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How do You Prefer to Get Paid? Hourly Vs Flat Rate

by SEODollz
5 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hello Web Design Warriors!

So I'm looking at hiring an additional web designer for my SEO firm since my current one can't keep up with the orders. This isn't a job ad, I'm just trying to figure out how to attract/keep a good designer. Everyone on my team (except for me) is paid hourly (web researcher, content creators, social media manager, video production guy, etc.) and my designer is also hourly but it occurs to me that this may not be the norm for web designers...?

My designer is great but still in school, this time I'd want to add someone with more experience and I'd imagine that a designer that is already independently working might prefer contract work. But then a lot of what they'd be doing is working/retooling on existing sites, so that would be a lot of little contracts and probably a headache for me lol Is there an industry "norm" for this? If you can't tell by now I'd much rather go the hourly route but I want to make sure that's reasonable before I start my search or post any ads. Sorry for my ignorance, thanks for your two cents!
#flat #hourly #paid #prefer #rate
  • Profile picture of the author jbyte
    I normally charge a flat rate to clients. In your case since you are subing out the work, I would try to arrange an hourly rate, or rate per project.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    As a contractor, I don't care for an hourly arrangement. I'd prefer to say I'll accomplish this for $xx. If I do it faster of slower than someone expects, that's my gain or loss, I don't want anyone looking over my shoulder, just the results.

    I had a weekly $$ client recently that went away because they were driving me nuts with "I need a list of what you did yesterday" . I spent endless hours fixing endless problems on an unmanaged dedicated server, and couldn't stop to log every detail.

    That's the way I work and what they wanted, and it was not compatible in the end.
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    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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  • Profile picture of the author jpweb
    It depends on what the client needs, If it's something that will be long term or something that involves research etc.. I usually go hourly. If it's a one shot like designing a flyer or brochure I'll do a one time flat fee.

    What I do now that seems to work the best, is roll in 5 hours with their monthly hosting and label it as a retainer for updates, and whatever work they need. It's a bit tougher sell in the beginning however once you have a few clients locked down the revenue stream is very nice.
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  • Profile picture of the author ziubzia
    I prefer to charge a flat rate, then I can rattle through it according to my timetable rather than having to keep track of hours as this itself is a job
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  • Profile picture of the author jpweb
    Oh Just as an added note, I use liquidplanner.com to keep track of everything I do for a client, how long I am working on things, priorities etc... It is the best service that I have found that best suits a "One man show" for project tracking, also allows creating a team of additional employees, or virtual ones (great for tracking outsourcing)
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