What to charge?
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From: Dan Dan the OTTR Man on 12 Feb 2010 07:29 I may have an opportunity to do some freelance work on an Access db. Has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering what I should charge for the service. Do I charge by the hour or by the project? Any advice is appreciated.
From: Jeff Boyce on 12 Feb 2010 08:35 What's the going rate in your area? Does your customer have access to and/or the stomach to seek out off-shore resources? Can you point to/demo a history of doing what your customer is seeking? What level of experience/expertise are you bringing? If you decide to bid this as a fix-price job, be aware that the user/customer rarely identifies (or even knows) what s/he wants ... be sure to include a cushion for yourself when s/he says "oh by the way..." If you bid this on an hourly basis, are your hours any better/worse than your potential competitors (that is, can you get it done in fewer hours ... assuming you already know exactly what's to be done <g>). A third approach is to offer an hourly rate and a series of successive approximations. By chunking the job into smaller pieces, and offering something of value to the customer at the end of each chunk, the customer has something s/he can use and you get paid. And you both get to decide whether to take on the next chunk. Good luck (and in case I didn't make it clear, my answer is "it depends...<g>" -- too many factors to offer a pat answer). -- Regards Jeff Boyce Microsoft Access MVP Disclaimer: This author may have received products and services mentioned in this post. Mention and/or description of a product or service herein does not constitute endorsement thereof. Any code or pseudocode included in this post is offered "as is", with no guarantee as to suitability. You can thank the FTC of the USA for making this disclaimer possible/necessary. "Dan Dan the OTTR Man" <maxwell.dan(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:deccfd14-bdf1-4ba9-9940-618a4e40d204(a)o3g2000yqb.googlegroups.com... >I may have an opportunity to do some freelance work on an Access db. > Has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering what I should charge > for the service. Do I charge by the hour or by the project? Any > advice is appreciated.
From: Dan Dan the OTTR Man on 12 Feb 2010 08:44 On Feb 12, 8:35 am, "Jeff Boyce" <JeffBoyce...(a)msn.com-DISCARD-HYPHEN- TO-END> wrote: > What's the going rate in your area? > > Does your customer have access to and/or the stomach to seek out off-shore > resources? > > Can you point to/demo a history of doing what your customer is seeking? > > What level of experience/expertise are you bringing? > > If you decide to bid this as a fix-price job, be aware that the > user/customer rarely identifies (or even knows) what s/he wants ... be sure > to include a cushion for yourself when s/he says "oh by the way..." > > If you bid this on an hourly basis, are your hours any better/worse than > your potential competitors (that is, can you get it done in fewer hours .... > assuming you already know exactly what's to be done <g>). > > A third approach is to offer an hourly rate and a series of successive > approximations. By chunking the job into smaller pieces, and offering > something of value to the customer at the end of each chunk, the customer > has something s/he can use and you get paid. And you both get to decide > whether to take on the next chunk. > > Good luck > > (and in case I didn't make it clear, my answer is "it depends...<g>" -- too > many factors to offer a pat answer). > > -- > > Regards > > Jeff Boyce > Microsoft Access MVP > > Disclaimer: This author may have received products and services mentioned in > this post. Mention and/or description of a product or service herein does > not constitute endorsement thereof. > > Any code or pseudocode included in this post is offered "as is", with no > guarantee as to suitability. > > You can thank the FTC of the USA for making this disclaimer > possible/necessary. > > "Dan Dan the OTTR Man" <maxwell....(a)gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:deccfd14-bdf1-4ba9-9940-618a4e40d204(a)o3g2000yqb.googlegroups.com... > > > > >I may have an opportunity to do some freelance work on an Access db. > > Has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering what I should charge > > for the service. Do I charge by the hour or by the project? Any > > advice is appreciated.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Thanks for the advice!
From: John Spencer on 12 Feb 2010 08:51 1) Charge by the hour. The only time to charge by the project is if you have a very detailed specification of what is wanted and you can make a good estimate based on the specification of how long the job will take. Even then you are at risk if you guess wrong, the customer wants to amend the specification but not change the cost. 2) What hourly rate depends on a number of factors. -- What is your skill level? I am expensive by the hour, but I can sometimes do in 30 minutes what someone else will take 8 hours to do. -- How badly do you want the job? -- What is the approximate range of rates in your locale? John Spencer Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2010 The Hilltop Institute University of Maryland Baltimore County Dan Dan the OTTR Man wrote: > I may have an opportunity to do some freelance work on an Access db. > Has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering what I should charge > for the service. Do I charge by the hour or by the project? Any > advice is appreciated.
From: Jerry Whittle on 12 Feb 2010 11:30
After having to learn the lesson the hard way, I agree to work by the hour. Assuming that you are in the USA, you will probably be working as a 1099 Independent Contractor. They will give you a 1099 tax form, probably at the end of the year. YOU will have to pay all the taxes on your wages. That could mean that the money actually staying in your pocket could be as little as half of what you charge. You also want to make quarterly payments to the IRS or you could have a very sad surprise come April 15th, 2011. -- Jerry Whittle, Microsoft Access MVP Light. Strong. Cheap. Pick two. Keith Bontrager - Bicycle Builder. "Dan Dan the OTTR Man" wrote: > I may have an opportunity to do some freelance work on an Access db. > Has anyone here done this before? I'm wondering what I should charge > for the service. Do I charge by the hour or by the project? Any > advice is appreciated. > . > |