16 ms·

Poll: As a freelancer, how much do you bill per hour?

• samlev 15y ago
  It depends on the work. If I'm guaranteed a large amount of ongoing work (something getting close to full-time hours), then I'll usually bill lower. If it's a once-off project, I'll usually bill either a fixed quote, or a higher hourly rate. Fixed quotes aren't that common, though, unless the client already has a scope set out, or is willing to agree to one.
• kaisdavis 15y ago
  I bill $60/hr. When I start to reach capacity, I multiple my rates by 1.5 for all new clients. I can see myself starting to bill out at $90/hr by June, 2012. An interesting follow-up question for the freelance community could be how many of us employee freelances beneath us. I've added a freelance copywriter and designer to my team and it's a joy to be able to work with and support another freelancer as they develop their practice. It's also a joy to have some of the capacity problems resolved by the addition of another set of hands. (:
  • laurenproctor 15y ago
    It has also become practical for me to employ a freelancer to pick up some of my freelance tasks. So far, it seems like one of the best ways to scale my work while focusing only on the tasks I enjoy most.
  • zachshallbetter 15y ago
    My rates and procedures are the same. Although, when clients expect me to rush design/build their work I bill 1.5 or double depending on the time frame.
  • tptacek 15y ago
    What do you do? $60/hr sounds low for Rails, iOS, Python, or serious database work. If you can see yourself billing out $90/hr in June, 2012, why not try this experiment: bill yourself out at $90/hr (actually, $720/day, please) in January. See what happens. If there is one thing HN people get wrong about consulting, it is that they relentlessly undercharge. It's easy to see why: the stuff they do seems easy to them. It's not easy. There is a worldwide shortage of real, viable talent. Companies are falling over themselves to attract and retain dev talent. The stuff you are doing is not cheap. If you are billing at a rate that matches what a good full-time Google employee makes, you are wildly undercharging; freelancing is expensive (you are responsible for all your own taxes and your own benefits, and for providing a cushion for yourself for dry spells) and the service you provide (flexible, on-demand work without bringing a full-timer on) is extremely valuable. CHARGE MORE.
    • randomdata 15y ago
      "There is a worldwide shortage of real, viable talent. Companies are falling over themselves to attract and retain dev talent." I have to say I find that hard to believe. Now, to be fair I don't actually know if I am talented or not. It is impossible to accurately judge oneself, though I like to think I am. I've had the opportunity to play lead on some pretty big and successful projects for some major businesses using many of the technologies that are said to be hot right now. A present co-worker said something to me along the lines of "I have worked with a lot of programmers, and you are by far the best of them" and it seemed genuine. Take from that what you will. Anyway, I've entertained the idea of working with some other organizations. Some have not been interested in me at all, and the rest were no longer interested after a short chat. Nobody has been interested in seeing the actual quality of my work. I'll accept that I just don't have that talent, but given the above, it seems to me that it is really just my marketing skills that are lacking – Which makes sense; I spent my spare time becoming a better programmer, not becoming a better marketer. Given that, I remain skeptical of the talent shortages. How much comes down to companies just having no clue about how to hire people?
      • tptacek 15y ago
        I'm sure you're great, but I've been hiring people nonstop for almost a year now, and networking with people who are also hiring, and the fact is: it's a tight market for dev talent. Is the market efficient? I'm sure not.
        • randomdata 15y ago
          But if you are passing over good talent because of external reasons (such as poor marketing skills), is it fair to say there is a technical talent shortage? The talent is there, you're just not interested in using it. And it is completely fair for a business to seek a well rounded person. If you want someone who is good at marketing and development, you are more than welcome to look for that. You are under no obligation to hire anyone less. But it is not the technical talent that is tight. Anyway, hopefully I don't come off as sounding bitter or something. I have an amazing job already and respect anyone who feels I am not a good fit for their organization. I just have to wonder if the shortage of talent is real, or if companies are passing over real talent for other reasons unrelated to the lack of skill in technology.
• Swizec 15y ago
  I bill $30/hr and slowly increasing my rates with every new client. Only being available for work two-ish days a week greatly reduces my client pool. Being 8 hours away from most of them doesn't help much either. (I don't like working locally because everyone puts too much effort into trying to rip you off)
• tptacek 15y ago
  Reminder: quote prices daily or weekly, not hourly. You're not a furniture mover.
