HourlyfloorDay rate vs hourly vs project fee
These are three ways to sell the same floor. The floor is the number from the rate calculator — what you must earn per billed hour after unpaid time and tax. How you say that number to a client is a different decision.
Pick the shape that matches the work, not the shape that feels polite.
Hourly
You sell minutes. Good when the brief will change while you work: a rescue, a “sit with us in the file,” an unknown codebase. Bad when the client can invent tasks faster than you can invoice them.
- Lead with a minimum (10 hours, or your Pulse package), not a naked hourly.
- Bill in 30-minute steps. Fifteen-minute lines look like you are nickeling them and still lose money on context-switch.
- Cap the week. “Up to 12 hours this week, then we re-quote” is a fence. Open-ended hourly is a second job.
Hourly is a measuring stick. It is a weak offer. If they ask “what’s your rate?” answer with the floor and immediately convert: “That is the floor. Most work is a day or a fixed project. Tell me the outcome.”
Day rate
A day is not 8 × hourly. You do not give them eight billable hours. You give them a block of your calendar: morning context, one deep stretch, a wrap. Price a day as hourly floor × 6, not × 8. The other two hours are the unpaid edges that always attach to a “day on site” or a “day in Slack.”
Use a day rate when:
- They want you present, not a deliverable in a folder.
- The work is a workshop, a pairing day, a launch-day steward.
- You would otherwise leak hours into “while you’re here.”
Write what a day includes and what it does not. One day is not an open retainer. A second day is a second line, not a discount because “we already started.”
Half-days: 0.6 × day, not 0.5. The commute of attention is the same.
Project fee
You sell an outcome with a fence. This is the default for anything you can describe as done: a site, a deck, a research memo, a brand-adjacent kit. The quote calculator exists for this: production hours + revisions + risk + rush, then a 40% deposit.
Project fees fail when the scope is a vibe. If they cannot name the artifact, do not force a fixed number. Sell a paid discovery day, then a project. Two invoices. One adult conversation.
Never defend a project fee with “it will only take me ten hours.” Defend it with what is in, what is out, and how a change order works. That document is the scope of work, not a chat thread.
How to convert without lying
Say your floor is $120/hour after the calculator.
| Shape | Math | What you send |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $120, 10-hour minimum | Floor + cap on the week |
| Day | $120 × 6 = $720 | One calendar day, listed inclusions |
| Half-day | $720 × 0.6 = $432 | Same fence, shorter block |
| Project | Hours × $120 × risk, as a single number | Scope + deposit |
If a project quote comes out under 10 × your floor, it is not a project. It is a Pulse package or a decline. Tiny jobs have the same kickoff cost as real ones.
What to put in the email
Do not send three prices and ask them to choose like a brunch menu. Send the shape that fits, plus one alternate:
“This is a fixed project at $X, 40% to start. If you would rather buy my calendar instead, the day rate is $Y. I do not open a file below $Z.”
The sentences for discounts and the three-tier card live in the Rate Card System. The proposal and change order live in the Client Close Kit.