The company I work for estimates and bills work by the amount of time we think it’ll take to do the work. Also by how much money we think the client has. I know that you advise against this, bc we’re getting into other people’s business where it’s none of our business how much money we think someone has. However, I don’t see my boss ever changing this. We’ve discussed it and he said he believes people do care about how much time it takes and he thinks it’s being transparent to do so this way. So, it’s my C.
What I struggle with is estimating work that I’ve never done before. And then managing the client’s expectations of what we’ll be doing within the amount of time. I get frustrated because like you say, no one cares that they’re paying for an hour of your time. They’re not paying for time. They’re paying for the solution we’re providing through web design and marketing. It makes way more sense to me to bill for the value of the solution we’re offering. Another part of it is he allows for the scope to change during the project without the time budget estimate changing, so we end up going over budget. He believes changing the estimate partway through a project makes clients feel nickel and dimed. (Another C, although I am onto myself that I don’t see it as neutral) Or the scope wasn’t ever really well defined at the beginning. I feel really guilty about going over budget and I feel kind of trapped by a double edged sword. It’s like I can’t tell the client something’s out of scope, even when it is. Thank you, Brooke and coaches!