August 7, 2026

Scoping First is Backward

PRE-S: This coming Wednesday at noon ET, I’m running a live Zoom workshop called Stop Pricing Like a Freelancer as part of the Soloist Growth Series. If you’re still secretly basing your project proposals on hours, this one’s for you. Register now »

Most fixed-price proposals are built backwards.

Folks start by asking:

• What all do they want me to do?
• How long do I think it will take?

And then they multiply the guesstimated hours by their made-up hourly rate and send a fixed-price proposal.

It’s no wonder that hourly billers always get burned when they dabble with fixed-price projects.

This method is effectively still hourly billing, but with all of the upside removed!!!

There’s a better way

A much more profitable way to calculate fixed prices is this:

1. Uncover the buyer’s desired future state.
2. Estimate their perceived value of the future state.
3. Set a price that is a fraction of their perceived value.
4. Design a scope you would gladly deliver for that price.

In other words:

Scope last.

Not because scope is unimportant.

Scope is important.

But scope is your cost.

And your cost is not the buyer’s problem.

They don’t care how long it’s going to take you.

They just want the result.

In fact... the faster, the better.

Yours,

—J

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