#general
Thread
I am increasingly getting prospective clients asking for me to give them a breakdown of hours spent writing a newsletter, blog post, social post, and case study. Does anyone have a go-to response here? I dont want to over or under-sell my work.
Depending on how you package your work, most ppl ask this because they want to know how many hours something takes and therefore how much per hour they’re paying you. Hourly rates often commoditize your work, so I’d avoid it (you want to be paid for the value you bring not how quickly it takes you to do something). One option would be to break it down by percentages: 50% of the time is writing, 15% editing, 15% administrative, 20% design, or whatever makes sense for you.
Love @Carolyn Lyden’s response above! We're doing our best to bill project rates and avoid billing clients for exact hours.
My general response is that we average our time and the value of the services we offer to give standard rates for each service. And then leave it there.
Internally, I use hour averages to make sure my team isn't overloaded and to understand generally how to bill clients for services. But that's not a client’s biz — you wouldn't do that to your dentist, ya know?
The projects you do for clients also involve education, experience, marketing, and a zillion other business expenses.
I’ve never had a good experience with a client who obsessed over hours and how long it takes to do individual tasks. It's just my own personal journey, but I've heard the same from many others in this space, too.