Self Employment

Hi all,

Since there are so many wise people here, let me ask you guys a question.

Do you know what your hourly rates are? So for self employed folks, what do you charge an hour. For employed people, what does your company charge for you?

If you wish not to share publicly, feel free to send me a PM.

Any info is welcome!

I have recently hired an systems integrator for some T&M at $131 per hour. Their engineers don't get that of course, but that doesn't help me since, in effect, that's what one of their engineers cost me!

We have also recently hired a temp controls engineer at about that same rate.

rates will vary on the following factors
1. location
2. how busy they are
3. how long it takes to get paid.
4. how big of an *** the customer is how much extra time they usually spend doing simple things.
5. the experience level of the people needed.
6. is this a good friend / company
7. lots of potential for repeat business?

regards,
james

My company's engineering rates are between $135 and $165 per hour, depending on the seniority/experience of the engineer.

I sometimes bill at different rates for myself, depending on what I'm doing on the project.

Back when I was in field service, we could go as high as $210 per hour for emergency overnight work.

Thanks all, and please keep it coming

I understand rates are not fixed and many things have to be count for.

I have been employed by a Norwegian company at the rates we pay are all over the place. Norway is very expensive, but when we are paying towards $ 300 an hour for an engineer, I begin to rethink why I accepted my current salary.. And that is 9 to 5, on shore work.

Here in the southeastern US, the going rate for a Systems Integrator hired gun is typically between $100.00 to $150.00 per hour. Most independent contractors will negotiate a slightly lower rate for their regular clients than what they would charge for an "off the street" call.

I would charge some more just depending on the job... if I wanted the job I would give a better rate, my normal rate is 125, my old employer I charged 150 (pay back). I had a local Peach company that I was only charging 100 per hour, but they were only 10 min from my home and it was a nice place with good people

I do barter... I just help a customer with a simple change to his filler on his coffee machine and he sent me a few bags of coffee, great coffee www.caribbeancoffee.com/ I also helped this one http://www.hawaiianhost.com/ they are both great

A LOT of people charge by the I/O and screen when they are quoting a job, I also do a 'not to exceed' I will give them a high rough quote just for their budget, then there is after hours... I feel guilty when I send that invoice

As you can see there are many ways of charging

My Basic Rule of Self Employment Income:

How much does it take per year for you to live, comfortably?

Take that and double it, because you will lose half of it to the government. Then divide by 2080. That is your bare minimum hourly rate, assuming full time work. So let's say you can live comfortably on $75K/year. Your hourly bare minimum rate then would be 150,000 / 2080 = $72.00/hour, for someone who is going to keep you employed steadily.

How much do you WANT to make? I.e. what will make you dancing on rose petals happy and screaming "Whoopee!"? Double that, then divide by 2080, that is the rate you charge for people you do not know, or for when you must postpone a good steady customer but one who is paying you a lower rate. Because you are risking losing that customer, and the only risk worth doing that for is to replace them with someone paying a lot more. This is also your "stretch" rate, the rate you charge when you are going to have to work overtime to take on the extra work. This rate, by the way, should be roughly 1.5X the bare minimum rate, never less.

So let's say your whoopee number is $200,000/year, so 400,000 / 2080 = $192/Hr. You are not likely to get much work at that level. But if you have a project with a steady customer paying you lets say $85/hr, and someone hears of your fantastic reputation and wants you so bad he is salivating, you tell him $190/hr. If he bites, you explain to good customer that you have an emergency and you will do what you can to keep his project on track. If he is OK, you are stretching, but you are stretching to add whoopee money to your bottom line. If he bolts, hopefully you have already replaced him with whoopee money. If whoppee guy balks and runs, you have lost nothing. If whoopee guy wants to negotiate, you are dropping down from a ridiculous number, so it all looks good, but never go below $108, which is 1.5X your basic rate.

for work in my own workshop i rate 55 euro
and for work at cstmer i rat 70 euro

Thanks all.

As to your comment jraef, I do not fully agree.. You got a point that you should at least bring home enough to live on. But isn't it equally bad to "under price" yourself as to "over price" yourself? If you know what I mean.

This is straight from my quote. I don't hide anything.

I don't agree with dividing by 2080 hrs. That is if you are only looking at billable hours. I bill in avg 40&50% of my time. You have non billable hours like training, quoting, paperwork. How many hours does it take to do a quote? If you get the job ok if not you are out that time. When you look over your books and find out that some customer owes you money when you go after that those are not billable.

Rates for Time and Material
$100.00/ hour (8 am ~5 pm, Monday~Friday)
$150.00/ hour (5 pm~8 am, Monday~Friday, Saturday, anytime in excess of 8 hours per day.)
$200.00/ hour (Sunday, and US recognized holidays, anytime in excess of 12 hours per day.)
$60.00/ hour additional staff (8 am ~5 pm, Monday~Friday)
$90.00/ hour additional staff (5 pm~8 am, Monday~Friday, Saturday, anytime in excess of 8 hours per day.)
$120.00/ hour additional staff (Sunday, and US recognized holidays, anytime in excess of 12 hours per day.)
Mileage and Per Diem are bases on travel in excess of 50 mile radius from 47161 zip code.
Per Diem rates $50.00 / day for meals. Housing is billed at cost plus 10%.
Mileage $0.56/ mile.

make a new plc program, wiring from zero, tell the costumer what machines they buy, etc?


is that what you do as a system integrator?

The customer usually comes to me asking if I can program it. I quote them

Hi

papejo make a new plc program, wiring from zero, tell the costumer what machines they buy, etc?


is that what you do as a system integrator?

This is what I do anyway. Also editing programs in site that I did not write, break downs, training sweep the floor what ever they want. The dollar price quoted is higher than what you would get in Ireland but I would say that there is a big shortage of plc programmers at present and the rate is rising

Donnchadh

Hi
I would say it depends on your skill set and the desperation of the customers.

Some people are just programmers... I had one on a job and they would not connect a 4-20mA calibrator ("I am just a programmer")

If a line is down customers will pay what it takes...but I dont take advantage of that and try to build relationships for future works

I once paid a specialist £1300 for 1 day onsite and felt ripped off

I have seen recent hourly rates anywhere from £60-£100 hr for on site works and 93 euros/hr for a job in belgium