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Software Engineering

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    Building the whole thing vs being part of a team? I really don't think that should be a huge factor. In the end, its results that you need to deliver - be that by yourself or as part of a team. Your point about equipment is a good one - if you provide your own equipment it is reasonable to charge a higher rate - you need to source the equipment, after all, and pay for it, and maintain it, and depreciate it. Insurance and so on is part of your "allowance for retirement fund... etc" as above, depending on how much it costs, again bumping the rate may be reasonable. Commented Jul 26, 2011 at 3:04
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    @quickly_now I'm mostly saying that instead of doing a job at a company who sells software, I'm building and selling the software. I'm wondering if there's a distinction between "what do I cost" and "what does the software cost" that I'm missing -- on top of not being sure what my time is worth, I don't really know the price of software in a situation like this either. Is that something I should consider? Or does the price of software always depend on what it costs to build anyway? Commented Jul 26, 2011 at 3:14
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    @quickly_now my wording was bad -- it's a regular consulting role, by "selling" I mean "selling to this one client." I'm just trying to wrap my head around being responsible for the whole process, wearing every hat involved in the software life cycle, instead of just the "developer" hat that I would wear if I was an employed programmer. Commented Jul 26, 2011 at 19:37
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    What are the customer gonna earn, and when, of your work? That the first question for me. I want to know what my work mean for the customer, regarding their business. If they have salary of 10000$/month and raise it to 15000$ one year after I begun working, perhaps start saving costs earlier because they could quit some external resources because of you. I that into "what dooes the software cost". Listing skills and experience looks more where xx heads are compared and the customer choose either price or skill, probably also already own the idea of what (and how) being builded. Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 6:20
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    You have completely forgotten to take into account how much value is being produced for the client. If they pay $100,000 to the freelancer for 1 year of work, and they generate $1 million in profits, their profit margin is 90%, the freelancer could have earned more money. It's possible to charge $200+/hr if you frame it the right way. Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 1:11