Marketing professionals provide a service to their clients. The knowledge, time and experience of a professional needs to be figured into the final fee for a marketing project. The client doesn’t need to know exactly how much time you spent on her project to get it done; she just wants to know if it’s going to be done on time.
Actually, many clients prefer to get a fee-based quote rather than an hourly quote. People want to know how much they are going to be paying you when everything is said and done. It’s just easier to budget when you already know what the final tab will be.
The more experienced you get, the less time it will take you to do things. For instance, I can write a press release in less than an hour because of my experience because I have a general idea of what needs to be said and where things go. Does that mean I should charge less than a newbie who takes two hours to write the release because he has to look things up? That’s ridiculous, but that’s exactly what happens when you charge by the hour. You end up devaluing yourself because you get faster at certain tasks. You can make more money as you get better at your job by charging a flat project-based fee rather than an hourly fee.
Not only can you make more money by charging a flat fee, I think it seems more professional. Hourly workers are generally at the low end of the totem pole at companies, with salaried workers in managerial and executive positions. Charging an hourly fee can make you seem like an amateur.
Charging by the project is a way to market your service as more of a product, which I think is a good thing. Clients know what they’re getting – they know they’re paying X amount for Y service (or product, if it’s a brochure or press release) no matter how many hours were put into the project. Plus, it eases clients’ minds because they don’t have to worry about you padding the bill with hours of surfing the ’Net. Charging a flat fee eliminates a lot of guesswork and worries that clients face. When you shop at the grocery store, you don’t care how many hours it took to make that sweater, you’re only concerned with how much you’ll have to pay for the sweater. You care about the end result. That’s how many businesses that outsource marketing functions think as well.
Blogs such as Duct Tape Marketing endorse the fee-based approach, as does consultant Alan Weiss. Weiss even wrote a book about it: Value-Based Fees: How to Charge and Get What You’re Worth.
If you’ve been basing your fees on the hour, think about how that can affect your future business. As you work faster, you’ll end up making less money, so seriously reconsider your fee structure.
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