Per project or per time is one question, and yes - it depends on many things.
My point is that, from my experience, "per day" is strictly better than "per hour". In principle, you can say "just build it into your hourly rate". In practice, it is only if it is agreed beforehand how many hours, how distributed, and what is the non-billable overhead. Plus, adding conditions like "I am being paid for at least X h a week, I work in blocks of at least Y h, etc" , in my experience, added needless friction. I have learned to avoid the friction by saying "I don't have an hourly rate; my daily rate is X" and, if needed, adding that I am open to splitting some days in half.
> You should certainly be flexible to not limit yourself, especially if you don't have a whole host of companies knocking at your inbox.
I hope "you should" is rhetorical - I know what I am doing. Sure, there is a balance between how many clients are interested and how well I set conditions of collaboration with them. Obviously, in terms of when you set the balance, YMMV.
> For anyone worried about limiting their income by charging hourly rates, I'd suggest looking around at what high-end law firms, creative agencies, management consultants, accounting firms, etc. charge.
Agencies work on a very different basis than solo freelancers/contractors, including (but not limited to) the fact that on the bill, there are hours of many people involved.
> My point is that, from my experience, "per day" is strictly better than "per hour".
This seems to be a popular and strongly-held opinion on every thread about consulting on HN, but I don’t get it. If I spend 12 hours on-site with a client, I bill them 12 hours, not 1 day. If I decide to take a couple of hours off to walk the cat, I don’t bill the time and don’t feel guilty.
My point is that, from my experience, "per day" is strictly better than "per hour". In principle, you can say "just build it into your hourly rate". In practice, it is only if it is agreed beforehand how many hours, how distributed, and what is the non-billable overhead. Plus, adding conditions like "I am being paid for at least X h a week, I work in blocks of at least Y h, etc" , in my experience, added needless friction. I have learned to avoid the friction by saying "I don't have an hourly rate; my daily rate is X" and, if needed, adding that I am open to splitting some days in half.
> You should certainly be flexible to not limit yourself, especially if you don't have a whole host of companies knocking at your inbox.
I hope "you should" is rhetorical - I know what I am doing. Sure, there is a balance between how many clients are interested and how well I set conditions of collaboration with them. Obviously, in terms of when you set the balance, YMMV.
> For anyone worried about limiting their income by charging hourly rates, I'd suggest looking around at what high-end law firms, creative agencies, management consultants, accounting firms, etc. charge.
Agencies work on a very different basis than solo freelancers/contractors, including (but not limited to) the fact that on the bill, there are hours of many people involved.