What to Charge for consulting

[Arctic77]

Can someone help me with this. I am leaving a position to go to another job
and my old employer has asked that I continue to consult for them with the
database that I wrote for them. Can anyone suggest a hourly rate to charge.
I will be working from home accessing the database remotly. There will be a
mix of data entry as well as database design. I am not Mous certified and I
am living in Calgary Canada.

Let me know if you need any further information.
Thanks in advance

 

[Daniel]

This is a loaded question & you're going to get varing opinions.

Here what I was once told.

First off, you'll be working as a consultants, not an employee, thus not
getting benefit....thus right there your need to double your previous pay
rate.

You then have to factor in the amount of work that you will potentially get.
If you are going to be working 'on call' or 'as needed' (an hour here... an
hour there) then the rate goes up. If on the other hand they are giving you
5-10 hrs a week then usually you bring down the rate.

Of course, the nature of the work has an impact too.

I'll leave you on one other thing I was once told (right or wrong here it
is). If you are going to do consulting for under 75$/hr you're wasting your
time. When I decided to go out and try it on my own I sat down with a very
successful business man. He asked me hat I was going to charge. I said I
wasn't sure but somewhere 25-50 range. He said no one will take you
seriously. They can get lots of devlopers at that rate. When they are
looking for a consultant, they want an expert and experts cost a lot of money.

I now charge 50-100 $/hr depending on the client, amount of work, type of
work, commute and how much work I currently have on my plate.

It'll be interesting to see what other developer say about this subject. It
is very subjective.

 

[Paul Shapiro]

While I agree with everything Daniel says, I think your situation might be a
little different. If I understand correctly, you're not going into the
independent consulting business. You have a new, regular job and are doing
some continuing work for your previous employer. I think in this case you're
more like a cross between a part-time worker and a consultant. You don't say
what you were getting paid in that previous job, but maybe Daniel's
suggestion of doubling your hourly rate is a good minimum. For me, it also
depends on how much I expect to enjoy the work. I charge more for things I
don't enjoy.

If you consider yourself a knowledgeable expert, then I've seen rates vary
from $75/hour - $250/hour. $100-$150 seems most common to me.

Good luck with it.
Paul Shapiro

 

[david]

Start with what you want in a year. Double that for overheads.
Divide by 50 for a weekly rate. Divide by the number of hours
in a typical week for an hourly rate.

$25K pa, $50Kpa, $1Kpw, 50 hour permanent = $20 per hour.
$50K pa, $100Kpa, $2Kpw, 6 months = $80 per hour.
$100K pa, $200Kpa, $4Kpw, when you can get it = $250 per hour.

Working from home when you feel like it, you can divide by 4
if you want to, because you can charge an hour for an hour
taken. You won't get rich, but you can work on other get rich
plans between the hours. CF a $250 call out: You work 1 hour,
you get $250, your minimum callout, and it blows the whole
morning: that's only $62.5 per hour, you could stay at home
and just charge $62.5.

 

[Arctic77]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the feedback very much. It gives me a starting
point in which I can begin negotiations.