Rant: Why are freelancers still doing flat rates for hourly-heavy jobs?

I spent 6 years doing flat rates for editing projects, but last month I tracked my time on a $1,200 job and found I worked 35 hours instead of the 20 I quoted. A buddy in Austin told me he switched to hourly plus a rush fee and his income went up 40% in one quarter. Has anyone else tested a hybrid model that actually held up with picky clients?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_grant704d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on this... flat rates keep you honest and clients trust you way more when they know the price upfront instead of watching a clock tick.

thomas.river4d ago

Reminds me of the time my neighbor hired a plumber by the hour. Guy showed up, spent twenty minutes on his phone "waiting on a part" then billed him for the whole hour. Flat rate would have been a straight number and nobody would have felt cheated. It's like going to a restaurant and paying extra because the chef took longer to plate your food, makes no sense when you really think about it. Hourly billing just creates this weird vibe where both sides are second guessing every little thing. Fixed prices let everybody breathe and focus on the actual work getting done.

juliaa654d ago

Are you really charging your clients for every time you get distracted checking email or making coffee? Because that's what hourly billing ends up feeling like to a lot of people. Flat rates make you get better and faster over time, not just richer from procrastinating. I've had clients who watched the clock like hawks and it made the whole project tense and awful for both of us. Hourly might work for some but it rewards slow work and punishes efficiency. I'll take a fixed price that forces me to sharpen my skills any day.