While I don't charge for reading an email, I do tend to charge my regular rate for a Skype or phone call. If you don't charge your clients, they will take full advantage of your time, and they need to see that you are a professional and your time is money. If you want to offer your first meeting on the phone for free, like a consultation, on what they want, what your terms are, than that is no problem.<p>I have made the mistake of not charging in the past, and I don't technically charge to read or respond to emails, though I might factor in some of the work - at least - say something takes me a minimum of 25 minutes to do, I will charge an hour of labor because I've had to take some time out to understand their email and clarify that the work they want is accurate from the information I understood it to be.<p>In this fast-paced world, meetings can eat up a lot of [your] time. And sometimes you do get those clients who want to meet you in person or they always want to talk to you on the phone. I had one client who kept wanting to meet with me every single week, and I lived close to her business, about 15 minutes away, and the first two or three times, I did not charge her for it. I was naive and just happy to have her as a client, since her business was popular in town. It got old real quick. I decided to charge her her for those meetings, which usually lasted anywhere from an hour to two hours. Once those charges came, the meetings switched over to email or a very brief quick phone call real quick.<p>I have since trained my clients to send email. Paper trails are much more accurate than in-person meetings or phone calls. They protect me and my client so there are no misunderstandings of what was said vs. what was heard. Clients will usually send me an email with work they want or need. Before I start any work, I normally reply back and inform the client: "Please confirm by replying that it is okay for me to begin an invoice and work on what you want me to do. You will be billed at my normal rate of X per hour."<p>This confirmation they reply back with is an email of their recognition that I am doing work for them and my billing has begun. While I've never had issues, stating your business clearly of what you are doing, what you are charging, and them agreeing to you doing it, is for your own protection and theirs. An email can protect you as it can serve as a legal contract in the court of law.