Note from My Desk: I Do Not Bill Hourly

A few months ago, I had a call with a prospective client, and after I shared my retainer rates, she kept probing…

“How much work do you do for Client X? Client Y?”

“How many hours per month? Like, how long does it take you to do X or Y?”

I could see her, literally, with a pencil and paper, crunching the numbers.

Here is the thing…I don’t bill hourly.

1.) Billing hourly creates an incentive for ME to rack up billable hours rather than get my work done efficiently for clients. How does that benefit anyone?

2.) Things take as long as they take. Sometimes a press release is done in an hour. Sometimes we go back and forth for days. I want my clients to get great work. Period.

3.) I have been at this a while. So, I do some things faster than my younger counterparts.

Should I get paid less because I'm more experienced and efficient?

I don’t get paid to sit at a desk for 8 hours. I get paid for results. Which do you want?