Chat with a retired freelancer at a coffee shop last Tuesday changed how I see pricing

I was grabbing a refill at that place on Elm Street and this older guy saw my laptop and we got talking. He said he freelanced for 40 years and the biggest mistake newbies make is charging per hour instead of per project. He told me he doubled his income just by switching to flat rates for entire jobs. Has anyone else here made that switch and found it worked out?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_miller411mo ago

I know exactly what you mean about trusting the flat fee. I remember trying it for the first time with a guy who wanted a website for his dog grooming business. I quoted him a flat rate, then spent way too many hours on it because he kept changing his mind about the color scheme. Ended up making like 8 bucks an hour. But then the next project I did a flat fee for a bakery and it went smooth as butter. Still feels like a gamble every time though.

nancyw971mo ago

Did you find it hard to switch from tracking every hour to trusting the flat fee?

skylerp3123d agoProlific Poster

8 bucks an hour" for a whole website?? Ray, that's wild. I would have lost my mind. I totally get the gamble though, it really is a roll of the dice every time. I think the hardest part for me was that first time I actually hit a project that went way over the hours I guessed. It felt like I got scammed by myself. But then you have a smooth one and you're like okay maybe this works. It's just hard to shake that feeling of "what if this one is the disaster" every time you give someone a flat price.