After reading some more of the original authors work, I was linked out to the ebook Breaking the Time Barrier [0] (by the CEO of Freshbooks which I'd never heard of) which instantly helped me reframe my approach to consulting.
And this is why Hacker News is addictive; Occasional and random large rewards.
[0] https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/breaki...
If you enjoyed Breaking the Time Barrier, you may also want to check the material put out by Alan Weiss. In my case, the real-world proposal examples he published years back (and pulled from his own solo practice) have easily been worth six figures to me. I believe I first ran across them in his book Million Dollar Consulting, but they are covered more specifically in two of his later proposal specific publications.
[1] https://alanweiss.com/ [2] https://alanweiss.com/store/books/
I've moved almost entirely away from hourly billing, but where it does pop up there is generally a different fee for clients who have retainer agreements with me (which are usually annual in nature).
For people starting out I think it's fine to low-ball a few deals to gain experience and get insight into what the market will bear. But you need to learn from that process as quickly as possible. The most important learning for me was to ensure that clients put money on the table to close the deal. At that point they are invested in your success, especially if they had to push for it from their own management chain.
