Re: Re: Independent Contractor Suggestions

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 05:47:12PM -0700, Kris Craig wrote: > Hi musicdev, > > There are a couple issues I think need to be addressed with what youd > described.  First and foremost, $20/hr is considerably below the going > rate for PHP work, especially for projects as large as the one you're > talking about. > > I used to do freelance PHP work for about 5 years before I went to > work for Microsoft, and when I originally started I was just charging > about 20 bucks an hour as well.  It proved to be a disaster.  Contrary > to what common sense might tell you, I've found that lower-budget > clients always produce the most drama, are the most demanding, and > least reliable when it comes to paying the invoices on-time. > Furthermore, larger clients will generally ignore you in favor of > developers who charge more, the mindset being that, if you're charging > such a low amount, the quality of your work probably isn't that good. > > I did a lot better after I started charging $100/hr for my work.  A > *lot* better! This was after my research showed that PHP development > firms generally charge a minimum of $80/hr for PHP work, and can go as > high as $200/hr. So if you're going at $20/hr, the companies with > deep pockets probably won't take you seriously, and the clients you do > get will be the ones who want a ton of work done but don't have the > budget available to make it worth your while. Those are the clients > who will take advantage of you if you're not careful. +1 I can't explain this phenomenon, but I've seen it before, and it's exactly as Kris has described. Paul -- Paul M. Foster