How to Quote Client Work Before Knowing Scope

Quote unknown-scope work by giving a price range tied to explicit assumptions, then converting to a fixed number after a short paid discovery phase. The range keeps you honest without pretending certainty, and the discovery fee means you get paid for the hours you spend understanding the job.

Lead with assumptions, not silence

When a client asks for a number before the brief is ready, write three to five assumptions: video length, revision rounds, number of deliverables, and who supplies raw footage. Quote against those. If assumptions hold, the price holds. If they break, you renegotiate in writing, which feels fair to both sides.

Assumptions also expose clients who are still figuring out their own project. Several will disappear at that point, which saves you a month of free consulting disguised as a quote.

Use a range, then narrow it

Quote a band such as twelve hundred to eighteen hundred depending on final script length. A range respects the uncertainty while still anchoring expectations above your floor. Clients who cannot accept any range are telling you the budget is fiction.

Once discovery ends, replace the range with one number and a scope list. Never carry a range into the contract. Open ranges are how freelancers end up delivering the top of the band for the bottom of it.

Charge for discovery

A paid discovery block of four to ten hours costs a few hundred dollars and gets credited against the project if they hire you. This filters serious buyers from the curious and gives you a document you can quote from with confidence.

Clients who refuse to pay for discovery usually expect free strategy. Politely decline and move on, because that pattern continues into every revision request after the contract is signed.

A quote built on written assumptions is a promise with guardrails. A verbal guess is a debt with no maturity date.

Key takeaways

• State assumptions in writing before attaching any number
• Offer a range for unknown scope, then lock one price after discovery
• Charge for discovery and credit it toward the project
• Refuse to carry open-ended ranges into a signed contract