The author should clarify whether he's acting in the role of a consultant to his client or a contractor for them. The questions he's raising definitely signal "

The author should clarify whether he's acting in the role of a consultant to his client or a contractor for them. The questions he's raising definitely signal "consultant" but his price signals "contractor". The expertise he thinks he's being hired for is "make my project successful" (consultant) but is probably "build this thing for me" (contractor). Consultant's generally have to spend a lot of time persuading their customers to follow their advice, and charge high rates to make sure that they do. Contractors focus more on efficient delivery of their work, and let the customer sort out what to do with it. Note that I'm using the titles consultant and contractor in their extremes. Most people who have one of these titles actually do both jobs during the course of a customer engagement. It helps to be aware of which one you're doing when you're doing it, though.