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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?
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kevint474mo ago
Seriously? You got paid to learn.
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keith1644mo 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.
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craig.olivia4mo 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.
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