Hourly Rates Are a Trap (and Here’s What to Use Instead)

I once had to design 4 logos in a week under an hourly contract… at $50/hr.

For a client who ran an agency. Yes… for a client that turned around and charged multi-million dollar clients for the exact kind of work for a much larger invoice. 

The scope was endless. The environment was chaotic and messy. 

At the time, I just said “yes” because I wanted to “be helpful,” “stay booked,” and all those other freelancer excuses we whisper to ourselves while working weekends. I thought being flexible and easy to work with was how you kept clients.

But looking back? That ask wasn’t ambitious. It was disrespectful.

The real problem wasn’t the hours—it was the framing.

Hourly pricing gave that client the illusion that more was always allowed, like I was a vending machine and they just kept pressing buttons. 

And I let it happen. Because I didn’t have the numbers, the language, or the boundaries. 

Ultimately, I did the 4 logos. 

Then I fired the client.

It wasn’t just the work, it was the entire structure. Hourly pricing let the project creep without consequences and let the client treat my time like a buffet instead of business.

But the real shift didn’t happen when I figured that client. It happened later — on sales calls. 

Call after call, I started noticing the same pattern: the moment they or I mentioned hourly pricing, the energy would shift. Clients would tense up, get quieter, and more calculated. 

I realized something no one really talks about:  When you sell your time, people end up feeling like they have to manage you. They’re not just buying your work, they’re buying your minutes, and that dynamic kills trust before the project even starts. 

That’s when I stopped selling time and started selling outcomes. Now I price based on deliverables. Clear scope = clear boundaries. 

And the shift in my clients? Immediate. They stopped micromanaging, and started investing. They lean in. They relax. They finally know what they’re getting, and they know it’s worth it. 

Even though I rarely charge hourly anymore (sometimes there IS a reason to charge hourly, more on that later…), I still need to know what my time is worth. 

Not for the client. For me. 

It’s a way to check-in: does this rate actually support the life I’m building? Does it make sense for my skills, my energy, and the kind of work I want to be doing?

Because when you don’t have that internal benchmark, it’s way too easy to wing it. You start throwing out numbers that “feel fair” without realizing your pricing from fear or comparison. You say “yes” to projects that quietly chip away at your time and energy because they looked fine on paper, but the math doesn’t support you or your business. You overcompensate. You second-guess. You burnout. 

Knowing my own hourly range — what I need to make vs. what I want to make— gave me the grounding I didn’t even realize I was missing. Even if I never show that number to a client, it gives me clarity. I’m not just guessing anymore or building prices out of thin air. I’m invoicing with intention. 

That’s what led me to create the Freelance Rate Calculator: a (free) tool that works backwards from the income you actually want to earn, and shows you the hourly rate that gets you there. It helps you understand your minimum, your ideal, and how to translate those numbers into project pricing that works for your business, not against it. 

It’s about knowing where the floor is so you stop falling through it. 

Try it out. See if you’re charging appropriately. Plug in your numbers and see what comes up: Download the Freelance Rate Calculator

No more guessing. No more “does this sound fair?” Just a clear, grounded foundation that makes space for the kind of work—and life—you actually want.