The call starts the same way every time. “Hey, got a minute? Quick question.” Forty minutes later you have given away a free consult, missed your next appointment, and the client has no idea any of it cost you anything at all. It never feels like a big deal in the moment. It is a big deal, repeated fifteen times a week, across an entire year.
The got-a-minute call is the most common form of scope creep in this profession, and it is rarely dishonest. Clients are not trying to take advantage of you (at least most of them aren’t). They genuinely do not know where the line is, because you have never drawn one. That is the part you can actually fix.
The Got-a-Minute Call Is Never Actually a Minute
A “quick question” is almost never quick, because the question that prompted the call is usually connected to something bigger, a notice, a life change, a decision the client is nervous about. You cannot answer it in sixty seconds without either giving a dangerously incomplete answer or doing real, unbilled work to give a real one. Most tax pros, being conscientious by nature, choose the second option every single time, and that choice is exactly what turns fifteen scattered interruptions into an unplanned second job every week. I know this first hand as I have done this many times myself.
Why You Keep Saying Yes
Here is what is actually happening. Saying no to a quick question feels like risking the relationship, so the instinct is to always say yes and absorb the cost yourself. I get it. I respect it. And I am telling you that the relationship was never actually at risk. What was at risk is your calendar, your family time, and the false idea that being endlessly available is the same thing as being a good practitioner. It is not. Being available on a predictable, scheduled basis is what actually serves a client well. Being interruptible at all hours mostly serves their anxiety, at your expense.
The Boundary Script That Does Not Damage the Relationship
You do not need to say no. You need a redirect that sounds warm and still protects your time. Something close to this works: “That is a real question, and I want to give you a real answer, not a rushed one. Let me grab you fifteen minutes on the calendar this week so I can look at it properly instead of guessing off the top of my head.” That line does three things at once. It validates the client instead of brushing them off. It moves the conversation to a scheduled, billable slot instead of an interruption. And it signals, gently but clearly, that your time has a structure.
Say some version of that consistently, every time, and clients stop testing the boundary within a few weeks, because the boundary stops being negotiable in practice, not just in theory.
Scope Creep Is a Boundary Problem With a Paper Trail Fix
Verbal boundaries help in the moment. A written scope in the engagement letter is what makes the boundary stick over months, especially on longer resolution cases where “just one more quick thing” accumulates fastest. State plainly, in writing, what is included in the fee and what falls outside it, so when a request lands outside scope, you are not making an awkward judgment call on the spot. You are pointing to a document the client already agreed to.
If your current engagement letters are silent on this, or vague enough that almost anything can be argued as “included,” this piece on engagement letters and stopping scope creep before it eats your margin walks through exactly how to write that language so it holds up in the moment it actually matters.
What Happens When You Never Set the Boundary
Run the math on it honestly. Fifteen got-a-minute interruptions a week, even at ten unbilled minutes each, is roughly two and a half hours a week, well over a hundred hours a year, of skilled work given away for free, on top of everything else already covered in the billable work most tax pros give away for free. That is only part of the cost. The rest shows up as the missed appointment, the delayed deep work, the evening spent finishing what the interruptions pushed back, and eventually the family dinner you were late for again because the day never actually had room for what it needed to have room for.
What to Do This Week
Pick one line, the redirect script above or your own version of it, and use it on the next got-a-minute call, word for word if you need to. Notice that nobody gets angry. Notice that the conversation still happens, just on a schedule that respects your time instead of ambushing it. Then look at your engagement letter and add one clear sentence about what falls outside the standard scope, so the boundary has something to point to besides your own willpower in the moment.
I am on a mission to improve the lives of licensed tax professionals by showing them there are more options in IRS representation, so you can improve client quality, increase revenue, cut the hours, and get your life back. A practice with real boundaries is a practice you can actually sustain, and a life you actually get to keep living outside of it.
Reply to me via email and tell me the got-a-minute call you are ending this week. I read every one.
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Here’s to working smarter, not harder!
And a brighter future for your tax practice!
If you want to know more consider joining the Tax Resolution Academy® and earn your Certified Taxpayer Representative™ (CTR™) certification.
I hope this helps.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us.
Have a GREAT day,
With Love,
Dan
Dan Henn, CPA, CTR™
Co-Founder, Tax Resolution Academy®
Managing Member
Tax Pro Academy, LLC
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