Up until recently, I have avoided the temptation to charge by the hour or to provide a day rate. My reason for this is that I don’t think working to the clock is in anyone’s best interests – coming up with ideas and writing the best copy for the page takes time, and sometimes, it is just a case of waiting for the right idea and words to click into place. So while a page may take an hour to write, it could take days for the right idea to germinate in my little peanut brain. In that situation, how am I supposed to charge by the hour?!! If I charge for all of the time I spend on a project, chances are that clients will be suspicious that a single page took in excess of two hours…but that happens on a regular basis.
So what’s the problem with charging per project? For the most part, it means I end up working for much less than I can afford to. I have a habit of saying ‘oh that will only take an hour or so’ when in reality, it takes four or five.
Can I carry on working with set fees rather than hourly rates? I’d like to, but maybe it’ll need more realistic estimates…something I’m not great at!
