7 Problems with Hiring Copywriters Hourly Agree?
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If you're thinking about hiring a copywriter for your next sales launch, email promos, or whatever your project, you'll most likely benefit by getting involved in this discussion.
Copywriters for hire might want to chime in, too.
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Does the growth of your business rely on the output of others?
If you’re trying to grow an agency then it probably does, which is awesome for sure.
But unlike fast food restaurant employees, if you’re relying on creativity then paying your workers on an hourly basis actually creates a conflict of interest for you.
How?
Well, the creative process doesn’t quite work as meticulously as mechanical processes.
While, yes, you can do things to consistently stimulate the creative process so that it works more routinely than not, the truth is creativity is a byproduct of chaos.
In fact, the most creative and innovative among us generally rely on a healthy diet of various informational input for our creative output.
You’re not going to get a lot of creativity from the Mickie D’s employee, and the way that business is run, you don’t want to, either.
No.
Those employees are just cogs in a wheel (which is the basis for the minimum wage debacle you've probably heard about recently).
And unless your business is setup in a way that you can safely and predictably create consistent & fairly homogeneous output, and you’re not looking for any creativity then you’re setting up a working arrangement that is designed to fail.
Why?
1. The employee / contractor has to work against the clock, and whenever you increase speed of output you’re naturally trading off on the quality of that output.
That's just how it goes.
Do you want the best your money can buy for a service that’s, hopefully, designed to increase your return on investment or do you just want content that’s “meh”?
What is driving you to hire the way you are?
Is it function or form?
Is it to look pretty and have what everyone else has or it's purpose to stand out from the sea of sameness and actually make you money?
2. Hourly output encourages workers to milk the clock.
What is their incentive for giving you their best work sooner?
Yes, they might be able to crank out great quality content fast because they’re so experienced and so versed in their craft that they could bang this out relatively fast, but why in the world should they?
They have no incentive to do so.
3. Yes, you can fix your costs by setting maximum limits, but if you attach a time factor to how much you’ll spend and then you want revisions….that means you have to put more money in the meter, right?
Any changes you request with that hourly model will most likely be met with requests for more money.
That probably threw a little monkey wrench in your fixed game plan, huh?
4. Most freelance workers look at the hourly model as a transitional phase in their career.
Most folks that do hourly are coming out of traditional work settings that rely on the hourly convention so it’s definitely something they are used to and a model they typically understand, however….
They’re also looking for more, for the most part.
More freedom.
More passive income.
More options.
Most are passively (if not actively) interested in figuring out ways to untether how much they are paid from how much time they spend doing a task.
The first step to doing that is to first not limit your productive output to time.
Once the freelancer figures that out you're basically working with someone who's already tuned you out.
By the way, the reason they went into freelancing was to try and claim some of that freedom lifestyle stuff that’s always being touted and is pretty prevalent on the interwebs.
Their mind is already set to “hourly bad...passive good.”
So, unless you’re hourly fee is outrageous...you’re probably not fostering a long term client, necessarily.
5. You typically have more churn with your hourly contractors.
Why?
Remember when I just said they’re always looking for greener pastures?
Well, we both know pastures aren’t always greener, but human psychology is funny.
All they have to do is believe there’s a better opportunity and they’ll leave you faster than a gold digger that finds out you’re broke.
If the next guy is offering more money...guess where they’re goin’.
6. Flat fee gets you the best of everything…
The best possible quality, in the shortest amount of time possible (just set a deadline) and you can even safeguard yourself by working in revisions and payment provisions as part of your deal.
If your seller is any good, he / she usually wants to get paid fast for their work so they’ll do their best in the shortest amount of time possible because there is no clock to milk and they want to get paid yesterday.
Flat fee handles this.
7. Flat fee actually weeds out experts (or at least those that consider themselves experts, lol).
Now, if your goal is to micromanage then as a provider you’re going to be doing a lot of that when you hire non experts.
But if you’re looking to delegate work and actually relieve yourself of the stress and tension and headaches associated with micromanagement or, also known as, babysitting then getting experts on board is what you want right?
I mean imagine you go see your mechanic and he starts asking you what he should do to fix your car’s problems.
Or, if you go see your account and he starts asking you “what goes in this box?”
Or, what if you visited your doctor and he starts asking you what he should do about your back problem?
Those folks are supposed to be experts.
You’re typically paying for expertise, right?
Flat fee is typically associated with expertise pricing.
So, there you have it.
Now you at least have an idea why hourly might not be the best choice for you and some great reasons why you might want to start testing out the flat fee model.
But, if you’re just running a mill and churn and burn is what you’re after then by all means I don’t want you to stop what you’re doing.
After all, mills serve a function, too.
What do you think?
Do you prefer hourly or flat fee?
Why?
