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<blockquote data-quote="Brad Weber" data-source="post: 97372" data-attributes="member: 114">Re: Money $$$$$As far as hourly or daily rates, I believe you have to look at what is included.&nbsp; Your time is obvious but what about any overhead costs such as insurance, business license, a business address/phone/internet/ISP, advertising and so on?&nbsp; If you don&#039;t have any overhead costs then you can offer a lower hourly rate, however not having some of those aspects may also limit your opportunities or put you at greater personal risk.&nbsp; What about costs for an attorney, CPA and other professionals who provide any professional services to you such as helping draft a contract, review contracts, prepare taxes and so on?&nbsp; What about taxes and are your services subject to sales tax where you are located?&nbsp; How about compensating for experiences like the one you had where someone does not pay you, do you want to charge a standard rate that accommodates some clients not paying?I think this is why comparing rates can get misleading as it is not always clear how much of that relates to the actual services and how much to overhead, indirect costs, taxes and so on, which can vary greatly.I remember one client for an install with an old employer that returned the invoice with design, programming (AMX and audio DSP) and installation struck out and the associated amounts deleted from their payment, arguing that they had never requested those services.&nbsp; It was explained that they were required to provide the operating system they requested, but they refused to pay for them.&nbsp; Eventually our CFO told them that&#039;s fine, when was the space available for us to get the drawings, deinstall all the equipment and remove the programming?&nbsp; The Client immediately agreed to pay the rest of the invoice.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brad Weber, post: 97372, member: 114"] Re: Money $$$$$ As far as hourly or daily rates, I believe you have to look at what is included. Your time is obvious but what about any overhead costs such as insurance, business license, a business address/phone/internet/ISP, advertising and so on? If you don't have any overhead costs then you can offer a lower hourly rate, however not having some of those aspects may also limit your opportunities or put you at greater personal risk. What about costs for an attorney, CPA and other professionals who provide any professional services to you such as helping draft a contract, review contracts, prepare taxes and so on? What about taxes and are your services subject to sales tax where you are located? How about compensating for experiences like the one you had where someone does not pay you, do you want to charge a standard rate that accommodates some clients not paying? I think this is why comparing rates can get misleading as it is not always clear how much of that relates to the actual services and how much to overhead, indirect costs, taxes and so on, which can vary greatly. I remember one client for an install with an old employer that returned the invoice with design, programming (AMX and audio DSP) and installation struck out and the associated amounts deleted from their payment, arguing that they had never requested those services. It was explained that they were required to provide the operating system they requested, but they refused to pay for them. Eventually our CFO told them that's fine, when was the space available for us to get the drawings, deinstall all the equipment and remove the programming? The Client immediately agreed to pay the rest of the invoice. [/QUOTE]

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