I am not a collection of hours

I am the product of every hour I’ve worked up to this point

A consultant needs to be able to communicate their value to a client. Except it’s often easy for me to forget all of the work I’ve done to get to get to this stage of my career. How do I account for all of the blood, sweat, and tutorials that have gone into mastering my trade? When I tell the client, “yes I can do that no problem,” I want to make sure I’m fully appreciating the work that allows me to say that confidently.

Suppose I estimate a new project to take 60 hours from start to finish: that’s all the time spent brainstorming, strategizing, meeting with the client, breathing life into the project, and anything else that may come up along the way. If all goes well, the client will have a finished product we’re both proud of after 60 hours of work time. I did 60 hours of literal work.

But that doesn’t cover the time I’ve already invested to be able to complete the project in 60 hours and not 90, 120, or 150. The project I’m embarking upon may require 60 working hours, but that number is a direct result of every hour I’ve spent up until this moment honing my craft.

How many hours has that been? About 4 and a half years worth.

To a client those 4 and a half years mean a lot and have innate value. Let me repeat that so I’ll remember it; the 4 and a half years I’ve already spent learning my craft have great value.

When coming up with project cost, it seems like multiplying estimated hours by hourly rate is the most honest thing to do. I could do that but I’d be selling both myself and the client short.

If a client wanted to only pay for 60 hours of time and development experience they wouldn’t hire me. They’d consider hiring someone with 0 hours of experience to do 60 hours of work and then hoping for the best.

Most people understand this: no one goes to see a doctor with no experience. This is why medical school students spend so much time gaining real world experience through practicums.

Most people want to hire someone who’s a product of hours spent honing their craft. They want someone with projects, learning, and experience under their belt.

Potential clients know and recognize this, but do I? Am I factoring this into what I charge?

Being able to step back, reflect, and understand the whole of the skills and expertise I bring to the table takes a bit of practice and some good old fashioned believing in myself. My worth is that of a skilled, confident, experienced worker, and all of those come together to define my value.

Yes, value, or bang for your buck. That’s the difference between me and someone unskilled doing the same project. As a consultant with years of experience, I bring more value to the table than an unskilled worker this is what I continually remind myself. My value isn’t a number of hours but a product of every hour spent honing my craft up to this moment in time.