Client delays are one of the fastest ways to kill your timelines and margins

Last week was a busy one.

More client calls, a handful of new contracts drafted, and several policies reviewed and updated. I even managed to line up a few new podcast episodes.

The biggest challenge, as always, was time. Balancing client work, internal tasks, and long-term projects is never easy.

But one pattern stood out to me during client conversations, and it’s something I’ve noticed again and again.

Many clients want speed from you, but when it’s their turn to deliver inputs or decisions, things slow down dramatically.

And that brings us to today’s lesson.

The Slow Creep That Destroys Projects

Most IT projects don’t fail because of one major catastrophe. They fall apart slowly - through a thousand small cuts.

And the biggest cut of all is waiting on the client.

Your team is ready. Your developers are assigned. Your deadlines are mapped out. But then:

• The content you need never arrives.

• The feedback loop drags on for weeks.

• The key stakeholder vanishes right when you need their approval.

And yet, when the client finally does deliver, they still expect you to hit the original deadline.

Now your team is scrambling, quality is slipping, and your margins are getting thinner with every passing day.

What started as a well-planned, healthy project is now a frustration machine.

The Fix: Design for Reality, Not Perfection

The answer isn’t to work harder or stretch your team thinner. It’s to design your contracts and processes to protect your time and your revenue.

Here’s what I recommend to every IT founder, project manager, or agency owner:

1/ Make dependencies explicit – List exactly what you need from the client and when. This removes ambiguity.

2/ Shift timelines based on input – Your contract should clearly state that client delays automatically extend delivery dates.

3/ Charge for idle time – If your team is left waiting and capacity is wasted, you should be compensated for rescheduling and lost productivity.

4/ Lock approvals to progress – Don’t move to the next phase until the previous one is approved in writing. This keeps everyone accountable.

When you build these mechanisms into your process, you shift projects from chaos to clarity, and you protect your cash flow in the process.

Why This Matters More Than Deadlines

Deadlines don’t just protect delivery. They protect your business.

When you allow client delays to slide without consequences, you’re not just losing time. You’re also delaying your payments and throwing off your revenue cycle.

Consistency is what keeps an IT business alive - paying salaries, covering overheads, and funding growth.

If you let projects drag on indefinitely, you create a revenue gap that hurts everyone: your team, your operations, and ultimately your reputation.

TL;DR

Client delays kill projects slowly. Protect your business by:

• Making dependencies clear in writing

• Adjusting deadlines for late inputs

• Charging for wasted capacity

• Requiring written approvals before progressing

This keeps your timelines realistic, your margins safe, and your payments predictable.

Conclusion

In IT projects, speed alone doesn’t guarantee success - consistency does.

You can’t control when a client delivers feedback, but you can control how those delays impact your schedule, your quality, and your bottom line.

When your contracts anticipate delays and tie timelines to client cooperation, you stop projects from spiraling out of control.

A good process doesn’t just get work done; it keeps your business healthy.