2) No professional ever uses the phrase "hourly" -- it is always T&M (Time and Materials). Most professionals with enough experience work in 'standard days' or 'standard weeks' on longer contracts. Last contract I did was billed at 7700 a week, no hourly accounting.

... some of what you mention (variable bill adaptation) is tricky as hell, and on FFP (Firm Fixed Price) contacts, it can be outright illegal without clients signatures at every change point. This is a reason home renovators always have change request forms with them.

~ Beyond all that, FFP puts you at odds with your client, you want to fuck them by charging as much as you can and working as little as you can -- they want to bleed you for as many hours as they can while keeping you bound to the initial contract. Nothing like starting a contract as sworn enemies.

From freelancer/agency point of view: why are we supposed to charge less only because we have skills to do things faster?

From client point of view: what's their motivation to do things as fast as they can? I'm paying them for each and every hour anyway so why would they rush?

2) Yes. It does not scale in a way "startup people" are used to. It's just part of the deal :(

You can either charge a lot per week, or less per week and still fit in more clients

However there is still a lot or marketing to do

If I need to go and hire two guys and work nights to do it, I lose. But I only lose a limited amount.

SO, I guess I really am saying work fixed bids of one week projects.

I imagine if you did them in a day or two the client would be asking why they paid for a week of work and if they can use the rest of the time somewhere else

The client is expecting it Friday, probably does not have time to talk to you on Tuesday afternoon.

Its not lying, its not cheating, its saying I will build X and doing it in a professional manner.

> Bill for a weeks work, as long as the deliverables come in does it matter if the week was only a few hours long?

"Hello Mr Client, this job will take a week to do, so I need to bill you for a week of my time". 4 hours + 1 meeting on Friday, job done.

That sounds like lying and cheating to me. Which is a nuisance, as I'd like to do it.

Generally 'standard weeks' are done under the assumption that you will work at least 40 hours on the project (often more, I average 44). The concept is that the project is significantly more than 40 hours, and accounting for every moment is overhead that doesn't serve anyone. Client doesn't care and it simply wastes your time to do it.

Get away from selling your time please. Sell something else, sell a feature, sell a widget, sell a service. As a "bum on seat" I have charged by the hour, the day, the week or even a month. And each an every time I was expected to, contracted to do 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I was an employee.

I could not supply them a simple single product, custom built for them because I had to wade through meetings and politics and inertia and everything else we all know and love. They were too disorganised, too chaotic, too out of control to know what they wanted at a level below "months of work from dozens of people", and so the ride continued.

This is where the Internet is opening up new opportunities - because now it is dismantling (read automating) traditional marketing and even management. One guy can reach a global audience with good SEO, and one group of people can do away with 80% of industrial world management (including geo-co-location). And all that will dismantle the chaotic crazy world of contractors selling their time inside corporations who need software but are not able to deal with the implications.

The contracting world will look very different in ten years. It will look a lot like what patio11 is selling.

So, stop selling your time - instead sell a packet of something, for about the price of a week of your time, to do something that will take about a week of your time.

It looks a lot like selling a week of your time, except that

* it does not say so in the contract

* it is something you can and will automate.

Selling a product is 80%+ automated and 20% custom.

Selling a productised-consult is 20% automated and 80% custom.

The more that 80% dives down, the more profit you make in your "week". However the more it looks like a product, the less you can charge :-)

Do I care that my accountant only spends an hour looking over an annual return he got by pressing a button, yet charges a grand? No, because I make up for it on chats over coffee and the knowledge that he would catch the horror of a mistake and fix it. No horror, good for him. However that week he did tackle a horror for someone. Next time it will be me.

The client he's looking to work with is looking for results, not how long he spends sitting in front of an IDE.

"This is exactly why you might want to consider moving to weekly billing. Bill for a weeks work, as long as the deliverables come in does it matter if the week was only a few hours long?"

What you sond to be advocating is fixed-price bidding/value-added pricing; but that's not the same as the OP.

If he'd said: "This is exactly why you might want to consider moving to billing on value. Bill based on what it's worth to them, as long as the deliverables come in does it matter if it only took a few hours?" I'd have had no qualms.

I took my inspiration from this man.