Fixed Price vs. Hourly: Why I Don't Quote by the Hour

Hourly pricing sounds fair on paper. In practice, it puts all the risk in exactly the wrong place — on you.

If a project's quoted by the hour, every slow week, every round of "just a couple of small tweaks," every scope that quietly creeps becomes your problem to pay for, not the designer's problem to manage. You've got no real idea what the final number will be until the invoice lands — and for a coach already juggling client sessions, content, and everything else, that's one more unknown you don't need.

Fixed price flips it. I scope the project properly upfront — what's included, what it costs, when it's done — and that number doesn't move once we start. If something takes me longer than planned, that's mine to manage, not yours to fund. It means I actually have to think the project through properly before we begin, instead of figuring it out as I bill.

It changes the conversation, too. You're not quietly doing maths every time you send a message, wondering if a question is about to cost you another twenty minutes on the invoice. We can just talk about the work — the same way I'd want a coach not watching the clock on a client call.

The trade-off is that fixed price only works if the scope is genuinely fixed at the start, which is exactly why I run a clarity call before anything begins. It's not a sales pitch — it's the step where we nail down precisely what you need, so the number I give you is one I can actually hold to.

If a designer won't give you a fixed number before starting, it's worth asking why. Sometimes scope genuinely is hard to pin down. More often, keeping it vague just keeps the meter running in their favour, not yours.

If any of this sounds like where your site's at right now, I run free 45-minute clarity calls for coaches and practitioners — no pitch, just an honest look at what's working, what isn't, and what I'd fix first. Book yours here.