sometimes fixed pricing makes sense
i’ve paid fixed pricing and i’ve taken fixed pricing it depends on the situation
my favorite way to charge is on a per month basis
if they start to abuse you, push back, if you can’t or they are good at manipulation leave
also different people have different preferences for some the tracking of hours is painful, for others it’s comforting and fair
meet the client or the consultant where they are at
My experience is that fixed price only works for very short (days and weeks, not months) projects that can be scoped very strictly. Even then, there’s a lot of risk of miscommunication and uncomfortable discussions. My rule of thumb is that if I’m doing a fixed price contract, it can’t be longer than two weeks. This usually amounts to very targeted fixes, upgrades, research projects. Things that are typically not so hard to time box.
i’ll roughly give you ~20 hours a week for the next 3 months but if you don’t use it you lose it
granted if their utilization drops off too much the contract gets re priced or paused
the most money i’ve made is when i can be comfortable having an uncomfortable conversation up front with occasional nope thrown
and all that matters is that you deliver *visible* value
Its less a fixed price deliverable, and more pre-buy some hours for a discounted rate.
If the project is delivered and there are hours left, I came out ahead, if the hours run out, but I'm only a few hours from delivered, I will throw those in for free just to finish out the project.
Charging per month of work is not that.