  • dylanhassinger 15y ago
    this is true. you can't copy and paste furniture
    • j05h 15y ago
      Don't shop at Ikea much huh?
      • dylanhassinger 15y ago
        lolz
  • llambda 15y ago
    This can still be broken down into an hourly rate even if you present it to the client as a daily or weekly rate.
    • tptacek 15y ago
      It's a perfectly fine way of benchmarking. I'm not complaining, just reminding.
  • smiler 15y ago
    Why? I may work an 8 hour day or a 12 hour day (particularly on-site) - I would rather get paid for every hour I work.
    • nialo 15y ago
      It turns out that if you quote a weekly rate clients are willing to pay more money.
      • 15y ago
• dylanhassinger 15y ago
  Whenever possible, I try to do a package price. This works when all the pieces are things I can do, or I can accurately predict my outsourcing cost. It doesn't work when a project gets thorny (damn you google APIs!) For ala carte or ongoing work, I sell prepaid blocks of hours. I offer 10, 20 and 35 hour blocks; 10 hour blocks are at my highest rate, but if the client buys more then the hourly price goes down. If they don't use up all the hours, then they can bank them for later.
  • zrail 15y ago
    Prepaid blocks are a good idea. It's kind of like a retainer in a way.
    • dylanhassinger 15y ago
      for retainer I'll lower my rate even more. Any time spent not having to fill next week's ticket is money in my pocket... damn, freelancing sucks
• sequoia 15y ago
  Without more context this poll is kind of meaningless. Are you editing up a wordpress site for a pizza shop or overseeing the setup of the intranet for a fortune 500 company?
  • noarchy 15y ago
    That's an important point. I've done small projects where the total budget was less than $1000, the billing rate per hour was also small, and larger projects for which we billed more than that for a single day of work.
• jasonkester 15y ago
  Pro tip: Call yourself a Consultant instead of a Freelancer and you get to double your bill rate. A Freelancer is a 26 year old who will design you a logo in her spare time. A Consultant is a man in his late 30s with 15 years experience and a tie. Since nobody can tell the difference via email, you get to choose which one you'd like to be viewed as.
  • cunac 15y ago
    what you call somebody in mid 40s and bald :-) But I do agree a lot of value is gained by perceived quality of service (freelancer vs. consultant) not that it implies that it is actually different quality
  • josefresco 15y ago
    Consultants get a bad name in my business circles so most shy away from that title. Most perceive them as someone who proposes things but does not or will not actually execute them for you. Usually it's the consultants who hire the "freelancers" to do the work they proposed in their consulting.
    • kls 15y ago
      Right I work in both roles, I work as a consultant for the big wall street firms, where I do technical strategy consulting. This is where I look at a potential merger or acquisition and tell the decision makes that the technology strategy of the deal looks good or it does not. It is a paperwork job and I consider it to be true consulting. On the other hand I am hired by companies to build apps, many times they only have a rough idea of what they want. I call that freelancing, I am brought it to help them get to an app in all manners that they need, advise, code, data, server setup, etc. I see freelancing as the closest to generalist. Finally sometimes I get a call in which they will say we have all the specs, the system is designed and we just need someone that knows X to turn the design into a system. To me that is contracting and it is my least favorite out of the rolls I do.
    • j45 15y ago
      Haha, I have often called myself a resultant because of the stigma. Over time I care less as I've gotten established and built a track record. Still, sometimes I find myself saying "I solve business needs with technology." Means what it should to the people who will sign my cheques, and I don't care to explain what I do to anyone else. Since a consultant isn't the first thing people might assume when they look at me, I think it's important to remember it just comes down to being likable, genuine, curious, responsible, and caring enough to follow through. Respect is my currency and assholes filter themselves out.
