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Several years ago we made the decision @SouthpointFilms to stop doing half day rates. The reason? For a long time we knew that half a day was never really half a day.
You still put the same amount of effort into planning for a half day shoot as a full day shoot. You still need the same kit, which is still out for a whole day and can’t be used on other projects. That kit still needs prepping beforehand and putting away after.
Additionally, in our experience, most people wanted to start their half day in the morning. It was rare that we’d get any bookings in the afternoon or evening. So there was no opportunity to book two shoots back-to-back. (Plus how do you replenish between two shoots like that?)
It also got trickier when a shoot started at a random time like 11AM. If you’re not finishing until 3PM, the timing of that half day is occupying the entire day.
Even at the time, our half day rate wasn’t 50% of our day rate, justified by the above. This confused clients. They quizzed us about why they weren’t getting a 50% discount on our time. The truth was it was never about our time. So we dropped the half day rate.
In their place we adopted comparatively expensive hourly rates. When stacked up, these hourly rates are a significant premium over our day rate. But if someone has a project that legitimately needs an hour or two, we can still give them a lower rate.
Projects that typically use the hourly rate are things like aerial filming and photography, where we might fly our drone on site for an hour and that’s it – job done. Needless to say, life is much simpler.
There’s real no story to this thread, but if you’re a creative freelancer / small business charging for your time, think carefully about what anything other than a “day” actually takes you.
A half day is rarely just four hours. An hour is rarely just one hour. Think about the prep, admin, paperwork associated with every project – no matter how small. Make sure you charge accordingly. 
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There’s a line of thinking that charging for time is the worst way to price yourself as a freelancer / small business. I don& #39;t personally subscribe – Time-based billing works for us. It doesn’t for others.
Obviously anything to do with pricing is subject to what your business does and how you work. But this is just something I’ve been thinking about recently, further prompted by a few requests today for our half day rates.
So, open call – What do you think?
So, open call – What do you think?
