[lifeisstillgood]

This is exactly why you might want to consider moving to weekly billing. Bill for a weeks work, as long as the deliverables come in does it matter if the week was only a few hours long?

You can either charge a lot per week, or less per week and still fit in more clients

However there is still a lot or marketing to do

[marcomassaro]

So are you essentially telling the client that you are billing them for the week - which means you are dedicated to their project for the week?

[lifeisstillgood]

no, you are saying that next week I will work on the deliverables we agreed for the week. And I will deliver them. And they will bring you this much benefit.

If I need to go and hire two guys and work nights to do it, I lose. But I only lose a limited amount.

SO, I guess I really am saying work fixed bids of one week projects.

[marcomassaro]

So if you finish them in one day - you don't send them to the client until Friday?

I imagine if you did them in a day or two the client would be asking why they paid for a week of work and if they can use the rest of the time somewhere else

[lifeisstillgood]

Why not keep them till the scheduled Friday meeting?

The client is expecting it Friday, probably does not have time to talk to you on Tuesday afternoon.

Its not lying, its not cheating, its saying I will build X and doing it in a professional manner.

[porker]

Are you sure?

> Bill for a weeks work, as long as the deliverables come in does it matter if the week was only a few hours long?

"Hello Mr Client, this job will take a week to do, so I need to bill you for a week of my time". 4 hours + 1 meeting on Friday, job done.

That sounds like lying and cheating to me. Which is a nuisance, as I'd like to do it.

[MetaCosm]

It is lying and cheating, and it is illegal.

Generally 'standard weeks' are done under the assumption that you will work at least 40 hours on the project (often more, I average 44). The concept is that the project is significantly more than 40 hours, and accounting for every moment is overhead that doesn't serve anyone. Client doesn't care and it simply wastes your time to do it.