September 2, 2025
Success story from reader David Whippel
Fellow list member David Wippel (who I believe has been subscribed to this mailing list for 8+ years?!) replied to my last message with a success story about facing the fears associated with ditching hourly billing (shared with permission, bold mine):
I went through that transition years ago. I still remember all the fears my co-founders and I had at the beginning...
- What about if we estimate wrong and the fixed price is not “enough”?
- Shall we add a 30% buffer for unknowns?
- Or double our estimates?
- The whole industry is used to billing by the hour... why should we change that?
I still pushed through, and yes, we went through a lot of pain as we learned the difference between billing and pricing. And how low our margins have been with hourly billing (probably the most painful discovery).
Now, after I left my agency and built another company. Fixed prices from the start... and it’s better than ever. It’s more common now that I make 100% or more profit from a project. Because my incentive to get better and better in delivery is WAY higher. WAY.
And all thanks to your book. I guess I never told you how thankful I am for it. Thank you, Jonathan. Really changed everything for me.
I guess back then we only thought that we were good at what we were doing. But we were just lazy. Putting all the risk on the client while STILL expecting to make a fortune. Which is not how things work.
Best,
David
Congrats to David on his successful transition!
I hope this story will inspire others to take the leap of faith required to ditch hourly billing.
As David discovered, it’s a game-changer.
Yours,
—J