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by 1_player 3339 days ago
By the hour. I know I should bill by the day or week, but I think then clients will expect me to work a full working day, i.e. 8 hours.

This way, I don't feel like I'm ripping my clients off if I'm working only 2 hours today, or diluting my rate too much if I manage to work 12 hours tomorrow. I really enjoy this freedom.
1 comments
h1d 3339 days ago
Maybe it's like that for you but if you can charge per project with a deadline , it would give you a good flexibility even while running multiple clients in parallel which is what I do.

Which doesn't feel like ripping off by either side even if you take a whole day off if you keep the deadline accordingly.

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1_player 3338 days ago
How do you deal with changing specs? That's what scares me about fixed prices. Both of my longest freelance jobs (1+ years) were supposed to be a couple months worth of work.

I think the right way is to write the specs down clearly in the initial contract, but since most projects seem to go way past their expiration date, it would entail spending a non-trivial amount of time of continuously updating and agreeing on the new contracts.

Anyway, I often have a couple active project at a time, but no more than that because it would make scheduling my time a nightmare. And context switching halfway through the day takes a considerable amount of mental energy.

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h1d 3337 days ago
I only work against smaller companies who tend to be frank and flexible with similar ages of 30 or so.

Initially, both sides agree in what to deliver (no concrete spec but we talk until we know what needs built) at what price and that is usually enough to ask for more if other side tells me something new or if I'm getting a decent deal for monthly charges after going production, then I tend not to bother much about little extra additions.

I always ask questions as I encounter them to be sure that I'm not developing against their intention and let them see the progress continously too.

I even question whether what they want is valid or not and provide the reasoning in plain language without much technical terms why I'm complaining about it.

The only problem would be I can be slightly behind schedule often on everyone by managing 4+ clients in parallel.

Task switching seems crazy but I guess I'm trying to free up brain memory as much as I can to speed it up by not caring anything unnecessary in life (Have no TV, don't care about personally uninteresting stuff even if popular around, work from home where it's quiet etc)

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