This short article generally reflects the opinions of the authors of The Wealthy Freelancer. I found it to be very interesting and worthy of consideration for any freelancer.

http://mirificampress.com/permalink/...ge_by_the_hour

Great article, Peppy! Thanks for sharing! It sounds like the writer is a web designer, and for anything that requires design or research, I completely agree that hourly is not the way to go.

Thank you for this..it's an awesome link. It really puts things into perspective about flat rate billing.

I DO think it depends on the type of service and the client, too. I offer both hourly rate and package rates for bookkeeping and the majority of my prospects and clients prefer the hourly.

I have to agree with Lily that sometimes hourly makes sense, it depends on the project. We still bill two of our biggest clients on an hourly basis for the most part. But I do favor billing by the project when applicable.

I think if you're working on something that has a lot of variables it can make sense to charge hourly, to ensure you're not underbilling or overcharging (for instance a third-party WordPress theme that might not be coded very well, or some similar type of project). But for things like writing press releases, or blog posts, or designing a website with a specific scope it makes perfect sense to create a package price.

And just in case you're interested Peppy, we had an event here on VAF with one of the authors of The Wealthy Freelancer, it was about defining your ideal client. You can listen to that here.

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It's a good article. But for me I think it depends on the type of services you are offering. but yes, I could definitely see how the hourly rate could turn a client off, especially when they're not exactly sure how long it may take for their project.

Thanks for sharing this article! Good information on billing when building websites!

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Terri P. Williams
www.terripwilliams.com

I have clients who only want hourly, and the problem I have is they want me to step in and take on more work. Then I do the more work and they get their invoice and all of sudden they have no work for whatever their excuse. It's very frustrating. I have one client in particular who does this sort of thing in cycles and it drives me nuts. I can't bank on an income and she has to go with out support for a few weeks at a time. It's insane. How do I convince her to set a budget for my services and work from that so we are both getting the best outcome?

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Originally Posted by RhondaHolscher

I have clients who only want hourly, and the problem I have is they want me to step in and take on more work. Then I do the more work and they get their invoice and all of sudden they have no work for whatever their excuse. It's very frustrating. I have one client in particular who does this sort of thing in cycles and it drives me nuts. I can't bank on an income and she has to go with out support for a few weeks at a time. It's insane. How do I convince her to set a budget for my services and work from that so we are both getting the best outcome?

I would try making a 'comparison chart' by the week of how many hours she has used and suggest that a flat-rate budget would help HER to smooth out the ups and downs and keep her business flowing more smoothly.

Thanks so much for this article! I think hourly rate doesn't work for graphic designs especially if the designer does his/her job fast.

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I agree with everyone, thanks for sharing.

This is why I miss the VA Forums when life gets crazy and I can't visit. This is a great article that I probably would have missed if I hadn't decided I was spending my lunch break here.
I agree with the others that said that flat rate works for some services and not for others. If you're providing mainly administrative type assistance your going to be hard pressed to find a client that's going to be comfortable with it. You already have to get over the hurdle of delivering services via the internet rather than in the same building. Telling them you don't charge an hourly rate is going to cause most of them to run for the hills.

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~T.Marie Hilton- Clerical Advantage
author of the No Bull$#*% Guide to Virtual Assistants for Businesses

This was a great article, thanks for sharing. I have heard from other freelance professionals, like writers and researchers, that charging per project is favorable. I am starting out charging hourly to get a feel for project costs. I'll probably re-visit my pricing structure in a year to see if it needs to change.

As a new VA with lots of questions on how to charge clients, this article was extremely helpful and I'm able to better focus on project rate vs. hourly rate.
Thanks.

Thanks for the link PeppyM. I'm still trying to figure this one out. Very new to all this, but truly appreciate the article.

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Vanessa Jackson
Administrator2Go