[PLUG] Billing rates for short and long term Linux consulting

chris (fool) mccraw gently at gmail.com
Thu Feb 14 15:23:44 UTC 2013


Rich's points are well made and sensible, but it's true--sometimes
things fly out of control.  I'll be honest--I undercharge for exactly
the reasons specified--fear of delivering a too-huge bill and pissing
someone off.  That said, for actual short-term, non-terrifying
projects, my rates work for me, though they are cheap (IMNSHO).

I have a sliding scale, and here's the criteria.  These criteria are
the most useful part of *my* reply, not the $ amounts associated.

i have 3 tiers, which you (as a client) fit into based on:

1) do i like working for you
2) do i like your technology

if no to both, you get charged the highest price - typically $100/hr
if yes to one, you  get the middle price - typically $80/hr
if yes to both, you get the low price - typically $60/hr

setting up samba for my dad?  $80  (love dad, hate windows-wrangling)
setting up an parallel processing cluster with free rein on setup for
an old colleague i love?  $60
going back to revisit the painful server debugging for that jerk?  $100

i make sure to have a (free) project-definition meeting with any
client (new or old) at the beginning of a project so i can assess the
situation before agreeing to a price.

i find the "sticker shock" is greatly ameliorated if you actually
track time--not in terms of "worked 234 hours" but like so:

project - result - time spent each day

this is especially helpful when shared constantly with client (i just
use a google spreadsheet and invite them on day 1).  "hey so after
today here's where we're at." at the end of every day (unless we're on
a longer-term thing in which case i still update the spreadsheet but
don't necessarily wave it under their nose each day).

i've never gotten pushback even when something spiralled dismally out
of control because they saw it happening in slo-mo.

luck++;



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