a single source, nothing corroborates it

Refuse a fixed bid on work nobody has specified

A client who cannot yet describe what they want will keep reshaping it until it matches the picture in their head, and on a fixed price every reshape comes out of your margin. Reserve flat fees for productized work, small bounded scopes and problems you have solved repeatedly, which is what niching down buys you. Where taste rather than function decides when something is finished, bill that part by the hour inside the fixed bid and tell the client why.

The method

1. 01

   Refuse fixed bids on work the client cannot yet specify, because they will keep reshaping the feature until it matches the picture in their head while your margin drains away.

2. 02

   Answer rate objections with the point that a fixed scope locks the client into what they want today rather than what the business needs by the end of the build.

3. 03

   Separate objective work from taste-driven work in the quote and bill anything subjective by the hour even inside a fixed bid, telling the client why.

4. 04

   Accept that per-requirement pricing means negotiating and approving every part of a large project separately, and again whenever a stakeholder changes their mind after seeing the work.

5. 05

   Reserve fixed pricing for a productized service, a small bounded scope, or a problem you have solved many times before.

What it returned

• Dunn names being talked into fixed bids as the one thing he regrets from his freelance career.

• A password reset feature has one definition of finished, a landing page design is finished only when the client says so, and every revision round eats the margin.

Sources

• 6 Tips To Help You Create Better Estimates - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Identify what’s subjective · 2012-03-13
• How To Convince Your Clients To Pay You Hourly - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · How To Convince Your Clients To Pay You Hourly · 2012-03-18
• The Definitive Guide To Project Billing - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Per Feature or Requirement · 2013-07-30
• Value-Price, or Value-Anchor? - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · When to use value-based pricing · 2015-04-20