Pssssst... hey you! Wanna make more money? (2-minute read)

I think you should read this.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor; everything I say is from my experience, provided as-is and comes with no guarantee or obligations.

Your Time ≠ Your Value!

There are many pricing methodologies:

• Hourly billing
• Daily billing
• Retainers
• Fixed-pricing
• Value-based pricing

I would suggest you take some time and research and learn them all, know how they work, understand your circumstances and when and how to apply them.

Today - I want to tell you about Hourly rates and daily rates. Fixed rates, retainers and Value-based pricing are a whole other topic that will cover in coming emails.

The hourly wage has been inherited from the industrial revolution, and it's the way of thinking that gets you trapped in the rat race of exchanging 8h of your time per day for remuneration. Our whole world has days split into 1/3 of sleep, 1/3 of work and 1/3 of life. Does that sound good to you? I hated this idea since I was a kid. I want more than just 1/3 of my life and a promise of reward in the form of pension when I'm sick and old.

Do you think I'm wrong? You HAVE TO work 8h/day? Do you think that's the air you're breathing now? Unsubscribe now; you will not like what's to come.

If you're charging by the hour - the majority of clients will ask you to break down your work to task estimates. Fill out timesheets, and you'll have to justify every hour you go "over". Is that something you want to be doing? No.

You're not an exchange machine, working 8h/day at peak productivity, converting time into money. I know that you know that, and your client knows that. The client you want to work with at least. Part of your time goes into thinking about what you're doing, solving the problem in your head, before "you put it down on paper". That time counts too. It's your expertise and experience. That's why you should at least charge your day rate because the hourly rate will rob you of your autonomy.

If you want to raise your rates in the future, when billing your day rate, sell four days per week, so you leave yourself time to grow your business. In the beginning, you might be working on you during weekends, and sell full week, but make a plan to stop at some point because you will want your spare time back.

One thing to keep in mind: Your day rate is not a guarantee of completion. You are giving them your day. That's it. When I do this - I usually don't onboard additional clients, so I don't divide my focus. But it's a rolling engagement, and it doesn't come with an estimate (when we talk about big and ongoing projects with lots of variables, not ten screen apps, or a landing page website).

If clients want an estimate, you need to make project research and discovery before you can "sign" a date. And that's also billable time.

Tomorrow I'll cover how I calculated my first hourly rate, and how I approach pricing and valuing my work.

Have a great start of the week.

T.