[TriLUG] How much could a penguin make...

[Stephen Schaefer]

Are you doing this for fun, or as a professional?

If for fun, charge whatever makes the experience feel
fun.

If you're getting into this as full-time,
sole-source-of-support, you'll need to charge
something "hideously high".  Why?  Because a
consultant spends an enormous amount of non-billable
time looking for clients, training, and bookkeeping. 
Furthermore, you're taking on risk -- risk that there
won't be a next client "soon enough".  Risk that a
client will stiff you (and that does happen!).  That's
risk you need to be compensated for.

A *very* broad rule of thumb goes like this: take the
salary of someone doing the same work at the same
level of experience, and express it as an hourly rate.
 So, $60k a year is $30 an hour.  A consultant doing
the same work should charge at least four times that,
or $120/hr.

Don't knock down that number unless you can justify
it: long-term contracts with multiple clients removes
risk; a relative who thinks bookkeeping is a fun hobby
might cut that cost; you already know so much you'll
never need to train (yeah, right!).

If the client seems shocked, remind them of the costs
and risks that they're transferring to you: they're
not going to have to hire someone long-term, with
everything that entails, and if you screw up, they
probably won't pay you.

And I'll throw in some more advice: spend some of that
probably-non-billable time putting together an
iron-clad statement of work.  You don't want to show
up to do a database install, find out that their piece
of crap video card has buggy support, and then have
them not pay you because "the OS doesn't work", even
though the database works fine.  Can you hear
experience talking?

    - Stephen

--- Chris Knowles <knowlesc at telocity.com> wrote:
> ... If a penguin could make money?
> 
> I'm about to embark on doing some work for a
> sometime business
> acquaintance, and I have no idea what the going rate
> for computer
> services are.
> 
> I've been (Trapped/Employed/Wanking) in the same job
> for several years,
> and so have lost touch with things. 
> 
> What are the ranges of hourly rates for doing things
> like setting up a
> company's Mail server/Web server/Firewall?
> 
> When he asked me what I thought a fair rate was, I
> basically had to tell
> him I'd get back to him.  done a little poking
> around on the web, but
> what I'm finding there are either a) obviously old
> or b) hideously high.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for your
> insight/advice/limitless-greed.
> 
> CJK
> 
> 
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