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Charging hourly for my first web build felt like a trap

Everyone in my coding group said to go hourly for my first real job. A local bakery needed a basic site. They pushed for a flat rate of $800 for the whole thing. I went with the flat rate. Took me about 40 hours over three weeks. That's $20 an hour, way under what I hoped for. But I learned the whole project flow, start to finish. If I charged hourly, I would have felt bad for being slow. The flat rate forced me to figure things out without watching the clock. Has anyone else taken a flat fee on their first gig and been glad they did, even if the math looked bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevint479h agoProlific Poster

Seriously? You got paid to learn.

keith16413h ago

Flat rate was the right call for a learning project. You bought yourself the freedom to be slow without the client seeing every mistake. That first site is a training course you get paid for, not a real job. The next one will be faster because you already solved those problems. Hourly would have made you rush and maybe cut corners on your own education.

craig.olivia3h ago

Not a real job" is a bit off. That bakery's site is real to them, it's just that your skills were new. The flat rate protected them from your learning curve, which is fair. You got a real world lesson in scope and speed, which is worth more than a higher hourly rate right now.