

Ask HN Freelancers/Contractors: What rates do you have? - samuellevy

This is mainly for freelancers, contractors, and, well, anyone who hires their services out to clients. What rates do you have, how do you differentiate, and do you charge more or less for different types of task?<p>And now for the background: I've been working with a Lawyer to get a standard contract and general terms written up for future client work, and the question about rates was asked.<p>"Normally," I said, "I will charge $X/hour for regular contracting work, and $Y/hour for very short notice or emergency work."<p>"All contacting work is worth the same amount?"<p>And that got me thinking: some stuff adds significantly more value for a client, and is much harder to do, where as other stuff isn't complex, doesn't add much value for the client, but needs to get done. Here's what I have been able to come up with so far for different rates:<p>* Standard Contracting rate.<p>* Emergency rate: Covers anything that would normally be done under the Standard Contracting rate, but which has been requested at very short notice. It will be higher than the SC rate to offset my own costs.<p>* System Architecture rate: Planning, designing, requirements discovery, and technical documents. This will be significantly higher than the SC rate because the value for the client is much higher for the time spent.<p>* Re-factoring rate: Cleaning out old code bases, removing old/legacy/un-used code, adding documentation, etc. This will be lower than the SC rate because it takes a long time, and is more of a "long term investment" type of job.<p>So what rates do you have, and do you charge more or less for them?
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andymoe
When I worked at a consulting firm we liked a single rate. Don't paint
yourself into a corner and waste your time by having a complicated set of
rates especially if you are a one man/woman show. Take what you are
considering as your highest rate, double it, (because if you are like 90pct of
people I know your are probably under charging) and use that. (I'm only half
kidding here)

The overhead to keep your complicated rate structure straight can be difficult
for an organization and especially hard for an individual or one man show.
More importantly it makes the sales process more complicated. You spend time
laying out your complicated rate plan instead of getting them to agree to a
proposal and SOW and giving you a nice chunk of money up front based on that
estimate. If you are freelancing you absolutely should get a percent of the
money up front especially for a new relationship. You can always offer people
a _discount_ rate for larger commitments of work if you like - now you are
doing them a favor. Set the expectation of availability early for short term
emergency work and don't do an hourly rate at all for this if you can help it.
Get good at estimating and give them a (high) project based price that
reflects your costs for bumping them to the front of the line.

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samuellevy
So far the stuff that has qualified for the "Emergency rate" has been along
the lines of "My server/website/software is down/badly misbehaving, and a
simple re-start won't fix it. I'm bleeding money, please help." It's the type
of thing where I don't (and they don't) know what it will take to fix it, but
getting things running again (and fast) is important. I can't give a quote
without being able to see the actual situation, so an hourly rate to just
band-aid the problem makes sense. I'll usually follow up with "Here's what the
cause was, this is what it will take to fix it _properly_, and I could fit it
in next week. Would you like to get it fixed?", which has been a great success
at gaining me more work and very happy clients.

In general, they are happy to pay the higher rate because when it gets to that
situation, leaving it for longer will cost them more than paying a higher rate
to get it running. Once it's done, then they're usually more than happy to
talk about a longer term fix to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

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davismwfl
I generally agree with sticking to a standard flat rate. I don't charge extra
for off hours or anything else, but I also make sure the client understands
what my availability is for after hours etc. In general, I try to set very
clear boundaries with clients otherwise some will just abuse the hell out of
you. I also do a minimum charge of 1 hour. So if you do call me in the evening
I will charge you 1/hr regardless if it takes me 2 minutes or 58 minutes.
Seems fair to me.

Also, I have started moving towards less hourly rates and more fixed cost bids
if/when I can get good understanding of the task. In fact, I like to break it
down in weekly blocks and charge for that deliverable. This way I am not
playing hourly billing games, the client doesn't feel nickle and dimed and if
I can finish in 20 hours, I have more time left to do other work. This makes
my hourly rate much higher than what most smaller businesses would pay. They
get shocked at an hourly rate, but when you give them a bill for delivering X
functionality that they equate to Y revenue, it is a no brainer. This also
lets you vary your rate as needed for whatever extra factors you might see.

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kposehn
I charge a straight hourly rate for all, with it multiplied by 1.5 for off-
hours and 3x for emergencies. The only type of work with a higher rate is
knowledge transfer.

I don't get many off-hours or emergency requests, but when they happen they
are almost always events which clearly require it. Overall, it has been a
great structure.

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codegeek
You can come up with different rates but at the end of the day, it depends on
what the client thinks you are _worth_ and if they are willing to match it.

I am a one man consulting firm and the best I can do is to stick to my rate
that I want from a client and let them decide whether they can match it or
not. If you give too many options to clients, they will get confused. Keep it
simple. If you really want to come up with different rates based on the
situation, then _you_ decide it before telling the client. But always give one
rate to the client.

