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Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

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Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#131

Post by frankwiles »

MichaelL wrote: post #36

Some people seem to get it backwards. They think they are their own client. WRONG!! It does not matter one bit what I or others charge. What matters is WHO IS YOUR IDEAL CLIENT? If you know that, you know what VALUE you bring to them and you can charge whatever you want to solve a real problem. Otherwise you are trading time for money. AKA - Job. Does Rolls Royce consult Honda as to what to charge for their products?…

Couldn't agree more on value vs time. It doesn't matter at all how long I slave over the hot laptop, it's the value I bring to the client! One hour of optimization that saves $5000 a year in server costs is a steal at $2000/hr over 2-3 years.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#132

Post by [deleted] »

naner wrote: post #110
patio11 wrote: post #25

One lesson I learned this year as a newbie consultant: there is a heck of a lot of dynamic range in that top bucket. It's like software: even if everyone you know pays $5 or $10 or $30 for software, don't necessarily let that set your expectations, because software can get arbitrarily expensive.

Like $40 million for a simple paywall.

[deleted]

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#133

Post by riledhel »

alexg0 wrote: post #85
jtregunna wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best way I've found is to start out on hourly gigs, until you have a sense of how long certain tasks take you. With experience, you get better at estimating your time. EDIT: Oh and when you start out, if you're estimating time, double it.

and then switch to next higher time unit (without changing the number)

I never thought about this before, But surely will keep it on Mind next time i'm quoting a gig.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#134

Post by [deleted] »

_delirium wrote: post #114
dotBen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is capitalism 101. Funny thing is, my parents (who are both near-retirement service providers in their own professions) won't adopt such a model in either direction (raising their rates or decreasing their rates based on workload). They also just recently chastised my brother (who is in his mid-20s) for doing an arbitrage play where he could get a plentiful supply of iPad 2's on discount and sell them above mark…

Most of my generally very pro-market older relatives are actually kind of squeamish about that sort of thing, oddly enough. They're probably more libertarian on government and regulation than most younger people I know, but much stronger on a "fair price for fair work" sort of ethic, where they look down on arbitrage-type plays, and on charging too high markup above cost + moderate profit. To them, running an "honest…

[deleted]

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#135

Post by rick888 »

_delirium wrote: post #114
dotBen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is capitalism 101. Funny thing is, my parents (who are both near-retirement service providers in their own professions) won't adopt such a model in either direction (raising their rates or decreasing their rates based on workload). They also just recently chastised my brother (who is in his mid-20s) for doing an arbitrage play where he could get a plentiful supply of iPad 2's on discount and sell them above mark…

Most of my generally very pro-market older relatives are actually kind of squeamish about that sort of thing, oddly enough. They're probably more libertarian on government and regulation than most younger people I know, but much stronger on a "fair price for fair work" sort of ethic, where they look down on arbitrage-type plays, and on charging too high markup above cost + moderate profit. To them, running an "honest…

" that charges reasonable prices, based on hard work, and doesn't engage in any trickery, "

How is buying low and selling high 'trickery'?

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#136

Post by kragen »

rockorager wrote: post #127
kragen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also be interested in what you have to write about it. Off-topic: what books do you recommend on chemical engineering? What's the equivalent of The Art of Electronics for analog electronics, or HDL Chip Design for digital chip design, or Code Complete or Algorithms in C or CLRS or The Pragmatic Programmer or SICP or TAOCP for software?

There are very few "sit down and read" type books about chemical engineering. That being said, there are two books that I reference every day: the first physically, the second philosophically. 1) Perry's Handbook for Chemical Engineers (Perry) 2) Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes (Douglas) Perry's is the end all be all for technical reference. Conceptual Design is incredibly useful for learning how to quickly a…

Thank you very much!

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#137

Post by thirdusername »

More often than not: $0. :D I mean they are supposed to pay me in the $200-1600 range, but actually getting clients to fork up money for a completed job is difficult, to the point where I'm ready to give up and get a regular job.

I don't generally do jobs for less than $200 though. It takes times to do research, switch environmental and your head around, but clients sometimes think I'm a typist and should only be paid for time on the keyboard.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#138

Post by pgroves »

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but discussions like this where people post what they charge their customers can get dangerously close to violating price fixing laws, especially if the purpose is for sellers to get justification to raise their rates. Ford isn't allowed to call up GM and ask how much they're going to charge for a pickup truck next year, and if they do they aren't allowed to raise their launch price because they think they can get away with it.

Of course, when the prices are published things change (like if a supermarket sees that another supermarket raised their price for milk), but this type of a forum with sellers chatting about what to charge seems like a grey area.

IANAL, but please be cautious.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#139

Post by antihero »

Loic wrote: post #101
mohsen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that brings up a question for me. when you say $15K/2weeks, is that for a task that can be accomplished by a single person (2x40h), or do you have to break the job up amongst other people?

Just me, it is usually complex stuff where only one person or two in tandem can do the work. I would be pleased to be able to offload some of the work to other people, but it is hard to find people having the right skills — the niche effect, few skilled people.

How regular is this? Wouldn't that mean you could earn nearly $400k a year?

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#140

Post by werrett »

antihero wrote: post #139
Loic wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just me, it is usually complex stuff where only one person or two in tandem can do the work. I would be pleased to be able to offload some of the work to other people, but it is hard to find people having the right skills — the niche effect, few skilled people.

How regular is this? Wouldn't that mean you could earn nearly $400k a year?

Woah woah woah. Don't forget take into account the overheads in consulting.

Just off the top of my head you'd need to think about winning each contract, paying taxes, holidays, health cover, professional indemnity, sick leave, misc business expendables (like office, phone, ISP), the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong. It is still good money I'm sure.

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