• j45 15y ago
  Know and learn the difference between these three words: Freelancer, Contractor, Consultant. Each has it's own mindset. I wish I knew it when I started 12 years ago full time. When a customer asks something, they're asking for one of these three relationships. When we get upset customers aren't listening, it's often a disconnect of which relationship the customer wants, and what you are offering. It's helpful to know which role you're being asked to play (and be paid for). FREELANCER - Someone who you use from time to time to do a part of what you need. Directions provided. Generally freelancers work more part time than full time. Typcially with freelancers you have to give notice on the order of 1-2 weeks. CONTRACTOR - A regular expert who you provide detailed work instructions to. Customer cares more about your opinion but the strategy is still set by them. If I'm asked for a design that leads to work, it's a quote. Typically the customer knows what they want, how they want it, or why, I'm just a hired gun. Typically with freelancers you have to give notice for work from 0-7 days based on your arrangement. CONSULTANT - A dedicated expert who is asked for their opinion of the best strategy to take, as well as delivering on it. Consultants can be part time, but most are full time. If all I'm being asked for is my professional opinion (and no ensuing work) I bill for that time. Consultants are needed when you need expertise around at the drop of a hat to tend to things, or an ongoing basis to develop/manage/direct/drive internal business processes and hand them back in-house once management would like so you can focus on the next thing for them. Customers who use consultants properly know it's not what it costs them, but what consultants save, or make them. Sadly, this type of relationship can often be perverted by consultants as well and I inherit people who have been burnt. Me: I spent my 20's getting 20 years of experience in 10. That makes me about 40+ work wise, in my 30's. Consulting is heroin once you become capable at delivering value. I am moving out of hourly/daily based consulting and moving to value based consulting, and entirely out of consulting as reasonably possible. If I do something that saves a customer $3,000/3 years forever, I ask for 20-30% of it regardless of whether it takes 5 minutes or hours. I spent 15-20 man years working to learn how to do something in 5 minutes that will take someone 5 hours, if the customer is willing to pay for my 5 years to learn to do it in 5 minutes, I will bill them for 5 years, and then for 5 minutes. I love learning and seeing this from different perspectives, let me know what you think too!
  • kal00ma 15y ago
• wilhelm 15y ago
  Approximately 200 USD plus VAT. Sometimes more, sometimes less. If the customer doesn't haggle, the quote was too low. I'm based in Oslo, Norway.
  • charlesdm 15y ago
    What's your skill set and which types of companies do you usually work for?
    • wilhelm 15y ago
      Full-stack web developer. I'm a mediocre programmer, but know the web platform well. I've just been at this game for a few months, but have spent the past seven years working for å browser vendor. That helps. My most significant customers so far have been impatient non-profits that want results yesterday. I don't know if that will remain my primary demographic. (c:
    • deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  • lukes 15y ago
    How many hours per week does your average contract take up? I charge just under half that, but my contracts are usually full-time hours for months and sometimes years at a time.
    • wilhelm 15y ago
      My sample size is too small for an average to make sense. Smallest contract was 1.5 hours. Biggest contract is 350 hours so far, with 500+ to go.
• yeureka 15y ago
  I am new to the freelancing game and I try to bill at roughly USD65. However I tend to work more hours than what I bill for or I charge less per hour because I am afraid of loosing their custom when the project slips in time. I think this is because most of my clients are friends and acquaintances from previous jobs. Maybe I need to get strictly business clients. Also, one of my clients as asked how much I would charge for a retainer fee. I don't even know what to answer to that. Does anybody have experience with retainers? Are these a good idea?
  • debaserab2 15y ago
    Don't put in a single hour of work beyond the estimate if you don't have a retainer, or you don't at least have good faith that the client has put the check in the mail. Why? You need some ability to walk away from the client without losing your shirt if the customer decides to go a completely different direction or completely rejects the result of your work. It at least keeps some food on your plate while you're doing the work. I do 20% retainer of the original estimate upfront, which is on the low end compared to other contractors.
    • yeureka 15y ago
      Thanks for you reply. I might have explained myself poorly but the client mentioned the word 'retainer' as a kind of contract where they pay me a fixed income in exchange for my 100% availability for any work they want me to do. They would pay for the work on top of that income as well. If I accept I get a more stable income but I might miss on interesting work opportunities. Is this what you refer to as retainer? Or is there a different word for this concept? It's almost like a call option in financial markets.
      • a3camero 15y ago
        I think your definition is the more standard one. I think the parent post meant to say "deposit". Retainer is usually "$2000/month for up to 20 hours of work".
        • 15y ago
• Mizza 15y ago
  I saw this question being asked a lot, so I wrote my policy here: http://gun.io/blog/how-much-to-charge-as-a-freelance-computer-programmer/ http://gun.io/blog/how-much-to-charge-as-a-freelance-compute...
• kal00ma 15y ago
  Given the extra costs of being a freelancer (health insurance, self-employment tax), if you want to be living in the same neighborhood as your full-time peers you should be charging at least 75/hr.
