Even if you bill by the day, that is still a certain number of hours to you.
What he is talking about is how difficult it is to work enough "hours" when you are contracting. If you work for a company they pay you to be at your desk 9-5, sure. But in that environment 10 minutes talking to a co-worker as you get a coffee, 15 minutes trying to get the damn printer to work, 5 minutes dashing up to the next floor because the toilet on this one is busted... doesn't matter that much.
When you work as a contractor targets are much more immediate - and if you don't get a days work done on a project that starts to pile up. It's crazy how little things can stack up; I didn't get "enough" done today, really, because the coffee machine in my kitchen was playing silly buggers first thing, and I got distracted fixing it (I know...). That took half an hour off my day and meant I had to try and make it up this evening... but with one thing and another...
I imagine it takes some time to learn to properly estimate how much to charge for a project. Until then, billing by the hour is a way to build heuristics.
No it doesn't. You simply say "I charge in 1 day increments", and the hourly-billing problem goes away. When you come to the day at the end of the project where you only use 4 hours, you have a very complicated logistical conundrum that after careful analysis and financial modeling you solve by billing the full day because you charge in 1 day increments.
When you said "No it doesn't", were you responding to my statement that "I imagine it takes some time to learn to properly estimate how much to charge for a project"? Yes, it does. However, your charge-by-the-day method is a great workaround! I'm glad you mentioned it.
completely agree, I recently switched to billing by the day for new work and so far it's been a lot easier and my clients seem happier. How often do you really get a task that can be completed in less than half a day (and if it could, couldn't it be lumped together with other smaller tasks that together would take at least half a day)? Billing by the day, or at the minimum half day means I have at least that amount of time to dedicate to a client without jumping between tasks and getting distracted. I still break down projects and estimate tasks in hours, but when presenting estimates for projects as a whole, I just use days. It's more meaningful for clients and it's better for me.
well I actually used the opportunity to increase my rate, but to work it out I used a rule of 8 hours a day and rounded up to a nice figure that's easier to sell.
What he is talking about is how difficult it is to work enough "hours" when you are contracting. If you work for a company they pay you to be at your desk 9-5, sure. But in that environment 10 minutes talking to a co-worker as you get a coffee, 15 minutes trying to get the damn printer to work, 5 minutes dashing up to the next floor because the toilet on this one is busted... doesn't matter that much.
When you work as a contractor targets are much more immediate - and if you don't get a days work done on a project that starts to pile up. It's crazy how little things can stack up; I didn't get "enough" done today, really, because the coffee machine in my kitchen was playing silly buggers first thing, and I got distracted fixing it (I know...). That took half an hour off my day and meant I had to try and make it up this evening... but with one thing and another...