Why do we always assume charging less is the only way out? A friend in graphic design hiked his rates when his clients vanished, and it turned his whole year around. That totally echoes @the_seth's point about scaring off the bad clients right away. My friend said the ones who agreed to the new price were serious and stopped asking for endless changes. Isn't it funny how charging more can actually make your work life simpler? Maybe we all need a bit of that "not worth getting off the couch" standard to avoid the slump panic.

Actually, Casey makes a good point about wood movement messing with the header over the seasons. But how do you tell if the gap is from a warped stud or just the wood shrinking and swelling? Eric Craig mentioned Lily's tip working better than checking studs first, but doesn't that depend on finding the actual cause? If you just throw screws at it without knowing, you might crack the drywall even more.