Re: Re: Independent Contractor Suggestions

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 4:39 PM, Paul M Foster <paulf@quillandmouse.com>wrote: > 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 > > +1 with kris :) ( from EU ) -- Ricardo _______________________________________________