Dear freelancers, consultants, agency owners, etc. Charging by the hour is a terrible idea. It's also incredibly shortsighted. Here's why

1/ An "hourly" basis puts emphasis on the TIME and not the VALUE of your skill. Customers then question how LONG it takes you to do something opposed to how DIFFICULT or how SPECIALIZED the task is. This leads to a race to the bottom: "hire the cheapest person possible."

2/ Value by hours makes it VERY hard to scale your earnings. People are only willing to pay "so much" per hour, for anything. But when you charge per PROJECT, or per RESULT, the ceiling/"threshold for pain" goes a lot higher.

3/ Hours incentivizes the wrong type of work—for the customer, but also for you. Your $ shouldn't be based on how LONG it takes you to do something but how EFFECTIVELY you are able to deliver the result the customer is paying for. This reduces time investment and scales earnings.

4/ Hours makes it harder for customers to say YES. "Hourly rate seems fair, but the real question is how long will this take you to do?" This adds friction to the conversation. Pricing on a project/asset basis reduces friction. "This is the price for the result. Yes or no."

5/ Removing hours from the equation makes it easier to build trust. "I'm less concerned with how long this takes me, and more concerned with driving the end result for you." This 1 phrase makes it 10x easier for customers to say YES, because they trust you won't run the bill up.