March 12, 2025

Cease & Desist

Fellow list member Tim Burris replied to a recent message to ask (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) that I abandon my mission to rid the world of hourly billing (shared with permission, bold mine):

Jonathan,

Your email arrived just as I was just thinking about your effort to rid the world of hourly billing, which I was previously completely onboard with. However, now I’m issuing a stop order on your efforts. All the people out there in the world who are billing by the hour have made my life SO EASY.

Just yesterday, I was hired by a client in no short part because I gave her a price to deliver an outcome. It took her some time to accept that I did not need to count hours or draw up complex agreements about what was “in scope” or “out of scope”.

She is not the first client who has been in shock and also elated that someone could deliver what they say without charging for hours spent. Sometimes it’s value-priced, sometimes fixed-priced, but regardless, people are more than willing to hire me because they know the cost (yes, I still must deliver the outcome, which I do).

If you successfully rid the world of hourly billing, I might have to actually have to try to win clients. So, please stop ridding the world of hourly billing; hourly billers make me look awesome 😊

Thanks in advance,

-Tim

Thanks to Tim for sending in a success story disguised as a cease and desist letter LOL!

Yours,

—J

P.S. If you need more proof that hourly billing is nuts, get the book.

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