#41 · Hiring for YouTube Growth ($2.5M Earned)
If you work a few hours and then something happens in your life and you leave, the client has no guarantee you’ll be around. They’re paying per hour, which doesn’t obligate you to stay on the project, so there’s no lock‑in or continuity for them.
The client bears the full cost – $120 an hour adds up quickly, and there’s no guarantee on total spend. A project could take 30 hours or 50 hours, meaning the client could go way over schedule or budget, and they have no certainty of when they’ll be billed or how much the final bill will be.
At $120 an hour for 20 hours you’d make $2,400 a month, which is also what the client spends. The downside for you is that income isn’t guaranteed – one month they might need 15 hours, the next 25, so your revenue varies. For the client the downside is that they pay the full hourly cost with no guarantee of a fixed budget, and the project can run over schedule or budget.
I wouldn’t try to finish a $10,000 project in two days because the client will perceive low value. The first hack is to avoid delivering the whole thing too quickly; spread the work over a longer period so the client sees more effort going in. I typically aim for a 3‑5 day turnaround for retainer clients, delivering a deliverable once a week. The second point is that value isn’t measured by the hours you spend. Frame the work as a proof of concept or a minimum viable product with a designated revision period, so the client understands it’s not a rushed job and perceives higher value.
As the client, you have all the leverage on Upwork. If a contractor pressures you to release payment before internal review, you can simply tell them you’ll review the work with your team for three days, and if that doesn’t work, you can pursue Upwork arbitration. You can also leave a negative review. There’s no need to feel pressured—you hold the power.