fees: charging for conceptual time

[Rebecca Price <beccap -at- RUST -dot- NET>]

For contract gigs,  how do you charge for time you spend thinking
about how to approach a problem?

My usual approach is to learn all I can about a project, and then,
time permitting, put it on the back burners of my mind for a few days
or so.  Then, after a week of not consciously thinking about it, I
wake up one morning and know how I'm going to approach things, how the
document is to be structured, etc.  Then, basically, it's all over but
the key-stroking.

If I charge just for my writing time, I feel like I'm being a highly
paid typest -- all the real work has been done already.  But I have no
idea what percentage of my mind is occupied with the analysis process,
or how long it took to get there, so I don't know what to charge for
the conceptual time... if anything.

Does it fall into the same category as the mechanic's bill in the old
joke, in that the thinking time is considered in with the per hour fee
for my actual typing time?

the joke, if you haven't heard it, goes something like this.  A man
has a problem with his car, and takes it to a mechanic.  The mechanic
turns on the car, listens for awhile, fiddles a bit, then comes back
with a rubber mallet.  He takes one swing and bounces the mallet off
part of the engine.  Presto, the engin starts purring like new.  The
mechanic submits his bill for $300.  "That's an awful lot of money
just to hit my car with a hammer!" says the man.  "I'd like an
itemized statement, please."  The bill comes back "One hit with
hammer: $0.25.  Knowing where to hit with the hammer: $299.75."

I suppose that if that's how it should work,  my breakdown would be
"$30.00 per hour: $$7.00 typing; $23.00 knowing what to type."

-becca

--
Becca Price
beccap -at- rust -dot- net

"Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between 'That doesn't
make sense' and "I don't understand.' "

Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell; pg 142-143