Timeline for How should I determine my rates for writing custom software? [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 8, 2015 at 6:11 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| May 8, 2015 at 13:55 | |||||
| Jan 16, 2015 at 10:25 | comment | added | yegor256 | This is how we measure programmers' rates: yegor256.com/2014/10/29/how-much-do-you-cost.html | |
| Jun 17, 2014 at 0:08 | history | closed | CommunityBot jwenting Dynamic Ampt gnat | Not suitable for this site | |
| Jun 14, 2014 at 1:38 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jun 17, 2014 at 8:08 | |||||
| Jun 14, 2014 at 1:15 | answer | added | user7433 | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 7, 2014 at 10:49 | comment | added | Adrián Pérez | Seems that the average rates at Elance is another different world :/ | |
| Jul 27, 2011 at 2:12 | vote | accept | Carson Myers | ||
| Jul 26, 2011 at 15:30 | answer | added | SoylentGray | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 15:19 | answer | added | CwTechies | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 14:52 | comment | added | Bob Murphy | Pretty much, everybody's correct here. :-) As a contractor, there are extra costs, plus you have to figure on being out of work some. The factor of 2 gives you a wild guesstimate on that. You can get fancier than that - which I do, see below. But it gives you a more effective starting place that an employee rate and working up, and is kind of a sanity check that if your other calculations are wildly below it, you need to double-check them to make sure you're not cheating yourself. And it's an old, old rule of thumb - my sister used it as a marketing consultant in 1986. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 13:59 | comment | added | Gavin Coates | One of the benefits of being a salaried employer is that your job is guaranteed. As a contractor, jobs will come and go, and you will often find yourself going a few weeks at a time with no job. As such, factor this into your hourly rate as well as benefits. I think this is where the 1,000 figure comes from... | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 9:55 | comment | added | S.Lott | @Bob Murphy: The "about twice for benefits" rule can be misleading, since benefits have known costs that are simply added in. It's better to enumerate the exact annual costs and divide by the correct number of billable hours. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 6:00 | comment | added | Marjan Venema | @S.Lott: good catch on the factor 2. I'd add that you need to add the monetary value of any benefits (health insurance, pension plan, car, mobile phone, laptop, ...) to your salary befory you divide, because as a contractor you will have to pay for these yourself. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 2:41 | comment | added | Bob Murphy | BTW, the last comment applies to the US. Elsewhere, YMMV. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 2:35 | comment | added | Bob Murphy | @S. Lott: Employers cover an astonishing array of costs for their employees which a contractor or consultant must cover for themselves. So if you want equivalent lifestyles, your hourly rate as an independent must be about twice what it would be as an employee to cover all that. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 2:33 | answer | added | Bob Murphy | timeline score: 82 | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 2:25 | answer | added | myopic.bones | timeline score: 6 | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:39 | comment | added | S.Lott | "I've read the "take your salary and divide it by 1000" rule of thumb"? Where? There are approximately 2000 work hours in a year. Your annual salary has to be divided by 2000 to reach an hourly rate. Annual salaries are trivially available from numerous government sources, depending on your country, of course. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:37 | answer | added | quickly_now | timeline score: 71 | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:30 | comment | added | Carson Myers | Thank you, @Anna. I've noticed in searching that the rates and practices are very different depending on what services are being offered, I hope that specifying that it's for custom software should generate some good answers that fit Programmers. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:26 | comment | added | Adam Lear♦ | I edited your question slightly to make it a better fit with the guidelines for constructive subjective questions. It might be a good question for Answers.Onstartups.com or the new [Freelancers.SE] (although it's in private beta for 1 more day). That said, I think there might be some programmer-specific insight to be offered here so we can give it a go on Programmers. | |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:24 | history | edited | Adam Lear♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Shifted focus slightly to make the question more constructive |
| Jul 26, 2011 at 1:19 | history | asked | Carson Myers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |