Why we don't bill hourly
The history and current industry billing models
The madmen of the 20th century pioneered the hourly billing model. The tactic was borrowed from high price law firms who ticked up client work and milked cases to extend the billable rate because they felt the standardized fee wasn't keeping them on par with other professional services.
Agencies that use billable hours often have a price sheet that shows the hourly rate each service, design, development, social media, etc. Projects are estimated on a per hour basis to give you the client, the total cost. $150/hour for 150 hours for web design and development your cost is $22,500.
What's the problem?
While many agencies use previous projects to guesstimate the total amount of time needed to complete a project, the truth is estimating is never correct. Sometimes it takes less time, sometimes it takes more time. The problem is if the project takes less time, you the client still get charged the original estimate. If it takes more time, the agency goes back to the client and says they have reached the hourly cap for this project and they need to charge you more. It's not a great feeling for clients when you commit to a job, only to find out you need to pay more money to finish the work. It's sort of like buying an item on sale only to find out you were charged for the full retail price after you left the store.
This tactic, which many agencies love often destroys trust and the client relationship. How can you trust your business partner if the price they've given you wasn't accurate?
The billable hourly also limits us, the creative firm to develop the best strategy to serve our clients needs. Often, resources are shaved because the perception to reduce cost is directly tied to the hour. This increases the clients demand to shift priorities from strategy base solutions to order taking solutions consequently decreasing the quality of work and negating the reason you hired an agency in the first place.
How does The Generous Agency bill?
Since the team at The Generous Agency is built on trust, we've completed destroyed the hourly billing model for branding, advertising, and design work.
Project Based
The Generous Agency offers a transparent project-based billing model that tells you exactly what you will pay for service based on a project brief and scope work. If you stay within the parameters of the project brief, we will never go back and ask you for money we because we didn't estimate correctly.
Retainer Based
The Generous Agency offers retainers for secure creative services based on a weekly or monthly basis.
Shared Risk
Creativity has an exclusive value. The Generous Agency creates strategic partnerships through shared risks to participate in shared outcomes. Contact us today and we'll create a transparent project estimate that you and us will be happy about.
What does that mean for you?
Upfront billing, no surprises ever
If we under bill, we eat the cost
No corner-cutting or short term fixes to raise profits
Creates exact budgets for future planning
We don’t bill for meetings, calls or advice
One flat fee
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The Generous Agency is a Dallas Fort Worth branding and graphic design studio that helps companies implement a better brand experience impacting employees and customers. Sometimes we develop cool stuff. Reach out for a FREE Consultation.