All projects are charged per hour after a deposit. Any agreed flat rate is based on the hourly rate and the average time. Most often when you hear “price per hour”, you get the idea that time will be estimated in a way that does not reflect the actual time spent on the job.
To charge honest hours, I use time tracking software that records all time spent in applications like Photoshop and even time spent on your website address. Every second can be accounted for along with enabling me to provide better time estimations based on trends in work speed.
After going through each day’s log to see the time spent specifically on your project, time can be added up and calculated. Creation of concepts will be considered work time and once a concept or concepts are decided upon, a note is made and work after that time is considered editing time which is a lower rate. The minimum rate is a quarter hour which is 15 minutes.
When charging flat rates for designs to repeat customers, those charges can potentially be costly as it relates to the client’s budget and the designer’s time. Accurate hours makes being a repeat customer sustainable. It becomes less costly as design time decreases through familiarity with your brand. At the same time, the set rate will still compensate the designer for any time spent.
Knowing this, you no longer have to be anxious about your brand or your next promotion looking unprofessional because of high costs.