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If you're a consultant or you work in a consulting firm I have some advice for you. Get comfortable with fudging the numbers on your time reports. It's ok. Rep
by ryanmarsh 10y ago
If you're a consultant or you work in a consulting firm I have some advice for you.
Get comfortable with fudging the numbers on your time reports. It's ok. Report what's reasonable given:
You aren't being paid for your minutes you're being paid for the ability to solve a customer's problem in minutes.
I bill my clients 40 no matter what because sometimes I give them 100 hours worth of value in 1 hour. It all balances out. It took a while to realize this wasn't an integrity violation.
You aren't a machine resource. You're a human working in immense complexity. Your productivity is a roller coaster. It's ok. Don't sell minutes. In reality your customer can't handle the unpredictablity in billable hours if you were exacting and billed what you're actually worth. Instead we smooth it into 40 (or whatever), and that's ok.
- steve19 10y agoDoes it work both ways? If you customer thinks the 100 hours you billed is only worth 1 hour, are you OK with them paying 1 hour?
- ryanmarsh 10y agoNo, they pay what I bill. If we don't agree on that then we don't do business. If I want repeat customers then I don't gouge them.
- aplummer 10y agoFor anyone reading this, billing the incorrect amount of time in consulting is an integrity violation, and probably illegal. If you agree to sell in hours, then the client pays in hours. Attributed value billing should be in your contract if you are going to do that, not snuck in under the guise of hourly rates.
- ryanmarsh 10y agoDo you bill your clients for the time you sip coffee or take a shit?