The 15-minute job
Now that I’ve been a freelance copywriter for a while, I have plenty of regular clients. They send over emails for me to review before they go out. They ask me to write teaser copy for their website when there’s a sudden news break.
I love being able to do this for my clients, but it does pose a little problem in billing. I get an email that says, “Hey, Beth — could you please write a subject line for this email? It’s going out this afternoon.”
First, that means that they need it right away, so I usually have to stop what I’m doing to dash it out. Yesterday, I ended up revising postcard copy for a client — while I was in the bathtub with my BlackBerry.
Second, writing a subject line — even a handful of subject lines to choose from — takes no time at all. So what do I bill?
I bill my time in 15-minute increments, so I bill a minimum of 15 minutes for each one of these little requests. But then, once I shoot off a reply, I need to track my time, and when I invoice, I write a separate line for that 15-minute job. I wonder if it actually takes me more than 15 minutes total for each 15-minute job?
D.J. on 29 Mar 2008 at 5:09 am #
In a word, YES! As an example, take your hourly rate and divide it by 4, that is what you have charge your client. Now, the question is, was the value of what the client recieved worth what you just charged them?
Put another way, say to yourself “Hey, they just got a brilliant subject line for $20.00.” Its like ordering a double Latte. Dont give your services away, especially on an emergency basis. Think about a flat rate for the simple quesiton.
As my stroll down Ave.Z, there are more lessons to be learned, some painful, some fun.
D.J.
Ingrid on 31 Mar 2008 at 7:34 pm #
Definetly charge! You could do like the unions do and if called on, it is an automatic 1 hour charge. Whether the project is 15 minutes or the full hour. Your 15 minute project probably really took 1 hour because the work itself was 15 minutes, another 15 minutes to figure out the charges, 15 more to put the invoice together and bill the company, and when you get the money, another 15 minutes to get the money in your account and put it on your books.
Is it overhead or billable? | Life on Avenue Z on 16 Jul 2008 at 7:48 am #
[...] per client (15 is my minimum these days) for these little pieces. I’ve written before about how little projects can eat away at a day, but these little admin pieces just don’t fit into the billable category, I think. I just [...]