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How do I get over the mental barrier of charging more than $100 per hour? - I'm a junior developer and I mostly freelance for larger companies. - I feel like

How do I get over the mental barrier of charging more than $100 per hour? - I'm a junior developer and I mostly freelance for larger companies. - I feel like $100/hour is the industry standard and if I charge 150-300 I need to do work that requires managerial work. - 300+ comes from charging a percentage of revenue increase or creating such a narrative, which often requires additional business and strategic consulting. - On the flip side, I enjoy coding and want to avoid additional managerial and business consulting as much as possible.

onreact 7y ago
Do not think in hours. You are not a worker in a factory. Consider the value you deliver. When you deliver twice the value in the same time you did a year ago charge twice as much.
- ghaff 7y ago
  It does depend. When I was a consultant, we tried to charge based on value (by engagement). OTOH, clients often still thought in terms of hours. If we were on-site for one engagement that was only going to take half a day, they'd often try to hook us up with some other group as well given we were there and had the time. (Typically we'd go along as these were long-time clients.) And some areas like law are very hourly-based. The one time I did some legal work it was strictly based on time. (At a very good hourly rate including travel time.)
  - onreact 7y ago
    Yeah, true, that may happen. Ideally you get a combined payment by hours with a bonus for performance. That is often a bit complex or tricky though. You mitigate the risk of getting paid not enough in case the hours spiral out of control while still getting paid a lot when you outperform expectations.
k__ 7y ago
I simply started billing weeks and not hours. So nobody can check how many hours you work a day. If you bill $2000 a week and only work 4h a day, you get your $100.
satvikpendem 7y ago
Read Patrick McKenzie's blog. In particular, this: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1 https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...

onreact 7y ago

Do not think in hours. You are not a worker in a factory. Consider the value you deliver. When you deliver twice the value in the same time you did a year ago charge twice as much.

ghaff 7y ago
It does depend. When I was a consultant, we tried to charge based on value (by engagement). OTOH, clients often still thought in terms of hours. If we were on-site for one engagement that was only going to take half a day, they'd often try to hook us up with some other group as well given we were there and had the time. (Typically we'd go along as these were long-time clients.) And some areas like law are very hourly-based. The one time I did some legal work it was strictly based on time. (At a very good hourly rate including travel time.)
- onreact 7y ago
  Yeah, true, that may happen. Ideally you get a combined payment by hours with a bonus for performance. That is often a bit complex or tricky though. You mitigate the risk of getting paid not enough in case the hours spiral out of control while still getting paid a lot when you outperform expectations.

k__ 7y ago

I simply started billing weeks and not hours. So nobody can check how many hours you work a day. If you bill $2000 a week and only work 4h a day, you get your $100.

satvikpendem 7y ago

Read Patrick McKenzie's blog. In particular, this: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1 https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...