[Sigia-l] Consulting Fees Recap

[Melissa Riesland]

Hi all,

I had many requests to post my results from last
week's query for typical taxonomist consulting
fees. Thanks for all your responses! 

Here are the anonymized (?) responses (apologies
if I've muffed anyone's information):

--------------------------------

> > Figuring out what to charge isn't easy. I've
> > found it to be a quite a subjective process; 
> > and depends on what you have been making, 
> > what kind of work you will be doing, and 
> > for which client, how much you "feel" your 
> > work on a particular project is worth, how 
> > much you ideally want to make and how much 
> > you intend to work overall.
> > 
> > A good rule of thumb might be this: take your
> > previous annual salary (or your salary 
> > goal) and divide it by 2000 (50 weeks x 40
> > hours).  This gives you a base hourly rate 
> > (which may seem surprisingly low!).  
> > 
> > Multiply this rate by the number of hours you
> > think you might work on any one project. 
> > What does it equal? Does it seem low, high,
> > reasonable? 
> > 
> > Most likely it will seem a bit low, after you
> > consider that you now need to pay things like

> > insurance, possibly rent etc. So, increase 
> > your hourly rate until you get the numbers 
> > you feel comfortable with (probably by 20 or
> > 30%?). 
> > 
> > Remember that you won't be working fulltime
> > anymore, especially at first, so what  at 
> > first SEEMS like a good charge rate likely
> > won't really be enough (unless you get really

> > busy with new clients). 

------------------------

I charge $100 per hour. I do not have much 
experience with what to charge, and have been
told by people who know me that I am charging too
little.  I have search engine technical expertise
and perl programming experience.

It makes a significant difference whether they 
are paying W-2 or 1099 wages, too. I haven't gone
through a tax year yet, so  can't really give you
a good idea. I found on monster.com that the
overhead  difference between a regular
employee and a 1099 is about 40% for the company.
In addition to health insurance and business
insurance, we have to pay full social security
for
ourselves (ss adds 15%).

----------------------------------------------

It's so specialized and you have the inside 
track. I'd say you are well
within your rights to charge $100/hour.

I'm in New York/New Jersey. When I do contract
work, my fees are typically anywhere from
$35/hour to $100/hour depending on the client,
job, etc. Typically, around $65/hour. But your 
situation seems different than a standard IA job.
Shorter, sporadic jobs cost more per hour than
longer, full-time engagements, I've found.

-------------------------------

When I was consulting [in California], I gave
them two options--$40/hour if they W-2'd me, and
$80/hour if I had to deal with all the tax stuff
on my own.  It made sense to set it up that way
since I was working full-time, and that way when
the project imploded a year and a half later I
could collect unemployment (if you've registered
as self-employed it's substantially harder).  But
it sounds like your situation is more of a
part-time one, so I'd say ask for the hourly
equivalent of double your salary while you were
there--after all, they're not giving you benefits

anymore, and it's still a cost savings for them.

-----------------------------

[Note: An indexer in the southwest said she
typically charges $50 per hour, but it depends on
what sort of insurance/taxes on the particular
job she has to cover for herself.]


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