> I'd also love to hear what DB consultants are making as well.
I used to be consulted out at 2000 Euros per day.
Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
11–20 of 113 posts
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#12Do not forget to put time in the equation. A consulting job of one month has a higher price per hour than a contract of three months. That is because a one month contract solves your money problem for one month, but then you may spend another month finding your next job.
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#13As a boring freelance Oracle consultant, I can bill 450-500 GBP/day... interesting LAMP and Web based roles seem to be around half that.
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#14You should consider reading some of Alan Weiss' consulting books. He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees.
Million Dollar Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=...
Getting Started In Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=...
Value Based Fees: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=...
I'd recommend these three books and check out his website @ http://www.summitconsulting.com/
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#15As a boring freelance Oracle consultant, I can bill 450-500 GBP/day... interesting LAMP and Web based roles seem to be around half that.
Considering that's > $1000 per day (probably closer to $1500 -- haven't dared to check the exchange rate these days), and $500/day for a LAMP project ... hey, that's not bad.
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#16Sorry, you are not going to get away with it that easy. This is like going up to that hot girl you have been eyeballing and saying "I really want to go through the whole dating process because I really don't understand it, can we just skip all that and get straight to serious relationship?" This question is nearly impossible to answer and a very personal decision. Nobody here can tell you how much you are worth. For…
"Remember that you cannot get eight billable hours out of an eight hour day." This is an extremely important point. When I was freelancing, I was surprised by just how much non-billable overhead time I had (at least 5-10 hours a week when working with 3 clients). To reduce overhead, work with as few clients as possible. But you'll run into dead time that way, since jobs don't start on a dime. I know a guy who has fre…
Just curious since I haven't done freelancing yet... how do you determine what is billable vs. non-billable? If 60% of your time is billable then what constitutes the other 40%? I know part of it is looking for new work. What else?
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#17You should consider reading some of Alan Weiss' consulting books. He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees. Million Dollar Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... Getting Started In Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... Value Based Fees: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... I'd recommend these three…
He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees.
This guy is not a software consultant. So beware, beware, beware this advice, because that little detail matters a lot.
It's easy to charge project based fees when you (a) are an expert negotiator and speaker and (b) your project is not built of either hardware or software. If the deliverable is a paper report, a Powerpoint presentation, or a new org chart, it is relatively easy to work around or gloss over any problems that arise and still deliver on time and make the client happy. You have a ton of flexibility. Unless you're drafting legal documents, editing the English or changing the color of a graphic has no wide-ranging ramifications.
If the deliverable is a working machine, you're up against the laws of nature:
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman
You'll end up running three weeks late because the client makes a "trivial" reinterpretation of the spec at the last minute, and the old library won't meet the new spec, but the new version of the library will, so you upgrade, but the new version has a different API, and one of those new API calls has a bug...
[UPDATE: This link, recommended elsewhere on the page, has a succinct summary of the argument in favor of time-based fees: http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/09/27/set-your-hourly-rate/ ]
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#18I've done consulting on the microsoft stack and I got between $50/hr and $75/hr on short term gigs. I was also considered on the cheap side by the people who hired me. I think price is greatly determined by whether you're coming from a company or you're an individual. Customers will pay a consulting firm $150-$200/hr or more because they are also buying someone to blame if the project goes wrong. An individual is not…
"they are also buying someone to blame if the project goes wrong" ^_^ sorry had to say it again...
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#19You should consider reading some of Alan Weiss' consulting books. He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees. Million Dollar Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... Getting Started In Consulting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... Value Based Fees: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=... I'd recommend these three…
He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees. This guy is not a software consultant. So beware, beware, beware this advice, because that little detail matters a lot . It's easy to charge project based fees when you (a) are an expert negotiator and speaker and (b) your project is not built of either hardware or software. If the deliverable is a paper report, a Powerpoint presentation, or a n…
The goal is to generate more income and not less, so you need to set up a system that provides for that. You can abstract out the core of the project, set a fee for that and tack on hourly rates for things outside the initial scope. You have to be careful in how you do things but it should ultimately lead to more money.
If you're happy making $x/hour or whatever then by all means continue to do so. If you're looking for more, you may want to start exploring other billing models.
Re: Ask YC: What are the going rates for consulting gigs?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Remember that you cannot get eight billable hours out of an eight hour day." This is an extremely important point. When I was freelancing, I was surprised by just how much non-billable overhead time I had (at least 5-10 hours a week when working with 3 clients). To reduce overhead, work with as few clients as possible. But you'll run into dead time that way, since jobs don't start on a dime. I know a guy who has fre…
Just curious since I haven't done freelancing yet... how do you determine what is billable vs. non-billable? If 60% of your time is billable then what constitutes the other 40%? I know part of it is looking for new work. What else?
Much of this is obvious. Some of it could go either way though. The obvious stuff is regular business tasks such as billing, marketing, distractions (turn off that IM!) dealing with email and things like that. It all really adds up.