I switched from hourly to project pricing last month and the difference is wild

I used to charge $50 an hour for web design work, but I was always fighting about time logs with clients. Last month, I gave a flat $1200 quote for a full site rebuild for a local bakery. I finished it in 15 hours, which worked out to way more per hour, and the client was happy because they knew the total cost up front. The stress of tracking every minute is just gone. How do you decide what to charge for a full project?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery6293mo ago

Notice this happens everywhere once you get good at something. My mechanic charges by the job, not the hour, because he knows exactly how long a brake change takes him. For projects, I add up all the hours I think it'll take, then double it for problems and client changes. What's the hardest part of your project to guess the time for?

james9953mo ago

Doubling time for problems sounds smart but it can backfire. Clients start expecting that padded timeline as the new normal, then rush you anyway. The real trick is getting better at spotting the unpredictable bits before you even give a quote.

miles79814d ago

Ask if you factor in the cost of the time you spend on back and forth with clients after the project is done. Like when the bakery owner wants a minor text change three weeks later, is that baked into your $1200 or do you draw a line somewhere else in the scope? That's the part I always underestimate on fixed price jobs, the small tweaks that add up but feel too petty to bill for separately.