[elmuchoprez]

These days I bill like a lawyer: Up to two hours free of charge as a consultation and then the clock starts at my full rate. If you're not OK with that, you don't value my time enough for this relationship to work out.

And that's a much more generous strategy than say a plumber where you have to pay just to get him to listen to what the problem is.

But it's all supply and demand. Lawyers and plumbers who bill like that typically have more work than they can handle. I didn't when I started out as a developer, so I worked long hours for little pay for bad clients. Those were rough times, but looking back, those experiences are really what led me to being successful later on.