A short conversational transcript from a YouTube video in which two speakers discuss the mindset shift required to move from day-rate/hourly billing to project-based and retainer pricing. Key points: hourly/day rates make it hard to delegate because contractors are paid differently, so the speaker learned to package services and set fixed prices; the other speaker frames this as results-based pricing—clients pay for faster, better outcomes, not time spent.
What was the mindset behind like? Like, because I've been there too, but maybe talk from your perspective about like, what's the mindset from switching from like day rate to an hourly to like project based and like retainer based. Like, what was that mindset? Like that changed.
I just, I knew I had to, if I was ever going to because there's no way I can hire a contractor and take their hourly rate and then say, say they spend five hours on a project and then I charge the customer my five hour rate because, because I charge significantly more because I'm really fast and I'm good at what I do and it takes less revisions. So I couldn't ever figure out a way that I could actually have somebody else do my work for me. I was just locked into this job, I guess. You know, it was, it was a job I enjoy, but I couldn't ever. I didn't know how to bring on contractors or employees until I could figure out how to package it. And then this is the price and then I can pay.
Well, that's when you switch to results based pricing where it's like, hey, we're, you know, just because we get it done sooner doesn't mean that we should be charging less. I can get you a result quicker. You should actually be paying more for that. They want to pay for a quick result.
