My 2 cents as someone who billed engineering work (not software) for 5 years (again, my experience and it is totally industry dependent!) For every two hours o

My 2 cents as someone who billed engineering work (not software) for 5 years (again, my experience and it is totally industry dependent!) For every two hours of billed work, there's an hour of non billable work. There's admin, billing, reporting, business development, etc. that comes with being a contractor ... and that's if you're efficient! Do you only have one project / client at a time? If so, bill 40 hours and don't bat an eye. Bill at the highest rate you can. My guess is this is the salary at a comparable position divided by 2000 hours ($100k per year is $50 per hour) and add 30% to it or whatever your overhead rate is. If you're talking lawyer rates (~$400 an hour) then yea, you need to bill in small increments and hire out your admin / other stuff to a staff. Once you dedicate over half of your working hours to a single client / project the rate becomes a comparable employee plus 30%.