Walked past a new coffee shop in Denver and their pricing board made me rethink my whole approach

I was in the River North area last Thursday and saw a brand new spot called The Daily Grind. They had a huge chalkboard listing all their services, but instead of just coffee prices, they had a whole section for freelance work. It showed a flat $75 fee for a basic social media graphic and a $200 package for three posts. I've always heard you should charge by the hour when you're starting out, to make sure you get paid for all your time. But seeing it laid out like that, as a clear product, it just clicked. It takes the guesswork out for the client and for me. I've been doing web design and spending hours on calls just explaining my hourly rate. Maybe packaging a simple landing page for a set $500 is smarter. Has anyone else switched from hourly to project-based pricing for their first few jobs and had it work better?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionat557d ago

Read a blog post once where a freelance writer said switching to flat rates for blog posts changed everything. She used to track fifteen minute blocks for research and edits, which stressed her out. Now she charges per post type, like three hundred for a standard article. Clients liked knowing the cost up front, and she found she actually made more because she got faster without the clock ticking. Packaging your work makes it feel like a real thing people are buying, not just renting your time.

miles_chen7d agoTop Commenter

Exactly. That shift from selling hours to selling a finished thing is huge. It changes how you work and how clients see you. You start thinking in terms of products, like a "new customer welcome email series" or a "standard service page rewrite." Clients stop asking for "a few hours of your time" and start buying a specific outcome they need.

zaranelson7d ago

@fionat55 makes a good point about getting faster. How do you figure out what to charge for a package without undercutting yourself?