Convincing your clients to pay you on an hourly rate

When it comes to freelancing, it’s important for your work to be profitable. You must be careful not to end up working for little or nothing. To ensure this, we’ll help you discover how to convince your clients to pay you by the hour.

The problem with fixed prices

Fixed prices will bring you a number of problems, which you may not be aware of in the beginning. When setting fixed prices for your projects, you will be unknowingly establishing a practice that will be difficult to change later on. Not all potential clients’ projects will correspond to the standard price that you charge, nor the amount of work that factors into your normal hourly rate. In addition, it will be difficult to raise your prices later on, as well as your hourly rate. Your clients will be attracted by your initial proposed price among other things, and will have a hard time accepting any potential increase. Finally, fixed prices often create a non-profitable project. With some projects, it can be difficult to quantify the time necessary to complete, and you will have a hard time making the work correspond to your normal rates. Consequently, you often end up working indirectly at a loss, but it’s too late to rectify the situation.

Why and how to be paid by the hour?

It’s better to establish an hourly rate for your freelance work, but first you must understand why and how to be paid by the hour.

You need to be efficient in completing your customers’ projects, not only for yourself, but also for your clients.

The prices that you set will depend on the scope of the project, and can therefore end up varying by a significant amount. It is wise to specify your hourly rate, as some projects are difficult to define in advance in terms of price. Additional client expectations often come up during the course of the project, and having a fixed hourly rate will allow you to easily adjust the price accordingly.

Revisions and additional requests are also more easily accepted by the client when you have an established hourly rate. You will no longer have a problem revising the project over time, and adjusting your price accordingly.

In order to propose an hourly rate to your client, you must define the basic objectives of the project in advance, as well as the ideal end results. You should then specify how much time is required for each phase, and the client will be able to choose accordingly, as determined by his or her budget.

To sum up, being paid by the hour as a freelancer guarantees your client quality work, as you are able to spend the necessary time completing the objectives of the project. Client relationships are improved as the client will more likely be satisfied with the end result. Why? Because you will have spent the appropriate amount of time on the project, and you will not have rushed to give out a mediocre job.