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That variability is precisely why I'm freelancing, so I bill hourly, in quarter-hour increments no less. I worked 13.25 hours yesterday, for 3 different clients, and I'm getting paid for all of them. Last Friday I worked 6 hours, because I slept in a bit, and then it was nice out so I did some yard work. I billed for 6. Sunday I worked 4 hours for a client and 2 hours for my own projects, billed for 4. I've billed as little as 15 hours in a full week (due to time spent on personal projects) and as many as 90. If I billed daily, how can I justify that schedule? I've worked with hourly freelancers before who said "You're going to pay me for the whole day, and between 9 and 5 I'm all yours", which is fair. I don't make that commitment to my clients and I would not take a client who required it. I commit to specific goals and bill them however long it takes. I tell my clients my goal is to be as replaceable and fireable as possible, because I have plenty of other interesting work to do and I don't need to spend time doing crap work to pad a budget. Do I run a timer or punch a clock? No. I look at the clock when I start, and when I end. If I'm bouncing between two projects all morning, I just split the time. I don't obsess over minutes spent on quick phone calls or responding to important emails or IMs. I also don't want someone to "use or lose it", whether that's the last two hours of a slow day where I'm blocked, or a retainer agreement, because then they're going to "use it" on something dumb because it's now a sunk cost. Perhaps I'm misleading myself, but I don't think this is because I'm low on the food chain, and it's certainly not bending to the wishes of an evil client as these are my own rules. I think it's just a matter of work/lifestyle and I wouldn't have it any other way. |