Barbara,

>It's certainly given me another bullet in the arsenal I use to convince a client that "I'm the one". It may not be the right justification for this recent project, but it may be just what I need for the next one. Thanks, anyway for the idea (and to Jim Duffy, too, of course). I wasn't trying to denigrate the idea, but just show that a contractor needs multiple approaches which can be tailored to the client.

The idea Cindy mentioned was taught in a consulting seminar I attended years ago -- they called it "value-based pricing". It's the idea that a project should NOT be based solely on how much time we spend producing it, but rather on the value to the business.

From that perspective, you can sometimes find projects that are worth $30,000 to a client, that cost only a few hours to develop. If you are locked in to hourly pricing, you will probably feel guilty about the above scenario, but the business owner may feel that the price is very fair.

I'd say add "value-based pricing" as an alternative view on every project -- it can often keep you from unreasonably underpricing a job due to fear of client's reaction.