An agency owner I was speaking to yesterday was incredibly frustrated. Clients keep ringing with questions that aren't strictly about website maintenance.

"Where does my remit finish?" she asked.

I hear this all the time. A client calls about selling their business and wants advice on domain transfer. Another asks about pricing strategy. Someone else needs help explaining technical details to their solicitors.

And we feel awkward charging for these conversations because they're not part of the deliverable we quoted for.

But that's exactly backwards.

The deliverable (the website, the design, the code) are commodities. Anyone reasonably competent can build a website.

What clients are actually buying is your judgment. Your experience. Your ability to make sense of things they find confusing.

That's why they keep coming back with questions. They trust you. They value your opinion. And that trust is worth far more than the technical work.

So yes, charge for it.

Not in a sneaky, nickel-and-dime way. But as an explicit part of your service offering.

In my consulting work, everything runs on time banks. A client emails me with a strategy question? That's 30 minutes against their balance. They want to talk through a hiring decision? Another hour logged.

At the end of each month, they get an automatic email showing hours used and hours remaining. Clean. Transparent. No surprises.

I've found people actually prefer this. It feels like insurance. They know there's always someone they can turn to when they're stuck.

And I make more money giving advice than I ever did delivering finished documents.

Because knowledge is the actual product. Everything else is just packaging.