You write an acceptance procedure into your MSAs. Pro-tip from Thomas: write the MSA such that the client gets two weeks of business days from delivery to obje

You write an acceptance procedure into your MSAs. Pro-tip from Thomas: write the MSA such that the client gets two weeks of business days from delivery to object in writing to the deliverables or "the deliverables shall be deemed accepted." You don't owe clients anything after the acceptance period. Should it fit with your desires and your clients' needs, you can sell maintenance on a retainer arrangement, which is use-it-or-lose-it access to you at a defined price which is a modest discount to your prevailing rates. If clients do not have an active retainer agreement with you, maintenance projects are entirely new projects, with a new SoW, at your current rate, subject to your current availability. How this looks in practice: if I'm selling projects at $20k per week, the initial SoW offers 2 weeks at $20k plus two days a month of availability at $7k per month, with those days covering bug fixes, incident response, and such minor tweaks or adjustments as the client may require. In the event the client doesn't purchase maintenance, and the app goes down, then I'll try to slot them in for another 2 weeks at $20k each, but I can't make any promises. You know the Chris Rock monologue about steak? When you go to a restaraunt with money in your hand and ask for steak, you get steak. Then you go home... and the restaraunt does not owe you more steak. Past clients are wonderful people who you may choose to do business with again, but you are not a free source of steak for them.