Bjorn,
What you should charge for consulting is your own decision of course. But in the interests of being certain you have a sound business model I would suggest you approach setting your rates by doing some careful study of all the aspects of your business you need to pay attention to.
For instance there is what one business consultant I worked with called your "Bare Ass Minimum". This is what we normally call "overhead" and includes not only rent for an office, (even if you use the "spare room" of you home or apartment there is a cost that should be associated with it.), it also includes phone, utilities, equipment, and marketing.
It's easy to look at one rate and feel comfortable, thinking of it like a regular job (minus the boss). But having your own business is nothing like a regular job. Too often independent business people under estimate their costs and the amount of work necessary to administer the business. How much time do you think you'll have for production? How much time do you think you'll need to spend each week just doing marketing? One businessman told me if you don't spend at least one full day each week marketing you'll struggle forever. It is actually very common to see that nearly half of your time will be spent on the business, not in the production that pays the bills.
If that ratio holds then when you project your yearly income realize that your $30/hr just got cut in half. Do you want to work for $15/hr? Can you afford to?
Now look at what other businesses at your level are charging for similar services. If you are undercutting them too much it will erode the perception of the quality of your work. Are you pricing on the cheap because you fear that's the only way you'll get the work? Or is that about the "going rate" for your level of work?
This is not meant to discount your abilities, only to prompt some serious analysis before you set your fees. As one friend said long ago "Once a cheap photographer, always a cheap photographer!".
HTH
Dennis Dunbar ;-)>
On Jun 3, 2004, at 2:24 AM, Bj�rn Holland wrote:
Anyway, I am not sure what to do yet.... After what you've said, I am re-considering the whole thing... And I do like your idea of quoting a minimum of 2-3 hours. If I do production work for someone, I usually charge about $30/h - after attaching a consulting rate, do you reckon $60 would be a fair price?
Kind regards Bjorn
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