[porker]

My rates are already high for outside London (UK), but I hear you. They're the wrong type of clients, so I've optimised for extracting every last dime (as you wrote in a sibling comment).

Thinking about it, I have a mental block around not billing. I want to see the balance tick up, hour by hour. Any non-billable time is wasted time. Not being paid = no self-worth = I'm wasting my time & got to try harder.

So billing for value, where I haven't "earned" the money by working for it, or putting in a speculative 2-weeks to scope - I'm fighting myself.

[Corollary: I'm very (too) risk averse]