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Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

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Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#201

Post by noodlesUK »

trhoad wrote: post #187
dmje wrote: post #166

Everyone here is so incredibly focused on money as the primary motivator, which I guess given the thread question makes some sense. But I'd like to just put in a little word for money not being everything, and client type / work type actually being a really important part of the equation. HN is a forum where increasingly I see posts every single day about the high level of misery in tech / how can I get out of this r…

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but it's easy to say money isn't everything when you're already earning £120k/$140k pa.

I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I know operate this way most of the time.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#202

Post by [deleted] »

joshmanders wrote: post #119
rtlfe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried asking for more? If you're actually good at everything you say, you could be making the same amount of cash plus benefits at a FANG, so I'd expect the contracting rate to be much higher.

I also charge a non-refundable down payment of $100k to sign non-compete or NDA and that doesn’t guarantee I’ll accept the job. Both my rates and this keeps people who aren’t serious about working with me away. Anyone else is most likely worth my time and the cost is acceptable because I don’t work a full 40/hr week for the client. I plan the work to be done for a week and let them know. If it takes me 40hrs ok but m…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#203

Post by JoshTriplett »

wpietri wrote: post #82
cogwheel wrote: post #41

Have an annual salary in mind for a similar role, chop off the last three zeros, and that's my hourly rate. It works out to approximately double which is just enough to account for things you would normally get from an employer: - payroll taxes (SS/Medicare) - PTO/sick days - equipment & supplies - training/conferences - health insurance - retirement savings Etc

Yes! Long ago I read a book that mentioned that freelance professionals (accountants, lawyers, etc) tended to bill around 1000 hours per year. That the unbillable time went toward sales, client relations, marketing, learning, etc. I could usually do a little better than a 50% utilization rate for myself, but as you say that money goes to things most people don't have to pay. So the knock-three-zeros-off-salary rule s…

Common advice is to double your effective hourly rate when going from salary to contracting (which "divide annual salary by 1000" is equivalent to). That's not just because you'll have fewer hours or have to search for clients; some clients will pay you for all the hours you can give them. But also, you'll have to bring your own health insurance, pay the additional self-employment tax, maintain a business, do business taxes, and quite a bit of other overhead. The additional cost helps offset all of that.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#204

Post by j45 »

joshmanders wrote: post #195
dmje wrote: post #166

Everyone here is so incredibly focused on money as the primary motivator, which I guess given the thread question makes some sense. But I'd like to just put in a little word for money not being everything, and client type / work type actually being a really important part of the equation. HN is a forum where increasingly I see posts every single day about the high level of misery in tech / how can I get out of this r…

I get what you're saying, but I work to live, not live to work. My end game is to spend my time doing what I love with those I love and unfortunately, writing code for someone elses business is not what I love. It's traveling the world, hiking mountains, swimming with whales and dolphins, sitting on a swing set with my kid, taking my dog for walks. Money is my only motivation because I want to quit everything that ma…

5 years ago I’d say - Working to live is great. It makes one more well rounded and you discover you have other interests to pursue with time.

As time goes on the cost of freedom is higher and higher. You might meet someone special and want to experience life together. That might lead to realizing the world might be better with little versions of her in it.

In The last 2 years - My kids will be the only people who remember me when the day I no longer breathe, if I’m around for them now. I don’t want them to have to relearn the stuff I had to unnecessarily on my own and be in a position to lean into whatever their potential calls them to.

Wealth moves from not just money, but to time and creating memories. If all my time is spent to get money it’s not worth it.

Wealth as time is all there is. Since I’ve embraced this oddly the professional and product side of life has taken off even more.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#205

Post by elliekelly »

noodlesUK wrote: post #201
trhoad wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but it's easy to say money isn't everything when you're already earning £120k/$140k pa.

I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I know operate this way most of the time.

And there are lots of expenses.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#206

Post by JoshTriplett »

tyurok wrote: post #66

Generalist can be a specialization in itself. Imagine someone that can do a bit of front-end, backend, infra, design, would be a specialist in bootstrapping a startup. Don't get too attached to market/industry defined roles. Another way to raise rates is to take risks (like deadlines, promises) but every person had their own risk profile.

> Generalist can be a specialization in itself.

This is absolutely true. Someone who is comfortable chasing down a problem no matter where it leads, and learning what's necessary to handle it if they don't already know, can provide a great deal of value.

Many clients don't need a specialist in X, they need someone who can do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, and oh we didn't realize we needed D and E but we're glad you're up for that too.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#207

Post by ChainOfFools »

rco8786 wrote: post #198
joshmanders wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What’s your strategy for finding clients, if you don’t mind me asking? Referrals from existing clients, HN monthly threads. > And how do you handle ongoing maintenance/sysadmin? $10k/week, pre-paid monthly. I don't do hourly because I don't work hourly. You're paying for my skills and expertise not the geo coordinates of the chair I am sitting in for however long I am working. I charge accordingly. The price is for…

Amazing. Any oncall type of work? What if things go down at 3am?

A client who's paying one person effectively a half million dollar a year rate to be a 'slot' in their workload, which presumably implies they take on multiple such clients at once, would also presumably not blink at pouring another 5,000 or 10,000 a month off onto a robust cloud platform to make sure things don't go down at 3:00 a.m. for trivial reasons.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#208

Post by xcambar »

joshmn wrote: post #129

Ten-some years ago I started at $100/hour and I thought that was a good idea. "Great, I'll make $200k a year and pay 45% in taxes, that's fine, I can live on that." I thought that being attractive to more people was a better way to find clients. I didn't have a problem finding clients, but they were clients that I didn't see panning out — they gave me vibes of being poor executors. I looked for a way to filter out th…

I'm a full-time employee but I can see myself in your comment. Too many people do not realize the power of "no" on one hand and the power of being able to build a valid opinion on many topics quickly, opposed to having the perfect, expert opinion on one single topic, on the other hand.

It took me a lot of experience to learn that and now I'm more listened to by my reports, peers and superiors alike, while feeling much quieter and more efficient at the same time.

Kind of a zen state of sort. :)

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#209

Post by dan-robertson »

dmje wrote: post #166

Everyone here is so incredibly focused on money as the primary motivator, which I guess given the thread question makes some sense. But I'd like to just put in a little word for money not being everything, and client type / work type actually being a really important part of the equation. HN is a forum where increasingly I see posts every single day about the high level of misery in tech / how can I get out of this r…

One way of thinking about this is that you’re charging less for doing less work. Maybe that’s what you want (eg less stressful days). Another way to see it is that if you could work for some places you like less for £X per day, you could live off £500 per day and donate £(X-500) to charity (this is basically the argument that was popular 10 years or so ago that ambitious young people wanting to ‘do good’ should go and work in tech/finance to make a lot of money to give to charity instead of working for charities directly). So in some sense you’re choosing to instead donate £(X-500) per day to the nonprofits you work for. I guess if you like what they do then maybe it’s a reasonable choice for you.

Re: Ask HN: Generalist contractors, what is your hourly rate?

#210

Post by trhoad »

noodlesUK wrote: post #201
trhoad wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but it's easy to say money isn't everything when you're already earning £120k/$140k pa.

I seriously doubt parent is earning that much. I expect they probably bill avg 10-15 days per month at that rate. Most contractors like them in the UK that I know operate this way most of the time.

Most (all) the contractors I know can bill £500 per day outside IR35 pretty much indefinitely.
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