OT Contracting Advise

[Edmhydraulics]

Hey all, I have a question for all you independent contractors. I have a client I agreed to work for them for a low rate with the idea that it would be almost full time work. Now I am working much less for them than I want to due to thier being cheap on maintenance and repairs work.

Do I raise my rate back up to my standard hourly call in rate which is more than double what I am charging them now, or do I just suck it up and deal with it due to a crappy economy?

Thoughts????

 

[geniusintraining]

Depends if you have more work... if you have work then I would tell them that you are going up on your rates and tell them why

If they said you would work 50 hrs a week at 40 per hour (example) and they are having you work 25 hrs then your rate is 80 per hr and just tell them that is will change on a monthly ratio

My shipping rates are done the same with UPS, the more I ship the less per lb I pay, the less I ship the more I pay

I think if you tell them they would not have a issue, but if you just hand them a bill for double your new rate I think they would have a ****

And if you dont have enough work to keep you busy if they tell you to kiss off then.... forget everything above and thank you lucky stars you have work

 

[Aabeck]

I charge my hourly rate UNLESS I will be working a full day on a multi-day project. Anything less than a full day, or even a full day for one day only is full price.

 

[Steve Bailey]

As GIT has indicated, a lot depends on your current situation. If you have plenty of work with other customers, you can explain to the one paying the discounted rate that you offered that rate based on an assumption about volume that hasn't turned out to be correct. With a lower than expected volume you're faced with two possibilities. Either increase the hourly rate or put the work you do for them on a lower priority.
Refer to my avatar regarding the second option. As long as they want cheap as one of their choices, they can have either good or fast as their other choice. Thus cheap and fast won't be good and cheap and good won't be fast.
If you don't have a lot of work except for this customer, then you can try explaining that you can't make a living on the number of hours they're buying and what they're paying for them. Point out that given your knowledge of their operations they have a vested interest in you remaining in business. In other words, they're not paying a hundred dollars for an hour of your time. They're paying a hundred dollars to the man who can get the job done in an hour.

 

[Mark-]

Hello,

That is an old "trick" for hourly contracting rates. You are told 100 hours, you lower the rate, the "customer" uses 20 hours.

Aabeck said have a minimum in the future and/or provide a sliding scale:
<= 8 hrs = x
> 8 hrs <16 hrs = y, etc.


Or put in the contact a minimum number of billable hours, used or not.

If you can survive without the money you are working for now, tell the customer the scene and work it out, or walk away.

But, now you know some people will pull this "trick."

FYI, it is also an old "purchasing agent" move. I will purchase 100 over the next 12 months, give me a rate for the 100 and the customer only purchases 4 at the 100 rate, ever.

My2c.

 

[DwSoFt]

Personallty i say the contract is voided but id have to have that in there to be binding. also depends how much work is realistic from him in the next 6 months.

 

[Edmhydraulics]

Thanks for the insight folks, the point is moot now anyways, the customer basically fired me after I told them what I thought how they were treating me. No harm, no foul, better to have found out now than in 6 months.

 

[DwSoFt]

It means you can find better clients. Lol. I know the feeling. My employer just lost work for 3 full time guys plus the odd help. We were under bid. Only here's the catch... only bigger companies (3 to be exact) were invited to bid...

 

[Saffa]

I see this often. Clients don't appreciate the knowledge accrued when you're a regular on their site. Good documentation only gets you so far.

Good chance they will get some other outfit in who will work for cheap... they'll **** it up..after a few months the client sheepishly comes back.

Had one where a client bought some devices from the ol fly by night salesman. We get given them to integrate. Documentation is non-existent, spent hours figuring out the modbus register map through trial and error to get to work with their systems. Explain to Client why job is expensive. They tell us "they're looking elsewhere". So they ask another Authority we also worked for who they would recommend for the task. They referred the client back to us with full confidence in our abilities. I had to laugh... I was even nice and didn't up the price.

 

[DwSoFt]

I see this often. Clients don't appreciate the knowledge accrued when you're a regular on their site. Good documentation only gets you so far.

Good chance they will get some other outfit in who will work for cheap... they'll **** it up..after a few months the client sheepishly comes back.

Had one where a client bought some devices from the ol fly by night salesman. We get given them to integrate. Documentation is non-existent, spent hours figuring out the modbus register map through trial and error to get to work with their systems. Explain to Client why job is expensive. They tell us "they're looking elsewhere". So they ask another Authority we also worked for who they would recommend for the task. They referred the client back to us with full confidence in our abilities. I had to laugh... I was even nice and didn't up the price.

Haha that is awesome and so.true.

Yeah we are expecting that phonecall in a few months. Lol

Lukily I only helped the other guys on occasion. They are not my.main client

 

[Edmhydraulics]

Its a dog-eat-dog world out there right now, companies cutting each others throats for sure.