Brand Deals, Sponsorship & Business
Rush fee
Also called: expedite fee
Speed costs you something real: reshuffled schedules, a weekend gone, other clients pushed back, an editor paid overtime. A rush fee prices that, typically as a percentage on top of the base rate, and it works best when your standard lead time is written into the contract so there is a line to be inside or outside of. Quote it as a stated policy rather than inventing a number when the panicked email arrives. It also does a useful filtering job. Clients who genuinely need Friday will pay for Friday, and clients who invented the deadline usually rediscover some flexibility.