4 ms·

As someone that works 9-5 and looking into freelance, why > that it is not a good strategy ?

• gk1 4y ago
  Because as an independent contractor/consultant you're spending a lot of time meeting with the client, making or reviewing plans or reviewing planning docs, researching things, just thinking about the problem, and so on... These things become a sizable portion of the time you spend on a client, and more importantly they increase the value you provide to the client. Why would you not charge for it?
• Communitivity 4y ago
  Because coding is only a small part of your job as a consultant. Your job is to alleviate your client's pain points, pain points they are incapable or unwilling to alleviate themselves. There will be coding. There will also be design, education, testing, documentation, a certain amount of hand holding possibly, presentation, and possibly travel. By just billing coding you are vastly undercharging. Consider this... Let's say you make $100k as salary, with decent benefits, etc. I calculated it once and I would need $60k to replace my benefits (I make more than $100k). To make consulting worthwhile financially you would then need $100k+60k+??k. For salaries under $120k doubling to get your target income as a consultant seems to be a good rule of thumb. For salaries over $120k, maybe somewhere between 150-200%. As other have said, never charge by the hour. Charge costs + weekly retainer, or monthly retainer. When I was a freelance consultant I did costs + hourly, and it was a mistake, but I was young.
• mod 4y ago
  Because you have work to do that isn't coding.