Now that I primarily work by the hour, I’m stunned at just how difficult it is to get to a full 40 billable hours.
“Billable” basically means that I’m actively working for a client. That is, I’m writing code, or leading a call, or configuring something, or talking strategy, or whatever. Yes, being on a conference call counts, as does being at an on-site meeting. But lunch doesn’t, or travel time, or waiting around for an email so I can move forward on something, or waiting for a call that ends up getting canceled.
So when I started measuring up weekly hours, it was kind of shocking how relatively difficult it is to get to that magical “full-time” number of 40…and I’m probably busier now than I was when I had a regular full-time job. A pretty “full” day sometimes involves only 5 or 6 actual hours of productive work.
Maybe I’m an outlier in that most people are actually busier in their regular jobs. I tend to think, though, that there’s a lot of overhead in a salaried position that doesn’t really get recorded. Some of that is good: management by walking around, hallway discussions, and all the interpersonal interactions that are a key part of a healthy organization. It’s also worth saying that, as stated in Tom DeMarco’s famous “Slack,” 100% capacity utilization in knowledge workers is not a good thing.
The problem is, being a freelancer, a) you don’t have a ton of interpersonal interaction unless you’re actually doing meaningful, formal work with a client, and b) it’s not that easy to convince a client to pay you for time you spend just thinking about things. Furthermore, you’re most likely getting paid to perform a specific task, not to dream up a solution to a problem yet unsolved.
On the positive side, that “problem yet unsolved” is another project you can (potentially) sell. It’s also really nice that when you’re off the clock, you’re off the clock…if there’s no work to do, you can knock off long before 5 with no repercussions. Ideally, you’d fill that time by trying to drum up more work…
I’m curious, though…what are other people’s experiences with filling time? Is it just me, or is there really a lot of non-productive time? And is that ok? Should I be figuring out a way to charge for “thinking time”?
My sentiments exactly. It is VERY hard to put in 40 without working on the weekend. I spend a lot of time managing invoices, taxes, payroll, etc, so that fills a lot of my empty time. You ate now running your own business, and soon it will be clear to you that all the previously mentioned tasks are just a time drain for you as they could be done by a monkey. So good luck hiring one, sometimes they are a little bitey.
I always charge for thinking time. Most clients can’t realize that, so I tend not to tell them, but it’s the reality of the job. When u worked 40 @ a ‘job’ plenty of time was spent thinking of the best solution for xyz project. So bill for it. I use harvest, it has an awesome invoicing system. Also an iPhone app for time as well as an easy web interface. Can’t recommend it enough!