Latest / Freelance Careers with Fexingo: Independent Work, Consulting, and Self-Employment / How Freelancers Can Use a Done-With-You Offer to Exit Hourly Billing
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's a moment almost every freelancer hits — you're billing maybe $100 an hour, you're busy, you're good at what you do. But you look at your calendar and realize you're basically trading time for money with no ceiling. The only way to earn more is to work more. Luna: Right, the classic freelancer trap. And you can raise your rate, sure, but there's a hard cap — clients won't pay $500 an hour for most services. Lucas: Exactly. So what do you do? One answer I've seen work really well is what's called a 'done with you' offer. It's different from done for you, where you do the work, and different from a pure course or template, where you hand over a PDF and walk away. done with you sits in the middle — you provide a structured framework, some group access to you, and maybe async feedback, but the client does the execution under your guidance. Luna: So it's like a hybrid. You're not doing the work for them, but they're not alone either. I've seen this pop up a lot with consultants who used to charge by the hour for strategy sessions. Lucas: Yeah, that's exactly where it works best. Let me give you a concrete example. I talked to a freelance social media strategist — let's call her Jenna. She was doing $6,000 a month in retainer work for three clients. Each client took about 15 hours a week between content creation, posting, and reporting. So she was effectively earning $100 an hour, but she was maxed out. She couldn't take a fourth client without burning out. Luna: Classic ceiling. So how did she break out of it? Lucas: She built a done with you offer called 'Social Media Systems in 8 Weeks.' The price was $4,500 per client. Here's what it included: a set of templates for content calendars, captions, and analytics dashboards — that's the 'done' part. Then four group coaching calls where she walked through how to customize those templates — that's the 'with you' part. Plus a Slack channel where clients could ask questions and get feedback on their posts within 24 hours. Luna: So the clients are doing the posting themselves, but she's guiding them. And she can run that for multiple people at once? Luna: That math is compelling. But doesn't that require a lot of upfront work to build the templates and the curriculum? I can see freelancers getting stuck on that. Lucas: It does take some upfront investment. But here's the thing — you don't have to build it all from scratch. Jenna already had those templates from her retainer work. She just packaged them. Most freelancers have a set of processes, checklists, or frameworks they use with every client. The done with you offer is essentially taking your existing intellectual property and putting it into a repeatable format. Luna: So the key is to identify what parts of your service are actually replicable. Not the bespoke creative work, but the underlying systems. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where many freelancers get it wrong — they try to package the part that's truly custom and it doesn't work. The strategist's insight, the creative spark, that's hard to productize. But the operational scaffolding — the templates, the checklists, the feedback loops — that's totally replicable. You sell the scaffolding, not the spark. Luna: Right. So how do you price a done with you offer? It can't be too low or it feels like a course, and it can't be too high or clients balk at not getting hands-on delivery. Lucas: I like to use the 'value minus risk' framework. Start with the value the client gets from the outcome. Let's say Jenna's system helps a client grow their Instagram following by 20,000, which might be worth $10,000 in additional revenue from leads. Then subtract the risk that it won't work perfectly — maybe 50 percent. So the price should be around $5,000. That's close to what she charged. It's a fraction of the value, but it's high enough that the client takes it seriously. Luna: And it's still way more than she was making per hour. But what about the delivery? How do you avoid spending more time than you planned? I've seen freelancers get burned by 'unlimited' support. Lucas: You have to set clear boundaries. Jenna's Slack channel had office hours — she answered questions between 9am and 5pm, and only on weekdays. She also capped the number of questions per client at five per week. That kept her time predictable. And the group calls were recorded, so if someone missed one, they watched the replay. You're selling access, not availability. Luna: That's a crucial distinction. Access means structured touchpoints. Availability means you're on call. And one of those scales and one doesn't. Lucas: Exactly. And once you have that offer running, you can actually run multiple cohorts per year. Jenna now runs three cohorts a year with five clients each. That's $67,500 from the done with you offer alone, plus she still takes on two retainer clients at a higher rate because she has more time. Her total income went from $72,000 as a solo freelancer to about $150,000, and she works fewer hours. Luna: That's a real transformation. But I imagine the hardest part is the psychological shift. You're going from 'I'm a service provider' to 'I'm a product creator.' That's a different identity. Lucas: It is. And a lot of freelancers resist it because they think they're 'not the type' to sell a program. But look — if you're an expert in something, and you have a repeatable way of doing it, you owe it to yourself to at least explore packaging it. You don't have to quit your retainer clients overnight. Start with one small offer, test it with a few people, iterate. Luna: I think a good starting point is to look at the last three projects you did and ask: what did I do that was the same across all three? That's your product. Lucas: Perfectly said. And the irony is, clients often prefer done with you because they feel more ownership. They're not just getting a deliverable — they're learning how to do it themselves. That's more valuable in the long run. Luna: Quick honest thing — and this ties back to the idea of building something scalable instead of just trading time. A small number of listeners support this show directly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's what keeps us ad-free and able to produce episodes like this one. So if you've gotten value from any of the frameworks we've shared — whether it's the done with you model today or something from a previous episode — that's a way to keep it going. No pressure, just wanted to mention it. Lucas: Yeah, I'm really grateful for that. It lets us focus on the content rather than chasing sponsors. And speaking of frameworks — let's get back to the practical steps. Say you want to build your first done with you offer. Where do you start? Luna: I'd start with one client problem you solve repeatedly. Map out the steps you take, then figure out which steps can be templated and which need your live input. Lucas: Right. Then write out the curriculum or module list. Even if it's just four modules — that's fine. Then price it using the value minus risk method. Then find two or three past clients who might be interested and offer it at a beta price. That gives you real feedback before you launch publicly. Luna: And one thing to watch for: don't underprice the beta so much that it devalues the offer. Maybe 30 percent off, not 70 percent. Lucas: Yeah. And once you've run one cohort, you'll have testimonials, you'll have refined the materials, and you can raise the price for the next one. Jenna started her first cohort at $3,500, then raised it to $4,500. Now she's considering a premium tier at $6,500 with one-on-one feedback sessions. Luna: So it becomes a product line. You can have a basic done with you, a premium done with you, and then maybe a high-touch done for you for the clients who need full service. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the endgame — you're no longer a freelancer. You're a micro-agency with multiple revenue streams. The hourly rate becomes irrelevant because your time isn't the constraint anymore. Luna: That's a liberating place to get to. And it's achievable for almost any freelancer who's willing to systematize what they already know. Lucas: Yeah. So to sum it up: find the repeatable part of your expertise, package it with structured access to you, price it based on value, set clear boundaries on delivery, and iterate. That's how you break the time for money ceiling.