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Money · 23 August 2026 · 6 min
Stop selling hours
An hour measures cost, not value. Hourly pricing punishes exactly the thing you're best at.
The better you get, the faster you solve the problem - and the less you earn on an hourly model. It's the only system where competence reduces income.
Moving to packages
- Define the outcome: what the client has at the end that they don't have now.
- Fix the scope: how many revisions, meetings, what deadline.
- Estimate your typical time and multiply by your target rate - that's your floor, not your price.
- Test the new price on three new clients before touching existing ones.
The client doesn't want 20 hours of work. They want the problem gone by Friday.
About the author
Nikolay Kirilov
Nikolay Kirilov is an entrepreneur, business mentor and founder of NK Academy. He works across strategy, sales, operations and technology.
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