You can't invoice for input

[Andy Black]

"You can't invoice for input."
(Blaise Brosnan)

Just because you spent a lot of time making that pizza doesn't mean you can charge for it if you deliver it to the wrong address.

Just because you're listening to podcasts, reading books, or taking courses doesn't mean you can invoice anyone.

Same goes for getting certifications (unless you can't invoice without certifications or clients trust you more because of them).



I also read that advice as "Don't invoice for input."

Say I use a tool to bulk create thousands of Google Ads in minutes instead of creating them individually by hand over 2 weeks. Should I charge less because it took me less time, or should I charge more because the client didn't have to wait 2 weeks for the campaigns to go live?

If you're used to an hourly wage then you might be tempted to charge less as you get more efficient and effective. If it takes you less time to deliver X you might be tempted to reduce the fee for delivering X.

That's you charging for input again, and not output.

What if the end customer sees a value in getting X delivered in less time? Maybe they'll want to pay a premium for that, and there you go offering it for a lower fee.



(I've linked to this in a master thread of my favourite one-liners here.)

 

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[Subsonic]

"You can't invoice for input."
(Blaise Brosnan)

Just because you spent a lot of time making that pizza doesn't mean you can charge for it if you deliver it to the wrong address.

Just because you're listening to podcasts, reading books, or taking courses doesn't mean you can invoice anyone.

Same goes for getting certifications (unless you can't invoice without them of course, or clients trust you more because of them).



I also read that line as "Don't invoice for input."

Say I use a tool to bulk create thousands of Google Ads in minutes instead of doing them individually by hand over 2 weeks. Should I charge less because it took me less time, or should I charge more because the client didn't have to wait 2 weeks for the campaigns to go live?

If you're used to an hourly wage then you might be tempted to charge less as you get more efficient and effective. If it takes you less time to deliver X then you might be tempted to reduce the fee for delivering X.

That's you charging for input again, and not output.

What if the end customer sees a value in getting X delivered in less time? Maybe they'll want to pay a premium for that, and you're actually offering it for a lower fee?



(I've linked to this in a master thread of my favourite one-liners here.)

Just started applying this on my copywriting job.

Now I am using chatgpt more than before and it yields better results in a quater of the time it would normally take me to write a 2k words article.

Now instead of writing most of the article myself and using gpt for inspiration, I let it write most of the article with detailed instructions and then just fix the text so it does not look like cheat ai text.

 

[heavy_industry]

Excellent way of putting it @Andy Black

We all have the bias of pricing something higher if we've put in a lot of effort into making it, and use lower pricing for things that were easy to create due to our superior competence and efficiency.

I think this bias is due to our instinct for being fair and having reciprocity, but that doesn't make it less irrational.

Nobody cares how hard you worked.
They only care whether or not you managed to solve their problem.

 

[BizyDad]

Nobody cares how hard you worked.
They only care whether or not you managed to solve their problem.

A small subset of the populace absolutely cares how hard you worked.

They will feel ripped off if you can fix their problem in 5 minutes and charge them as if it took 5 hours.

As sad as it is, there are times when you have to make it look like you're taking more time to complete something then you really do. But do it within reason...

"I'll get this done by tomorrow" is usually fast enough for any business. You'll get sufficient bonus points for being fast if you say that. Even if you can get it done within 5 minutes.

Additionally, as you grow and scale, if you set the expectation that you can get things done fast, that can lead to other problems as well because later you will have a lot more on your plate, and won't have the time to get things done fast.

I've had to learn these lessons the hard way. Hopefully people reading this will learn it the easy way...

 

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[heavy_industry]

They will feel ripped off if you can fix their problem in 5 minutes and charge them as if it took 5 hours.

What those people fail to understand is that you've spent the last 5 years leaning how to solve a problem in 5 minutes. People don't become hyper competent by accident, they have paid a big price for it.

If your customers are so smart, they should go ahead and fix the problem themselves.


Case in point:
Brain surgery only takes a few hours. But the training required to become a top level surgeon takes decades.

 

[Andy Black]

What those people fail to understand is that you've spent the last 5 years leaning how to solve a problem in 5 minutes. People don't become hyper competent by accident, they have paid a big price for it.

If your customers are so smart, they should go ahead and fix the problem themselves.


Case in point:
Brain surgery only takes a few hours. But the training required to become a top level surgeon takes decades.

As per this parable:

The Old Engineer and the Hammer

www.buzzmaven.com