• glimcat 15y ago
  A few hundred. It varies depending on how much I want to do or don't want to do what they're asking for. Tends to be "consulting" and monthly. I think the last one worked out to about $400-500/hr, but I wasn't tracking time closely.
• sachinhep 15y ago
  hourly rate is a wrong parameter.
• marcomonteiro 15y ago
  I develop iOS applications. Based on j45's definitions I'd be a consultant/contractor. I have one client right now and they take up most of my time. They're a small startup and it was my first development job in nearly 10 years. The first projects were priced according to the scope of the work and what they could afford. I was severely undercutting myself but I Didn't feel I had any leveraging power. Their dependence on me grew and they've come to rely on me to help them shape the direction and future of the company. The last project I charged what I believe is market rate for an iOS developer and I let them make payments while I retain all IP rights until its been paid. Now I have an ongoing agreement with them where I guarantee them a set amount of time per week in exchange for $1,000/wk. How that time is used is up to them. It could go to consulting or to actually writting code. This works out for both of us because my income is fixed from this client, it's not full time, gives them flexibility to use me as best serves the business and keeps us from wasting time on the negotiation table on individual projects.
  • j45 15y ago
    You make a great point about IP. If the customer wants to save money I retain the IP and license it to them.
• thibaut_barrere 15y ago
  I charge 115 € per hour ex VAT (or roughly 900 € per day of 8 hours). I do mostly remote work (ruby, rails, etl, agile project management, sysadmin, devops, css/js, technical/org coaching). If a client can give me visibility and ensure eg: 10 days per month for some months in a row, then I provide a discount on that rate. I never do fixed-price projects and instead, provide best-effort estimates and bill by the hour.
  • ErrantX 15y ago
    I never do fixed-price projects and instead, provide best-effort estimates and bill by the hour. So far this is the best advice I have seen in this thread. So +1 :) I used to give fixed-price quotes and it burns you more often than not.
    • thibaut_barrere 15y ago
      Thanks :) One way to put it is (and how I explained it to a client once): if you do fixed price and estimate 100, but end up having 120 of work, then you'd need to quote 140 (40 padding) to the next project estimated at 100, just to make up for your previous loss. In the end the uncertainty costs everyone. For people willing to find how to do better estimate, I can warmly recommend following Mike Cohn training: http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile-estimating-planning-training http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile-estimating-plannin... (and related books), as well as acunote which I use to estimate, plan and manage my projects: http://www.acunote.com http://www.acunote.com
    • j45 15y ago
      I do something similar, in the middle of a fixed price and a best guess estimate (I can go back for an increase of hours). The key to either is being accurate at estimating, which in turn means being able to find the number and size of potential unknowns/gotchas in an estimate. Get good at that and it's a lot easier, especially on projects you have built from scratch, which lend themselves a lot better to fixed-price quotes.
    • reuven 15y ago
      Agreed. I can't remember the last fixed-price project I did in which the client and I were both satisfied.
• CoughlinJ 15y ago
  75 for the first hour, 40 every hour after that. That's just for general workstation & network support. Other 'projects' come with different pricing...
• larrys 15y ago
  Another tip: Always quote a range not a price no matter the time period. A range allows you to gauge a response and many times allows the higher end. Whether you are quoting hourly or a per job basis.
  • j45 15y ago
    I very much and often use the "upto 5-7 hours" of work in my quoting.
• jkaljundi 15y ago
  Depends on a country or region.
• ludwigvan 15y ago
  Looking at these numbers, I am amazed at the inequality bt. different parts of the world. Here in Turkey, hourly rate of a developer is around 10$, maybe 15$ if you are better. Of course, the cost of living is lower, but still... Time to move abroad perhaps.
  • dylanhassinger 15y ago
    No, time to stay in Turkey, but get clients that are abroad. Western rates at non-western living expenses is the magic formula...
    • dylanhassinger 15y ago
      see: http://tropicalmba.com http://tropicalmba.com http://location180.com http://location180.com http://lifestylebusinesspodcast.com http://lifestylebusinesspodcast.com
  • Radim 15y ago
    Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Throughout this thread I've seen derogatory comments about "overseas" talent, which is to be avoided like plague. Are the developers in USA really 10x more effective than in Asia/poorer parts of Europe, to warrant the 10x higher salaries? To me the answer is obviously not (I live in Eastern Europe), but perhaps there is some magical quality one acquires upon moving to the US :-) Once remote, does it really matter that much whether the other party lives on the same continent? http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3064-stop-whining-and-start-hiring-remote-workers http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3064-stop-whining-and-start-h... EDIT: Obviously charge western rates if you can :) My point is it's hard to justify the imbalance of market value that you mention, in case of IT freelancing.
