🐈
» Forums » Clients » Hourly or fixed price preferences and issues.
Page options
2d4ee56e
Community Member

Hourly or fixed price preferences and issues.

Hi, so my first question is what is everyones preference on hiring hourly or fixed price. Also if you can tell me about an conflicted experience you had with either.

 

Here's mine: So i posted an hourly job for someone to illustrate a logo for us with a character in it (not just text). Found an artist that we really liked his portfolio and after talking to him I asked him to make a quick sketch so I would know he understands the job. The sketch took him less than 5 minutes. All he had left was to add color and text for our logo name. I was thinking because that took him less than 5 minutes to sketch, it wouldnt take him long at all to finish everything and hired him at HIS hourly rate ($16) for 5 hours. He didnt accept and said he wanted more money.

 

Now because of this, the rest of my contracts have been fixed prices and Ive noticed that Im paying 4-5x the amount I would be paying if I had hired them for an hourly rate. My next hire had an amazing portfolio. We hired him because we loved his illustrations and not because his cheap hourly rate ($7). We had him do two seperate jobs and after explaining to him what we wanted done, both were completed and back to us within 3-4 hours. We paid over $100 for each job. Though i believe his hourly rate is wayyyyy too low, have any of you all had similar experience with hourly and fixed price issues? Also what have you all decided to do about it?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
michael_skaggs
Community Member


@FatKing G wrote:

Hi, so my first question is what is everyones preference on hiring hourly or fixed price. Also if you can tell me about an conflicted experience you had with either.


 For something with a concrete deliverable (artwork, video, voiceovers, etc.), a fixed rate is always preferable. That way the client knows going in what to expect, and the freelancer doesn't have to work around Upwork's math with fee tiers to make it come out right.

 

For things like support, coaching, administration, and whatnot, that's when an hourly rate shines. You're buying the person's time in which they're unable to do other things.

 


@FatKing G wrote:

Here's mine: So i posted an hourly job for someone to illustrate a logo for us with a character in it (not just text). Found an artist that we really liked his portfolio and after talking to him I asked him to make a quick sketch so I would know he understands the job. The sketch took him less than 5 minutes. All he had left was to add color and text for our logo name. I was thinking because that took him less than 5 minutes to sketch, it wouldnt take him long at all to finish everything and hired him at HIS hourly rate ($16) for 5 hours. He didnt accept and said he wanted more money. 


 

As a freelancer, this kinda thing is a bit of a sore spot that sticks in my craw. The sketch may have taken him five minutes, and it might not have taken him long to add the finishing touches, but when you hire someone for a deliverable, you're not just paying for the one thing. You're paying for the experience and the ability to get the project done to your satisfaction. That's something that may have taken an individual many years and countless hours of training, practice, or late nights to perfect. And to be perfectly honestly the price he was wanting is not a bad price at all. I have frirends in the graphic design industry, and $75 is usually their "friends and family" rate for logo design. To be perfectly blunt, he would have been doing you a favor at that price, especially considering he would only see $64 out of it once Upwork takes their cut. I don't blame him one bit for wanting more.

 

As a voiceover artist, I'm the same way. Sure, a 30 second commercial may only take me a few minutes to record. But to make a spot that is exactly on timing marks, sounds good, and fits a client's needs takes skill, time, and not inexpensive equipment. Plus, people are using my voice to make money, and that's not something I'm willing to do for peanuts. And audiobooks are even more of a losing proposition at times. For every hour of finished audio, you can count on three hours minimum of time to edit, master, and finalize. 

 

And think of it this way with the logo. Your logo reflects your brand. Meaning you will be using that logo to make money. Do you really think it's fair to pay someone a pittance for something like that just because it "only" took them a few minutes to do that particular item? 

 

tl;dr - I prefer fixed rate contracts. That way I can tell a client up front what it will cost them, and they won't be surprised on the back-end when the project is delivered. If a project is listed as hourly, I usually tell them what my fixed rate would be in the proposal, and we can work out how to arrive at that number from there. It's worked well so far.

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
michael_skaggs
Community Member


@FatKing G wrote:

Hi, so my first question is what is everyones preference on hiring hourly or fixed price. Also if you can tell me about an conflicted experience you had with either.


 For something with a concrete deliverable (artwork, video, voiceovers, etc.), a fixed rate is always preferable. That way the client knows going in what to expect, and the freelancer doesn't have to work around Upwork's math with fee tiers to make it come out right.

 

For things like support, coaching, administration, and whatnot, that's when an hourly rate shines. You're buying the person's time in which they're unable to do other things.

