I would add to the comments on your difficult client by saying that when only 4 hours research is authorized for the amount of work you describe, you probably need to either walk away from the client or educate that client about the amount of work involved. You won't be a satisfied professional until you believe you are being paid fairly. Mara Fein, PhD, CG(SM) mfein@ancestrywest.com www.ancestrywest.com 310-487-5150 Certified Genealogist and CG are proprietary service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® used by the Board to identify its program of genealogical competency evaluation and used under license by the Board's associates.

I have to agree 100% with Mara. In my experience, four hours is barely enough to read and evaluate all of their previous research, and maybe conduct a few simple Ancestry searches, and even the writing the report will usually take it past four hours. You may want to consider raising your minimum hour requirement (or instituting one). I won't accept any research project less than 10 hours, and I explain to them that more than this will likely be necessary to achieve their goals. Michael Hait, CG(sm) michael.hait@hotmail.com http://www.haitfamilyresearch.com "Planting the Seeds" Blog: http://michaelhait.wordpress.com CG and Certified Genealogist are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certificants after periodic competency evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. -----Original Message----- From: Mara Fein, PhD, CG Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 11:22 AM To: transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com Subject: [TGF] writing a reply for a difficult client I would add to the comments on your difficult client by saying that when only 4 hours research is authorized for the amount of work you describe, you probably need to either walk away from the client or educate that client about the amount of work involved. You won't be a satisfied professional until you believe you are being paid fairly. Mara Fein, PhD, CG(SM) mfein@ancestrywest.com www.ancestrywest.com 310-487-5150 Certified Genealogist and CG are proprietary service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® used by the Board to identify its program of genealogical competency evaluation and used under license by the Board's associates. The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message