    • justinko 15y ago
      I live in the US and have worked with teams that had developers in India and Eastern Europe. The language barrier can be very tough. So much so that the "discount" just isn't worth it.
  • 15y ago
• gavingmiller 15y ago
  Regardless of whether you're a freelancer, contractor, or consultant please do yourself a favour and have a lawyer created contract together. If you don't have a rock solid contract you're leaving money on the table, and making yourself extremely vulnerable. Also highly relevant - Fuck you, pay me: http://vimeo.com/22053820?utm_source=swissmiss http://vimeo.com/22053820?utm_source=swissmiss
  • manmal 15y ago
    I think that this is a highly Angst-driven approach - I used to feel the same, but I decided that I have to put more trust in people not trying to screw me. Of course, your BS radar has to be finely tuned to not engage with potential troublemakers.
    • gavingmiller 15y ago
      I felt the same way as you. Then we had a client that refused to pay us a month and a half of payroll. Changes the tune of things. The quote for me from the video that solidified this was: 'when you hire a lawyer [to handle contracts] you switch from being a design amateur to a design professional'. Applies equally to programmers. Having a solid contract doesn't mean that you can't trust people. They just make everything legally binding so that if trust deteriorates (and it will if you do this long enough) that you'll be covered. Also don't let the title of the video deter you, it's a (mostly) tongue-in-cheek title.
• johngalt 15y ago
  Depends entirely upon the person buying the work. Penny pinchers = lowest rate, but only as a discount when buying an hour block in advance. Rates are double for afterhours/emergency work. Waffles = Project based billing so they have to describe clearly what they want. Then changes are additional, or rolled into the next project. Rich/Busy/Business types = Hourly rates billed monthly net 30. These will generally just cut a check so long as 'X' problem goes away, and you're not a problem to deal with yourself. Best customer type to have. Just make sure you include the scope of what you've handled with the bill. Even better if you figure out what their approval limits are and stay under that.
• lrobb 15y ago
  I'm surprised at some of the low points on here... The general rule is to take your desired annual income and divide by 1000 to get your hourly rate. So if you want to make $120,000 year, your hourly rate would be $120. I think a lot of "freelancers" must end up going through headhunters instead of finding clients directly? You might want to ask what your headhunter is making if that's the case -- I know of one body shop that only offers $50/hr to its contractors, while the client company is paying the headhunter $150/hour. You can't even get a desktop support person out around here for less than $75/hour...
  • jamesbritt 15y ago
    So if you want to make $120,000 year, your hourly rate would be $120. And when you're considering what you think your annual income should be keep in mind that you have to cover your own vacation, insurance, self-employment tax (depending on where you file), and assorted other expenses.
    • lrobb 15y ago
      Correct... and that rule of thumb factors that into account.
      • jamesbritt 15y ago
        How many billable hours a day does this assume? Most people won't be doing 8 hours a day, five days a week, like a regular job. If we assume 4 hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year of billable time you'll need to up the rate to make that amount as in-your-pocket cash.
        • manmal 15y ago
          Some quick math says: ~83h/month = 4.15h/day (conservative approx. - assuming 4 workweeks / month and 5 workdays / week) I think this rule of thumb works pretty well, factoring in some holidays or illnesses.
        • infinite8s 15y ago
• InclinedPlane 15y ago
  This is about as worthwhile as asking "as a human, how much do you bill per hour?" Everyone has a different skillset, caters to different customers, and thus has a different reasonable range of what they can bill. Some freelancers may be doing little more than some simple cut and paste or configuration work, others may be writing operating systems from scratch, the rate they charge for those services will of course vary greatly.
• Splines 15y ago
  (I feel like this is probably a frequently asked question on HN, but I'm throwing this out here anyway) As a full-timer working for a big corporation, where would I even begin to start getting freelance work? I'm thinking about a change in my career path and see freelancing as a potential way to go about doing that, but I'm honestly scared about where to even start.
