Gustav The habit, in one sentence: charge for the outcome you create, not the hours you spend creating it.
Why it matters
Hourly billing has a built-in trap: the better and faster you get, the less you earn for the same result. You spend years becoming skilled enough to solve a problem in three hours, and the market rewards you by paying you for three hours. Meanwhile the client does not care how long it took, they care what it is worth to them.
Value pricing flips it. A system that saves a company twenty hours a month is worth the same whether you build it in two days or two weeks. Price it against their gain, and suddenly your speed and skill work for you instead of against you.
What it looked like for me
I have undercharged more than once, and it always came from the same place: pricing the work by my effort instead of its value to the client. I once put a project at well under what it was worth because I had quoted "a few hours" early on, and then it grew. The lesson stuck. The same instinct shows up in a sneakier form too: when you find a clever, cheap way to deliver something, it is tempting to lower the price because it cost you less. Do not. The client is buying the result, not your invoice for tools. Finding an efficient way to deliver is your skill, and your margin.
How to build the habit
Before you quote, ask what the result is worth to them, in time saved, money made, or risk removed. Quote a fixed price for a clearly defined scope, so the conversation is about value, not your hourly rate. Package your work into outcomes ("a system that does X") rather than units of time. And practise saying the number out loud without flinching, the flinch is usually the real problem.
The pitfall to avoid
The big one is underpricing out of fear, taking the low number because you are afraid of losing the deal. A client won purely on being cheapest is the client most likely to haggle, churn, and undervalue you. Competing on price is a race you do not want to win. Anchor on the value you create, charge accordingly, and let the wrong-fit, lowest-bidder clients go elsewhere.