I charge about that much. I've had to turn away a lot of smaller projects because I'm way overburdened at the moment.
It's amazing how coders don't actually know C anymore. It seems like a rare skill these days. I also have a ton of embedded development experience (Sony PSP, PS3, XBox 360) that transfers well.
I teach an iPhone Game Design course at the local polytechnic institute that has been good for marketing. And I bounce between 1st and 2nd when you Google "vancouver iphone developer".
I bet I could draw in more work if I advertised on CraigsList and LinkedIn.
Most of my clients come from shaking the right hands. I get referrals from people I know and people I meet at events.
Hackers underestimate the importance of dressing fashionably, speaking eloquently, and writing well. All of these soft skills ease the pain, stress, and pressure from the client's perspective. This is what the client is paying for: to feel better.
I live in Vancouver.
I usually do projects for Fortune 500 type companies. I'll work on projects for friends that I personally know too.
it is really not that much. You should not under-charge. Ask for 30% returns, if somebody comes at you with less than $125-$150/hr rate.
Remember, you are doing hard work, and price it accordingly, and what to the market bears.
Engineers tend underestimate they value of their work. Try to find a good lawyer for less than $600/hr.
30% returns sounds like a "You give me large amounts of labor at below-market prices today and in return I give you equity!" This sounds like a fairly decent arrangement for an engineer straight out of college who wants to make a go of a startup and, uh, stupid for a professional with an in-demand skill in a sellers' market.
You think their lawyer is getting paid $20 an hour with the remainder to come as a percentage of revenues assuming Marketing does their jobs right? (That's always the stickler with engineers getting equity: you might think you are contributing the most important piece of the puzzle, but really, your contribution can and will be squandered if everybody else doesn't perform at or above your level. There are many, many startups who had top-flight engineers married with "We'll sell pet food on the Internet and make a fortune!"-esque business models.)
