I don't do consulting but I wondered once how much I would have to charge if I did. I went to my employer's HR department and asked them for everything they contributed for me to various places. That included FICA, Medicare, pension, life insurance, long-term disability, their share of medical insurance, dental insurance, etc.. I added that to my salary to come up with the amount of money I would have to get to have the same income I have as an employee (because I would have to pay my own FICA, life insurance, long-term disability, etc.). Then I tried to figure out how many days in a year I would actually work. The 52 weeks times five days per week has to have subtracted from it holidays, vacations, and maybe a little sick leave. Then I took the advice of the consulting books to realize that I would not work eight hours every day. In fact, considering overhead, travel, education, and so on, I might average only six hours of time each day that I could in good conscience bill for. Finally, I divided dollars by hours to get an hourly figure. I think that at the time is was around $52. Steven White City of Bloomington 1800 W Old Shakopee Rd Bloomington MN 55431-3096 USA 952-563-4882 (voice) 952-563-4672 (fax) steven.white at ci.bloomington.mn.us >>> Wayne Johnson <wdtj at yahoo.com> 4/4/2007 9:58 AM >>> What I did was take what I was making as a full time developer, add in 7.5% for the self employment taxes, Another 6% for vacation/sick and then a fixed monthly charge for insurance, etc if you need to. Then split this all up to an hourly charge. Remember that there is always down time between contracts, so short term contracts need to charge more for the between the gaps overhead. I was charging $72/hr for short term and $60 long term YMMV. At one point I was working for a contract house (at $30/hr + benefits) and I later found out the contract house was charging the client $75/hr. They were making a VERY nice profit on my labor. Dave Dash <dave.dash at gmail.com> wrote: I've seen people charge anywhere from $25-100/hr for various computer related consulting. Unfortunately nobody likes to share how much they charge as it tends to be a not for public consumption. If I weren't already doing some consulting (albeit on the side), I'd pick a number between $25-100 that is more than what I'd be making at a similar full time or even contract gig (and you can call recruiters to find those out). Then just keep to that. But really the rate doesn't matter so much as the quality of service.... of course, I'm not the small business owner cutting you the check, so what do I know. -d On 4/3/07, Florin Iucha <florin at iucha.net> wrote: Guys, What are some good resources on consulting rates? I'm talking to a small business owner about Linux support and consulting for their shop. Mainly remote troubleshooting, with bulk work during weekends, if need be. Thanks, florin -- Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition. http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/163 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGEuYSND0rFCN2b1sRAplnAJ9bMKpb2z3sPN3Fw9e24I3MtIDvjgCfRyRK 9x3n3Dw3htIu2xdcEH0QFKc= =qWUK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota tclug-list at mn-linux.org http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list -- Dave Dash 612.670.0621 Discover your favorite restaurant: reviewsby.us ( http://reviewsby.us/ ) gtalk: dave.dash _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota tclug-list at mn-linux.org http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list --- Wayne Johnson, | There are two kinds of people: Those 3943 Penn Ave. N. | who say to God, "Thy will be done," Minneapolis, MN 55412-1908 | and those to whom God says, "All right, (612) 522-7003 | then, have it your way." --C.S. Lewis 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick ( http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/?fr=oni_on_mail&#news ) in no time with theYahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut. ( http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/?fr=oni_on_mail&#news ) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20070503/14b8929e/attachment.htm