Can I offer a 20 hours service as a pre-package project?

[53ce23b2]

Hello everyone,
I have tried to look this up on upwork forums and internet but couldn't find the answer. I will really appreciate if someone can please clear this out for me.
1. Can I offier a 20 hours service as a pre-package on my profile? is this allowed/OK with upwork?
2. Will it be convenient for client to offer per hour feature when they click on 'Start an Offer' to start the hiring process?
3. Can/Should I allow client to break this up and use the hours as needed? how will be the payment in this case?

I hope the questions are clear. I will be greatful if someone can kindly clear these for me. Suggestions are welcome.

regards,
Amjad

[BojanS]

Hi Amjad,

The pre-packaged projects are defined work with a set cost, timeline, and package of deliverable. So when setting it up, you'll be asked to specify a price (or a price range) and not the number of hours. This feature is still being tested so we appreciate your feedback and will gladly share it with the team.

[imenetalk]

Hi Bojan,

I guess what he means by the first question is : can he offer 20 hours of work as a project. And the answer to this question is yes.
He can do that. I did it a couple hours ago while testing that program.

Well, of course we have to define a price for the package, but it can absolutely be "I will offer 20 hours of consulation in management" for **** dollars or even " I will offer 3 hours of ....."... for Y dollars.

I've seen this as an example of project title while setting it up.

[prestonhunter]

The original poster's suggestion is a scheme.

I am wary of schemes.

Why doesn't he simply offer to work using hourly contracts?

[imenetalk]

Hi Preston,

Hourly contracts are something that exists already. I guess he is now talking about the "new projects program" to which some of us got invited to try out as an early access program.

In those new projects we can offer a bunch of hours as a fixed price project and there is no way to offer them as a hourly contract.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

Why doesn't he simply offer to work using hourly contracts?

---

Because he is talking about the new "pre-packaged projects" feature Upwork is testing, not about hourly contracts, as clearly stated.

[richard_wein]

I suppose it all depends on whether appearing on the shelf of the forthcoming pre-packaged projects store will increase your exposure and lead to more jobs. I'm rather skeptical about whether clients will make much use of that store. I think they're even less likely to use it if it's full of jobs that are not genuinely pre-packaged, like the sort that's being suggested here. If they want to pay a freelancer by the hour they would be better off doing a normal freelancer search.

[martina_plaschka]

Makes no sense to me. In your line of work, a client will be interested in a finished product, and not be interested in the number of hours you spend on it, and most likely prefer a fixed price contract. 

[53ce23b2]

Firstly, thank you everyone for your thoughts. I have just seen the replies now.

The reason I wanted to do this as a pre-package was becasuse I would've offered a reduced total amount where client can save money on a buddle and I will secure atleast 20 hours of work.

Since I have got a little bit understanding of how the platform works, it may not be possilbe to record time on upwork's desktop app if client needs a proof of time spent. I guess upwork's desktop app only tracks time for the hourly projects.

I guess we'll have to wait till the app allows to track time of other projects as well.

Thanks once again.

regards,

Amjad