  • dirtyaura 15y ago
    First get one small, but representative project under your belt. Don't focus on rate yet, but keep the scope small so that you don't work for peanuts for too long. Use it and your hobby projects as a portfolio. Go to a few meetups to build your contact network. Against the intuition, developer meetups can be a surprisingly good place to find new gigs. Startup meetups can work too, there's more biz people there, but in general startup gigs are usually not very good freelance work: high expectations, small budgets, lot of people biz people who know too little about software dev. Sooner you get to big customers with bottomless pits of money, easier your contracting life will get. This was the biggest lesson for me. For big customers, you can do projects that save them big bucks. Boring, maybe, but pays the bills and you can use the free time to do fun things. So if you want to get your contracting life off the ground, don't focus what is fun, but what is most profitable.
  • joshtynjala 15y ago
    Assuming that you have contacts outside of the corporation where you work, and your name is one that will pop into their heads when they think, "who can I ask to work on this project?", freelance work should start coming to you naturally. If you don't have those contacts, you need to speak up and get your name out there within the community where you want to find work. Blog about the technology you work with, and show off cool personal projects. Join a local user group. If there is group discussion at the meetings, show that you know your stuff. Go to conferences and make sure you find people to chat with during the day and later on when everyone goes out for dinner and/or drinks at night. In short, it's up to you to show and tell people how great you are before they'll want to work with you.
    • 15y ago
• easy_rider 15y ago
  65
• jfruh 15y ago
  Traditionally when I've freelanced in the past I've billed hourly (varying rates, depending on what the client will bear) but I've read some convincing stuff that billing that way in essence punishes productivity. If you figure out how to do things faster, you just end up costing yourself money, so why bother? I've done agreed per-project rates as well and I think they're both more lucrative and better for your sanity.
• jordanbaucke 15y ago
  I'm at $50/hr doing SFDC -- I think a lot of my rate is based on the fact that I'm local and there isn't a large talent pool locally for what I do (Denver, CO) I'm thinking I could move up to $75, if I didn't get benefits (very expensive and worth it here in the US) If I thought I was working with a product where there were more people with experience around - I'd ask for less. ALSO: LOWER RATE = MORE CLIENTS WHOM DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT AND DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THINGS THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND.
  • mkramlich 15y ago
    I do software development in the Denver/Boulder area too, but do not know what SFDC stands for. Salesforce something? I do agree that the lower hourly rate you seek/accept/charge to clients, generally the worse quality clients you get. Clients that want lower rates tend to be more clueless, less experienced, more tight-fisted with cash, more likely to try scope creep on every milestone, and they tend to concentrate too much on rate but not on total hours or quality or other positive qualities. They're more likely to think hard things are simple and simple things hard. This latter point especially is true of most non-technical clients, but in general it's more pronounced with the cheapskate/rate-focused clients, I've noticed in my experience.
• deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
• kposehn 15y ago
  I charge $300/hour for marketing consulting or a different structure on commitment to budgets. One thing I've learned is never do a flat rate, no matter what. Projects will always be different than what you estimate so do time and materials only.
  • j45 15y ago
    You can get away with flat rate more if you can add a zero to your quote ;)
• polyfractal 15y ago
  I'm curious, what should someone do if they are just starting out? I'm moving into freelance/contractor/whatever soon, but have zero "official" experience. It's a complete career shift. I code in my freetime and have started to build demonstration projects to throw up on github, but I look new right now. Should I just charge a "can't beat this price" so I can get some experience and then up my prices to what everyone suggests? Or just pretend I know what the hell I'm doing and charge those rates from the beginning? I'm already prepared to factor in unbilled, learning time but am not sure what to do on the actual billing side.
  • j45 15y ago
    - Make a list of the things you will do - Announce this to your friends and colleagues saying you're looking to do small projects to get your process going and will take on larger projects later. - 5 minutes are always free - This is the best rule that has gotten me so much work. Customers can always have 5 minutes of my time for free if they need, just don't string a ton of it together otherwise I have to charge you. - Start your billing around 40-50/hour. When you find the things that pay, focus on those. If you want to go through what talents you have that you don't think are valuable (but actually are) feel free to connect with me I'd be happy to share anything I know, I started doing the same in 2nd year uni about 12-13 years ago and haven't looked back.
