If time is money, the same rules that apply to money must also apply to time.

Let me explain.

You're probably fairly familiar with the concept of compound interest.

$100,000 compounding at an interest rate of 10% year over year will be worth approximately $259,375 in 2031.

Your skill at a particular craft compounds at a similar rate of return when exposed to enough time.

If you've been a marketer or a writer or a designer for a decade and you've been devoted to your craft, there is a very good chance you might be 250% better than you were when you first started out (and I think this is being quite conservative).

I've personally found that a great copywriter doesn't just write 2x times better (and faster) than a good copywriter but 10x and, in some rare cases, 25x better (and faster).

So, once your skill surpasses a certain level of precision and speed, it no longer makes sense to charge by the hour because of how much heaping value you can deliver in such a small amount of time.

I have a lady who cleans my house once a month. When she holsters her mop, you could literally eat a slice of Kraft cheese off the floor.

I once timed her. It takes her less than an hour some days.

She's fast and she's good and because of this, she isn't cheap. She's also savvy (she charges me by the cleaning versus by the hour).

Society tends to look down on cleaning ladies but Maria makes about $200/ home and can bust through 5 homes a day.

Do the math.

She makes more than a lot of lawyers.

And, if you're really sharp, you start charging in equity, taking a small portion of ownership in the enterprise you're working with.

If you think equity is impossible, it's worth considering the graffiti artist David Chou, who once upon a time charged Sean Parker over at Facebook $60,000 to paint a mural at their office.

With Facebook being broke, Parker asked Chou to instead take the $60,000 in company stock.

Chou hesitantly agreed.

When Facebook eventually went public at $38 share, Chou became worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million overnight.

But, I digress.