Shoutout to the guy who told me to charge by the project, not the hour

For my first logo design job, I almost asked for $25 an hour, thinking it would take me maybe 4 hours. The client was a new cafe in Austin called 'Bean There'. I gave them a flat $300 project fee instead, and it ended up taking me nearly 12 hours with all the revisions. If I'd charged hourly, I would have made way less for way more work. Has anyone else had a project that took way longer than you thought, and how do you guess the time better?

3 comments

3 Comments

thompson.julia15d ago

That's the universe's way of giving you a crash course in pricing. You don't guess the time better, you just learn to pad your flat rate with a "this will probably go off the rails" tax. My early estimates were basically just wishful thinking written down. Now I take my best guess, double it, and then add twenty percent for the client who wants the logo to also show their dog.

matthew_west15d ago

My first web design took three weeks, not three days.

path4715d ago

Yeah, the "pad your flat rate" thing from @thompson.julia makes sense for business, but I just see it different. If my first project took three weeks, that was the real time it needed to be done right. Padding feels like you're starting from a lie. I'd rather be straight up about how long things actually take, even if the number is big. Then you build trust, not just a bigger invoice.