I think I will stick to “Never work for free”. Compensations are a different story, though.

However, I think this raises a broader question related to how consultants structure fees. Personally, I think charging for hours is a no no when people are paying for knowledge that you’ve acquired over many years. As a PR consultant I see this issue all the time. Sometimes I can solve a problem in 5 minutes because I’ve dealt with it many times before. Or I can think of a creative way to explain something very quickly because my brain is wried that way. But do I charge for 5 minutes of time? No way.

The only way to deal with this issue is to ask the client “How much is solving this issue worth to you?”. Then, frankly, it’s up to you how long it takes to solve it.

The client agreed, we did the work, and periodicly checked in to see if he needed anything done…

that was 9 months ago, and today we are working for a $30,000 project for him… I’d say that was a valuable investment of 30 minutes worth of work.

As I mentioned above it adds a deposit to the “emotional bank account.” Of course, for it to really be a deposit, your client has to recognize it… if you do it all the time, or they “expect” that kind of service, it’s not going to do you any good.

You took the words out of my mouth, beley! When a client calls you with a task or project, the are (or at least should) expect to pay for it. I think the fact that it was 4 weeks past due, and was supposed to take 3 days, but you got it done in 3 hours is more than enough of a deposit in the ‘emotional bank account’. In my opinion, whether you charge this client nothing, or $300, they will be just as happy. So why not charge what you’re worth? I totally understand not charging for phone calls, or things like “can you help me set up an email account”. But if something goes for a few hours, and I’ve saved them quite a headache, they’re more than happy to pay you for you services. Also, by not charging them, you may be putting out the message that your time isn’t worth that much. That’s my 2 cents.

Doesn’t that devalue your time in the eyes of the client though? Now they’ll expect freebies in the future too.

Not neccessarily. Your clients should see the value in your time. If they value you before and you provide them with a service or perk here and there they’ll most likely see it as great customer service.

I don’t bill for every single hour. I often have clients that will call me with a problem and I’ll talk to them for 10-15 minutes and not bill them. They are all very aware that I can and often do bill long phone calls and any meetings, but it’s nice to do something like that occasionally.

As I mentioned above it adds a deposit to the “emotional bank account.” Of course, for it to really be a deposit, your client has to recognize it… if you do it all the time, or they “expect” that kind of service, it’s not going to do you any good.

But IF those smaller projects come from the right kind of people, (honest, treating you like you are one of the team) those small jobs have always turned into larger ones for me.

Again today, my used-to-be-small-project clients are once again calling to add even more stuff to their sites. Have gone past the $30,000 mark and no one would give them the time of day 3 years ago, and their business keeps improving. That may not be enough for most developers, but the lack of stress saves money in therapy later. (Just can’t handle stress.)

But yes, if brand new clients I also do charge. That weeds out the “grinders”, as discussed on the SitePoint forums! WOW that info helped. - Christina

Ok. Say this person came to me, but there wasn’t any project coming up. Should I charge them?

I charge as much on convenience (or inconvenience) as I do on value or hours worked. If they’re a new client and you have no idea whether they’ll become a regular, charge them accordingly. For a couple hours, you have to put all your other projects on hold, then you have to deal with billing them and collections, setting them up in your accounting software, going through the whole pitch/sales process just for a few hours.

I turn down a lot of small jobs because of this. I won’t even touch most jobs sub-$1000. It’s so much of a hassle that it’s rarely worth it, and most of these prospects are just hunting for the lowest bidder anyway. You might get lucky this time, but you’ll rarely get repeat business.