This post was written by Denise Hedges and has been reprinted with permission.

Denise Hedges is a passionate speaker and results-oriented Personal and Business Coach. Denise specializes in working with busy professional women and small business owners who want to be more successful and fulfilled in their careers, while having more time, balance, and joy in their personal lives. Denise has helped hundreds of women, nationally and internationally, create the lives they want through keynote presentations and customized workshops, as well as individual and group coaching.

You’re a dedicated professional, not to mention a nice person … and you don’t bill strictly by the hour.

So, when Client A needs a full hour with you in order to fully resolve a serious issue, you spend the full hour, even though your appointment is scheduled for 45 minutes.

And when Client B sends you a packet of material that takes 45 minutes to review, rather than the customary 10-15 minutes of prep time you’d normally expect to spend getting ready for a consultation, you take the time and carefully review the material.

You go the extra mile to serve people. Bravo.

But what happens if the next time you meet, Client A needs extra time? And then it happens a few more times, until they unconsciously expect extra time.

And a couple of months later, client B has another whopper package for you to review.

Wait a minute. What went wrong here? You were just serving folks the best you knew how, and now, you’re routinely providing more than you bargained for.

How’d that happen?

Well, you set an expectation. Or, more precisely, you allowed an expectation to be set.

Sixty minutes became the norm. Performing a time-consuming review on a regular basis became part of the deal.

And the problem is that people really don’t react very well to having something they’ve come to view as a given taken away. They feel entitled to it. Understandably so. They feel as if they’ve lost something, even if they were never, in fact, entitled to it.

So, what do you do to avoid putting yourself in this situation? Cut out all “extras?”

No. Sometimes people need the extra help, and it makes you feel good to provide it. But you have to let them know you’re providing that extra something.

How? Simple. Just say it nicely. “So we went a bit over our time today, and I was happy to, because you did good work.”

You can also send a “gratis” invoice that shows what you’ve charged them for and any extras you didn’t charge them for. That way they know that you gave them a gift … that you threw in something extra that wasn’t part of the bargain.

I often do this when I’ve done some consulting or training work at the client’s site and haven’t charged them for hours of travel time. They can see that charge removed on their invoice.

And, by the way, remember Client B who you gave 45 full minutes of extra time to? When he sends his entire website to review, you say something. You softly set a boundary.

You say, “When I reviewed and rewrote the introduction to your speech last week, that took about 45 minutes of my time and I was happy to do it. If you want me to proof your website, I can proof – for free – a page or two a week, but if it takes more than 15-20 extra minutes per week, we typically charge for editing.”

So, the client could choose to have you review and edit a page or two for free, and that’s okay, because they now have a sense of the monetary value you’re providing.

Now, let me make one important distinction. It’s not okay to do what we see quite a few practitioners doing … simply not charging for a separate service, because they don’t feel confident about the value they’re providing.

For example, in addition to her usual treatment with needles, an acupuncturist also spends a considerable amount of time doing nutritional consults with patients, but doesn’t charge for it. That’s a different kettle of fish. That’s a case of routinely not billing for a valuable service. Don’t do that!

“Dedicated” and “nice” are excellent traits. Just don’t let them cause problems for you. When you’re giving someone something extra, make sure they know you’re doing something special … and unexpected … for them, and everybody comes away happy.