the timeline into consideration for the price… if its 2 weeks becoming 6 weeks, maybe that isn’t too bad, if its 2 months becoming 6 months, that would definitely affect any prepared plans and stakeholders.
This is true. Doubling or tripling your estimate sounds like a joke when you learn it, but when you actually start working on stuff, especially freelance stuff, you find that its true, due to the reasons stated by penguin below, whose scenario described, I find is almost always true with all freelance work. Are you sure you didn’t end up a victim of this?
Good rule of thumb: if it’s your first time doing a thing it will take three times longer than your most conservative estimate.
Not much you can do for relationship wiht the client. I wouldn’t apologize too much, just explain yourself honestly once and focus on the work.
You can also just try explaining the situation and asking for a change of the contract (more money, less deliverables, more time so you can fit paid work in as well, etc). If this is a small project being done one by 1 person then its not at all unthinkable that they will help you out.
Obviously you should ask humbly and without expectations but it is likely in their best interest if you complete the project and complete it well.
I don’t know your client, but counter to popular belief not everyone doing business is a stone hearted sociopath that only cares about squeezing out as much work from you for as little money as possible. I’d just be upfront about how it’s going and tell them you wildly underestimated how much work it’s gonna be and for upcoming projects you’ll need to price your work a lot higher. And for this one - since you’re mentioning weekends and debt and stuff - you could just give them a choice between paying more and having it done quicker, or not paying more and it taking longer. I’d consider that more professional than just dragging this along way past its deadline, while doing other jobs on the side to pay the bills. There’s a chance they know they are way underpaying you for what you’re delivering.
And for future projects, since a lot of how long such a job takes is on the client with things like briefing quality and being picky about details, I’d try to get a payment by hourly rate kind of deal going if it’s possible.
Good luck!
Local laws vary on whether you can ask for more money to get a project done quicker after already providing a quote for both the cost and time it will take. So I’d look into that where you live before doing so.
But otherwise I’d as already mentioned communicate to the client that you’ve underestimated the work, and that this is taking longer. You’ll be better off telling them a new delivery date that is further out, and then potentially coming in early, than repeatedly missing date after date.
You could also discuss with the client limiting the scope of the project to something you can complete faster. Maybe there are some features that can be dropped, some art that could wait for a future DLC, to bring this delivery date in a bit.
If any software has ever been delivered on time, it’s news to me…
No worries, it happened with big companies too, the closest example is DOTS and SRP never going out of preview. And Unity Multiplayer has never been finished for like 10 years…
been there my friend. have my shares during my early days as a project manager/programmer (not game though, normal business app development). In time you’ll get better in pinpointing area which will be easy & fast for you, and what other area that is difficult/long time for you to finish. Once you’ve done that, you will be able to reduce that project risk (by asking help on that area, or simply buy out/outsource that area). You will still missed the deadline now and then, but not 3 times of the original timeline.
If your only worry is what the client is thinking, just talk to them about it. People usually appreciate honesty and clarity even when it’s something they don’t enjoy hearing. It can hardly be worse than them suddenly getting the idea that you’re stalling or ghosting on them.
Other than that, unless you really can’t make ends meet, I’d just get it done. I’ve done freelancing in various things and these things happen, it teaches you to be a hard bargainer and value your time.