Work
2 min read
Pricing the Afternoon
I stopped selling hours. Now I sell afternoons, and clients understand them better than I expected.
From the series · Notes from a Small Studio
By Mara Ellison · Lisbon
An hour is a strange thing to sell, because nobody buys one on purpose. Clients buy an outcome; the hour is just the unit we invented to argue about it. Two years ago I stopped quoting hours and started quoting afternoons: four focused hours with one clear question to answer.[1]
Why an afternoon
An afternoon is long enough to get somewhere and short enough to stay honest. It maps to how design work actually feels: one real problem, some thinking, a sketch or two, and a written note at the end. Nobody asks what I did in minute forty-seven.
How it works
A client books a number of afternoons, not a number of hours.
Each afternoon ends with a short written summary and the next question.
If a question is answered early, the rest of the afternoon is mine.[2]
What changed
Invoices got simpler. Conversations got better. And I stopped feeling guilty for the forty minutes I spent staring out of the window, which, it turns out, is often where the useful part of the afternoon happened.[3]
Notes
I borrowed the idea, loosely, from photographers who sell half-day and full-day sessions.
This is the part clients like least at first and appreciate most later.
Part three, on saying no to good work, is coming later this year.
Written by
Mara Ellison
Product designer in Lisbon. Writes about quiet software, attention and the slow craft of making things.
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