Jonathan Stark

The consultant, speaker and author explains why he thinks hourly billing is nuts, and how a “treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen” approach to clients can really work.

- Tom May

For anyone working in the world of mobile, Jonathan Stark is a man worth talking to. He’s been providing mobile strategy, training and development as president of Jonathan Stark Consulting since 2007. His ‘Jonathan’s Card experiment’ made global headlines in 2011 by combining mobile payments with social giving at Starbucks across the US. He’s a popular speaker, has written three books on mobile and web development and hosts a weekly tech podcast with Kelli Shaver called Terrifying Robot Dog.

So Stark who’s based in Providence, Rhode Island, and has worked in tech since 2002, knows a lot about where the industry is going, and where web designers and developers are getting things wrong. When it comes to the latter, he’s got two words for you: hourly billing. Spoiler alert: he’s not a fan.

“It’s just this thing that everyone is used to, and typically no one even considers an alternative,” said Stark. “When people start freelancing, their immediate thought is ‘How much should I charge per hour?’, not ‘How should I charge?’” But as the title of his latest book proclaims, Jonathan Stark believes that Hourly Billing Is Nuts. “Hourly billing for professional services is a horrible practice for everyone involved,” he argued. “It devalues the expertise of the consultant and encourages mistrust in the client, because the financial incentives of the two parties are misaligned.”

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As long as you bill hourly, clients will see you as a ‘hired help’ to be directed, Stark said. “But you’re better than that. You’re the expert at what you do, your clients are not. So stop letting clients tell you how to do your job; take back control. You need to sell your head, not your hands.”