    • polyfractal 15y ago
      Great, thanks for the tips! I'm going to print these out and stick it on my wall. Going to shoot you an email as well =)
• mattacurtis 15y ago
  To those of you with years of experience: If I'm looking to start consulting on the side, is it reasonable to charge lower rates at first to attract business and get some experience (something in the $50/hr range) While I want to be paid fairly for what I'm worth, I also don't want to overcharge clients while I figure out what I'm doing (processes and services etc).
  • j45 15y ago
    You probably won't get a straight answer to this so I'll say the tough words. Anyone who's established will be easier to philosophize about why you shoudl charge more. At the end of the day, no one pays your bills for you but yourself. Getting any work is more important than getting good work. Getting great work is more important than getting good work. I don't know if I am doing it the best way but I did start ($50/hr in 1999) doing absolutely anything anyone would pay me for at that equivalent rate. Also, figuring out your processes and services is complete BS. You never stop developing and improving them. I've trashed my entire setup and rebuilt/programmed it from scratch 5 times in 10 years only to finally settle on a happy-ish medium of Fogbugz and Freshbooks.
• saltcod 15y ago
  I charge $40 to do design and WordPress development. As another example, an ad firm I interviewed with a few months ago were charging $1,000 per day to develop a website, brand, 'strategy' etc. The $1,000 got you a developer (really just a mid-range non-programmer), a copyrighter, a graphic designer, and a project manager.
• jeswin 15y ago
  I charge between 40-50 in Bangalore. I have been thinking about an interesting idea. Would anyone be willing to relocate to Bangalore for a 1 year freelancing gig? There will be lifestyle compromises to make, but you can save about 4k/month or more. It is insanely hard to find talented developers here, and I am thinking there is a limited opportunity for outsiders to come and work here. Sort of like outsourcing backwards. I can help set it up if a group of people are interested in this. (About to get into a plane, so will be replying only after 3 hours)
• Maven911 15y ago
  Any tips on how to start charging more without scaring away new and existing clients
• BerislavLopac 15y ago
  What I would like to see is this data with geographic distribution. I'm pretty sure it would be quite interesting to see the differences between the global regions.
• Achshar 15y ago
  Contractor, i guess? I dont bill by hour because my work productivity highly depends on my mood, so hourly rate would be unfair. A project wise prefixed rte s what i look for.
• lazy_b 15y ago
  As someone who has worked as a consultant and hired them, it's hard to imagine a piece of work that I'd be willing to pay an outside contractor a continuing percentage for. Products,definitely, but that assumes a more or less tu rn key solution that I am not responsible for maintaining. But code rots, marketing is forgotten, and business practices must continually adapt in the face of changing realities on the ground, as it were. If I'm paying you for your expertise, I'll leave the money on the nightstand , but you're not getting half my stuff. ;)
• manmal 15y ago
  I develop apps for Android (got some good iOS knowledge too), and I currently charge 40€ - I'm constantly raising that number (last gig was my first paid Android project, for 30€, which I now consider a dumping price). I do have to say that I'm still not sure whether Android development is a good sector to earn good money in - maybe I should start consulting or remote working (Berlin and London seem to be good places). Interestingly, there is a culture of undercutting hourly rates in the Austrian freelancer community, or so have I experienced people around me ("What? You're leaving us because 30€ is not enough?" said a web-freelancer when I left).
• gvagenas 15y ago
  Regarding consulting cost and value based model, i would like to mention Martin Fowler article regarding Utility vs Strategic projects (http://martinfowler.com/bliki/UtilityVsStrategicDichotomy.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/UtilityVsStrategicDichotomy.ht...). In a really clever manner Martin Fowler distinguish projects depending on whether the business function is a differentiator or not. "This is not a separation of IT by the nature of the technology, but into what technology does for the host business". This point of view should be taken into consideration whenever a consultant/freelancer/contractor have to prepare a quote for a project as the value of the project to the business can influence the cost.
• jaequery 15y ago
  it's all of the above
• webbeetle 15y ago
  Funny (or very blind) that you "forgot" the rates with which one is supposed to compete on freelancing sites, like Odesk, Freelancer, etc. Then this list should start with 0-2.99 Dollars, 3-7.99 Dollars, 8-14.99 Dollars, 15-24.99 Dollars, 25-49.99 Dollars - you won't believe how many jobs are being awarded for rates under $4/hour. SCARY! The result of "globalization" in freelancing. webbeetle - who tries to compete with rates around $30-40
• gubatron 15y ago
  $150-$300, depends on client, complexity