Time is money

I'm working on our budgets (what joy) and the question on my mind is how we should be charging for our fine services. 

We have obviously put together a rate card, which reflects our costs, and how long we think it will take to do stuff. It looks quite sensible and competitive. But is this the right way to charge? Is this really an efficient pricing method for the sector? 

The reason I ask is that for one recent job we priced by the hour - just for fun. And guess what? We only had two copy rounds and it took half the time we estimated. Was this because of our excellent response to the brief? I'd like to think so. But maybe, just maybe, it's because the hourly rate forces everyone involved, particularly those writing the brief and signing off the work, to focus minds and work efficiently. 

I think next we'll experiment with a one month appeal, from start to finish. This should cut down on accruing unnecessary additional hours – there simply won't be any spare. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, I guess we'll stick to the rate card. 

Right, back to the budget.