Regards,
Los
If you're thinking about hiring a copywriter for your next sales launch, email promos, or whatever your project, you'll most likely benefit by getting involved in this discussion.
Copywriters for hire might want to chime in, too.
************************************************** *************
Does the growth of your business rely on the output of others?
If you’re trying to grow an agency then it probably does, which is awesome for sure.
But unlike fast food restaurant employees, if you’re relying on creativity then paying your workers on an hourly basis actually creates a conflict of interest for you.
How?
Well, the creative process doesn’t quite work as meticulously as mechanical processes.
While, yes, you can do things to consistently stimulate the creative process so that it works more routinely than not, the truth is creativity is a byproduct of chaos.
In fact, the most creative and innovative among us generally rely on a healthy diet of various informational input for our creative output.
You’re not going to get a lot of creativity from the Mickie D’s employee, and the way that business is run, you don’t want to, either.
No.
Those employees are just cogs in a wheel (which is the basis for the minimum wage debacle you've probably heard about recently).
And unless your business is setup in a way that you can safely and predictably create consistent & fairly homogeneous output, and you’re not looking for any creativity then you’re setting up a working arrangement that is designed to fail.
Why?
1. The employee / contractor has to work against the clock, and whenever you increase speed of output you’re naturally trading off on the quality of that output.
That's just how it goes.
Do you want the best your money can buy for a service that’s, hopefully, designed to increase your return on investment or do you just want content that’s “meh”?
What is driving you to hire the way you are?
Is it function or form?
Is it to look pretty and have what everyone else has or it's purpose to stand out from the sea of sameness and actually make you money?
2. Hourly output encourages workers to milk the clock.
What is their incentive for giving you their best work sooner?
Yes, they might be able to crank out great quality content fast because they’re so experienced and so versed in their craft that they could bang this out relatively fast, but why in the world should they?
They have no incentive to do so.
3. Yes, you can fix your costs by setting maximum limits, but if you attach a time factor to how much you’ll spend and then you want revisions….that means you have to put more money in the meter, right?
Any changes you request with that hourly model will most likely be met with requests for more money.
That probably threw a little monkey wrench in your fixed game plan, huh?
4. Most freelance workers look at the hourly model as a transitional phase in their career.
Most folks that do hourly are coming out of traditional work settings that rely on the hourly convention so it’s definitely something they are used to and a model they typically understand, however….
They’re also looking for more, for the most part.
More freedom.
More passive income.
More options.
Most are passively (if not actively) interested in figuring out ways to untether how much they are paid from how much time they spend doing a task.
The first step to doing that is to first not limit your productive output to time.
Once the freelancer figures that out you're basically working with someone who's already tuned you out.
By the way, the reason they went into freelancing was to try and claim some of that freedom lifestyle stuff that’s always being touted and is pretty prevalent on the interwebs.
Their mind is already set to “hourly bad...passive good.”
So, unless you’re hourly fee is outrageous...you’re probably not fostering a long term client, necessarily.
5. You typically have more churn with your hourly contractors.
Why?
Remember when I just said they’re always looking for greener pastures?
Well, we both know pastures aren’t always greener, but human psychology is funny.
All they have to do is believe there’s a better opportunity and they’ll leave you faster than a gold digger that finds out you’re broke.
If the next guy is offering more money...guess where they’re goin’.
6. Flat fee gets you the best of everything…
The best possible quality, in the shortest amount of time possible (just set a deadline) and you can even safeguard yourself by working in revisions and payment provisions as part of your deal.
If your seller is any good, he / she usually wants to get paid fast for their work so they’ll do their best in the shortest amount of time possible because there is no clock to milk and they want to get paid yesterday.
Flat fee handles this.
7. Flat fee actually weeds out experts (or at least those that consider themselves experts, lol).
Now, if your goal is to micromanage then as a provider you’re going to be doing a lot of that when you hire non experts.
But if you’re looking to delegate work and actually relieve yourself of the stress and tension and headaches associated with micromanagement or, also known as, babysitting then getting experts on board is what you want right?
I mean imagine you go see your mechanic and he starts asking you what he should do to fix your car’s problems.
Or, if you go see your account and he starts asking you “what goes in this box?”
Or, what if you visited your doctor and he starts asking you what he should do about your back problem?
Those folks are supposed to be experts.
You’re typically paying for expertise, right?
Flat fee is typically associated with expertise pricing.
So, there you have it.
Now you at least have an idea why hourly might not be the best choice for you and some great reasons why you might want to start testing out the flat fee model.
But, if you’re just running a mill and churn and burn is what you’re after then by all means I don’t want you to stop what you’re doing.
After all, mills serve a function, too.
What do you think?
Do you prefer hourly or flat fee?
Why?
Regards,
Los
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