The case against the billable hour.

Matt Homann

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the [non]billable hour

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3 min read

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Dec 28, 2015

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Once upon a time, I was a lawyer. I didn’t bill by the hour. You shouldn’t either. Here’s why.

Ask your clients what they buy from you. If it isn’t time, stop selling it.

Your time is irrelevant to your clients. The time they care about is their own.

Time is elusive. You know how much you have, but you don’t always know where you’ve put it.

You can’t compete on time. It is the only thing you and your competitors possess in equal measure.

Time punishes talent. It makes the firm’s most valuable employees the ones who take longest to do their work.

Free time’s never free. When you charge for your time, you’ve now put a price on every single minute of your day.

Your time is likely wrong most of the time. If you don’t believe your time sheets are 100% accurate, why should your clients?

Time costs you money. It doesn’t pay your salary, but it sure can limit it.

Time is expensive. The cost of keeping it is likely one of your business’ biggest monthly expenses.

Time punishes expertise. Your flash of brilliant inspiration likely cost your client less than the time you spent billing them for it.

Laziness comes with time. If you can’t take a long time to do something, it isn’t worth doing.

You don’t own your time. Once you start selling it, your time no longer belongs to you.