[tptacek]

Worth noting: good clients tend not to pay anything for the 1-hour "oh cripes" conversation. I'm extremely unlikely to bill for an hour or two of work.

Why does this work? Because I don't bill anyone for an "hour or two of work", and don't have to worry about this level of accounting.

Clients notice. More importantly: clients are much more willing to reach out and ask questions when they know the meter isn't going to be ticking. Matasano has never employed a salesperson; we get our business from repeat customers and word of mouth, in large part because we are very easy to work with.

See what I mean about good practices emerging organically from not billing hourly?

[pessimizer]

This really struck a chord with me. I always feel really awkward billing for an hour or two - either because it was no sweat to help them out because I wasn't doing anything anyway, and it was barely any work (a phone discussion and changing a couple of lines of code), OR because dropping everything to put out their fire pretty much hosed most of my day.

Just billing a full day once I determine what they need isn't trivial would have a nice effect on both my guilt and bitterness in these situations.