Ah, the seldom used 3rd definition of "Hacked": "To abruptly remove large portions of".<p>This freelancer seems to have contrived a way to work the equivilant of two billable weeks (spread out over a presumably longer amount of calendar time) at a tiny fraction of his market rate.<p>Hopefully the marketing effect of articles like this one will result in a significant uptick in his workload. If not, he's not only put in a bunch of work at a terrible bill rate. But he's signaled to the world that the correct price for his work going forward is $76/hour.<p>Not the best place to be. Here's hoping another hundred-odd people buy time from him so at least the final number looks respectable.
I really like this idea. I'm planning on starting to freelance in a few months, and one of the things that really worried me was setting rates. I know how much runway I have to make it a success, and I'm confident I can get work pricing myself below market rates (anyone can sell $5 for $4 forever). But I've heard a lot of people say you shouldn't try to be the lowest-priced option, because then you end up with clients who don't respect your time. I was worried that I might have to choose between market rates and be outcompeted by people with better portfolios, and low rates and clients I didn't like. This seems like a great third way. Start out below market, and raise my hourly rate by $1 for every 100 hours. I'll have plenty of time for portfolio building, even if I have to hustle for people who aren't my ideal clients (which actually sounds like a necessary experience anyway). Then when my rate goes up, if those customers don't think my time is that valuable, we can just part ways.
The key insight here is that it's complelety acceptable for freelancers to charge different rates for different clients. Many new freelancers, even if they accept that premise in theory, are uncomfortable asking one client to pay 300/hr if another is paying 100/hr.<p>That's only possible if you can infer a client's ability to pay and match your quote to their expectations. You can earn much more if you're able to adjust your rates on the fly, which is one of the reasons most freelancers do not list a rate on their public website.
I am thinking of stealing this idea to offer finance advise (mainly advise on: cash flow planning/forecasting, financial planning, how to read statements, setting up controls and reports). I like it because I would start cheap with little experience in consulting (while I do work in controlling in a multi co) and get more expensive the more experience I gain. Also, 1 to 3 hours buckets might actually work very well for this type of freelancing.
This is the freelancer's site mentioned in the article <a href="https://onehour.me/" rel="nofollow">https://onehour.me/</a><p>The hourly rate is $91 at time of writing.
I think this would be a great pricing model if applied to tutoring for students. If you find a tutor useful, you'll go back to them. Conversely if you find they weren't helpful, you leave early. So it's up to the tutor to entice you to come back by providing value up-front.<p>However, the primary difference is that you do this logarithmic scaling per student rather than as a set price for everybody.
I had an idea to do something <i>frustratingly similar</i> to this. Not the $wage++ aspect, but to offer discounted rates for 1-2 hours in order to build up interesting business contacts. "Micro-consulting".<p>Well done. 10% of these business contacts will likely want to hire this guy back at some three-figure number, and he will be able to choose the ones he wants to work with in the future.
It strikes me that an hourly rate that increases over the life of a project might be a way for a freelancer to skew his billable hours toward new development and away from maintenance. It also reflects the fact that the freelancer’s knowledge of a particular client becomes more valuable over time. On the other hand, an increasing hourly rate is a tougher sell to potential clients.
Letting others tell you your price is the weakest negotiation position to be in. No wonder it's been holding steady at 76.<p>Does this guy show up to a job interview and when they ask for salary does he respond "you tell me?"<p>Your worth is a constant projection. Learn how to convince people of it, and he'll increase his rate three fold.
"<i>started selling his time for $1 per hour, increasing the price by another dollar each time an hour was sold.</i>"<p>So I'm very confused by the methodology. That description (which seems to be taken from onehour.me) seems to indicate that the price is unbounded and monotonic.
Thats a great PR move, I'm jealous.<p>I had unofficially been doing "startup therapy" for years, but I always treated it as a loss-leader for new business. Probably should have been charging for those meetings, oh well.
(and made $120 in total)<p>This clever PR stunt might cost him a month of free work, or bring him a load of clients. I'd be curious to read a follow-up a couple months from now.