How to switch from charging by the hour to flat fee and feel fair?

fundonuts

New Member
Hi everyone,


I have a long time client (good relationship) and I recently designed and set up a webinar for them using an online software. No coding involved, just using the WYSIWYG they have to set up the template with the designs I've made.


Months later (now), they want me to do another one for them using the same layout. I know this won't take me long, but I've only been charging them by the hour so I don't want to undercut myself because of this. I want to switch to a flat fee but I'm not sure how to go about this. I feel awkward, weird and unsure what's fair to them. I want to charge them by what I think is fair to me which would be a little bit more than what I had charged them when I developed the template, for fewer hours. I want to do this because I felt I had undercharged them for a webinar development (to be honest, I don't even know how much this goes for in the market and I've tried looking) but that's my fault. So now I want to correct it by charging more. This doesn’t sound fair to but I also don’t want to undercut myself. How do I turn this around?


Factors that make me feel unsure:

  • They have another designer to help them so I don't want to lose this project to them. They're coming to me first because I created the template.
  • The economy right now with COVID, I want to be considerate of other people's financials
  • How do I justify charging more than what I had charged for the first webinar but for less workload this time?

Or should I just charge just a bit less than what I had charged them?


Your insights would be most appreciated. I'm still learning how to price properly and understanding my value.
 
Take your hourly rate - multiply that by 8 hours.
Then figure out how many days work there is.
Apply a discount if you wish.
 
When it comes down to it, you don't want to be out of pocket. Just be honest with them. Say the first one took you longer than you thought, and so you'll be
charging the same next time to cover your costs, or slightly less to keep them sweet, whatever you need to make it worth your while. And just say you'll be paying per job from now on.
If they're a decent client they shouldn't have a problem with that.
 
In my honest opinion it's almost impossible to charge per hour for work. Things are always thrown into the mix, issues always arise, you communicate multiple times with the client and this generally add's up to at least a full day all in all.

I used to charge per hour and found that I was doing 16 hours of work and only being paid for 8. Communication time, consultancy, telephone calls etc etc all being done for free and taking up my time during the day. If you worked as a shelf stacker for example would you do the same? I presume no, so don't allow it to happen.

Always charge by day, I know some people charge by the week. It is dependant on project size but imho never charge by the hour, its painful and stressful and nobody needs it in their life.
 
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