 


@FatKing G wrote:

Here's mine: So i posted an hourly job for someone to illustrate a logo for us with a character in it (not just text). Found an artist that we really liked his portfolio and after talking to him I asked him to make a quick sketch so I would know he understands the job. The sketch took him less than 5 minutes. All he had left was to add color and text for our logo name. I was thinking because that took him less than 5 minutes to sketch, it wouldnt take him long at all to finish everything and hired him at HIS hourly rate ($16) for 5 hours. He didnt accept and said he wanted more money. 


 

As a freelancer, this kinda thing is a bit of a sore spot that sticks in my craw. The sketch may have taken him five minutes, and it might not have taken him long to add the finishing touches, but when you hire someone for a deliverable, you're not just paying for the one thing. You're paying for the experience and the ability to get the project done to your satisfaction. That's something that may have taken an individual many years and countless hours of training, practice, or late nights to perfect. And to be perfectly honestly the price he was wanting is not a bad price at all. I have frirends in the graphic design industry, and $75 is usually their "friends and family" rate for logo design. To be perfectly blunt, he would have been doing you a favor at that price, especially considering he would only see $64 out of it once Upwork takes their cut. I don't blame him one bit for wanting more.

 

As a voiceover artist, I'm the same way. Sure, a 30 second commercial may only take me a few minutes to record. But to make a spot that is exactly on timing marks, sounds good, and fits a client's needs takes skill, time, and not inexpensive equipment. Plus, people are using my voice to make money, and that's not something I'm willing to do for peanuts. And audiobooks are even more of a losing proposition at times. For every hour of finished audio, you can count on three hours minimum of time to edit, master, and finalize. 

 

And think of it this way with the logo. Your logo reflects your brand. Meaning you will be using that logo to make money. Do you really think it's fair to pay someone a pittance for something like that just because it "only" took them a few minutes to do that particular item? 

 

tl;dr - I prefer fixed rate contracts. That way I can tell a client up front what it will cost them, and they won't be surprised on the back-end when the project is delivered. If a project is listed as hourly, I usually tell them what my fixed rate would be in the proposal, and we can work out how to arrive at that number from there. It's worked well so far.

Thanks! You do have a a point on the issue and gave me a perspective that I didnt think of. Now my only other issue is if an artist ONLY does artwork, why would they have an hourly rate such as $7. While Im not sure why they would do that, my guess would be the low hourly rate would attract some clients but they wouldnt actually ever work for an hourly rate because they do fixed rate pieces. Hmm

 My guess is Upwork requires you to set an hourly rate, so they just stick a number in the box. I know on the occasions I bid on hourly jobs for things I do at fixed rates, I'll just adjust the number in the proposal as needed to a number that makes the "Upwork Math" easier, then just tell them "it will take X hours at Y rate."

 

Edit: They also may choose to do things at an hourly rate. Some artists are...odd to say the least. But generally they'll do like what I described, and bid a set number of hours at a set price. This enables them to tell a client what something will cost based on the scope of work and how involved it is, rather than relying on a "rate card." A $75 logo and a $500 logo are vastly different things. I have a rate card, but it's much easier to get all the details from the client and match it up properly rather than having them order like it's a restaurant menu.

jmeyn
Community Member

The rate will also depend on the country the freelancer is living in. In some countries $7/h is awesome.

pandoraharper
Community Member

It's nice to see Clients asking about something like this.

 

Since @Michael S already chimed in with his take on Fixed-Price contracts, I'd like to summarize my take on Hourly jobs.

 

As a small business owner who provides Consulting and Management services to a select group of clients on Upwork, this works better with an hourly contract, as each day, week and month can be different. Week to week, the set of deliverables depends on many variables, and the client may even tack on a sub-set of deliverables that outside the usual, or even request more "hours".

 

Having said this, I plan on offering a  fixed prices service in 2018, which will be for very short term contracts and will be for a specfic service that involves 1 actual deliverable in the form of a 30 day completed project, based on specific milestones that are addressed in the initial job bid. (Because if it was hourly, the client could drag it out indefiently, and the idea is to do a bunch of these projects each year.)

 

So for deliverables like images, or written copy, fixed-price may be the best choice. But for less tangible outcomes where support, consulting or managerment services are in play, hourly may a better choice, depending on the role pararamters.

0847999b
Community Member

You don't pay someone for the five minutes they take to draw a sketch, you pay them for the 25 years they spent learning how to draw a sketch in 5 minutes, that communicates and you liked. I assure you you will never pay me for a logo sketch even if I spent 10 hrs on it daily so where deliverable is tangible fixed price would work well.
But not everything now tangible, of course, doesn't matter how deep you go into analytics - that's where hourly rates would suit both sides.
- faizanusuf
Latest Articles
Learning Paths