November 13, 2026

What if someone faster comes along?

In response to my Work Slower message, I got a handful of questions that asked about short-term vs. long-term incentives.

To paraphrase:

But if Alice works slower on purpose, eventually someone faster (and therefore cheaper) will come along and take Alice’s clients, right?

It’s wild how many subtle implications are packed into that short question.

Here are three:

It implies that hourly rates are static
It implies that an hourly estimate is a price
It implies that all clients want the cheapest option

I’ll comment on each briefly:

It implies that hourly rates are static—How fast an hourly biller can complete a job is just one part of the calculation. How many hours the project is going to take gets multiplied by the seller’s hourly rate. So “faster” only matters if the faster competitor has an hourly rate that works out to be a lower final price than Alice’s final price when multiplied by the total hours.

It implies that an hourly estimate is a price—When Alice or her competitor presents a client with an estimate, it will be some number of hours times an hourly rate. This is not a price! This is an estimate. Hourly estimates force the client to make a buying decision based on a fake price. The actual price will not be known until after the project is completed. Which means that the client will never actually know who is cheaper.

It implies that all clients want the cheapest option—Some clients are what’s called “price buyers” and only care about how much something costs. Other clients care more about quality, comfort, convenience, status, and a dozen other things. You can work with price buyers if you want, but that’s going to lead to a very low-margin business. Instead, you can refuse to work with people who only care about price and differentiate yourself in a way that non-price buyers are looking for.

Questions? Just hit reply!

Yours,

—J