There is much more to this than you can find out in a single discussion thread, but here are some tips to get you started:
- NEVER charge by the project until you know what you are doing. Clients will wave $2000 in front of you, then occupy your time for 3 months straight with customizations, revisions, new features, formatting issues in IE 6, etc. If you think I'm exxagerating, you haven't been through it yet. Instead, say, "This is my hourly rate, and I estimate this project to take 20 hours but it's just an estimate."
- As for figuring out your hourly rate, the simple way is to take your full-time salary, divide by 1,000, and that's your hourly rate. If you make $50,000 as a salaried employee, your rate is $50 per hour.
- If you want to research industry standards for rates, check out PayScale.com.
*Shameless plug for my upcoming book/info product How to Succeed as a Freelance Consultant*
(as soon as I can figure out what term to use!!) |