Billing rate (1 Viewer)

Hello all,

I am talking to a potential customer about doing some contract work using access. This would be my first contract using access and I was just curious what some of you are charging as your rate. I'm a strong developer but my experience has been in a full-time position so I'm not sure what contractors would get paid.

Any help would be appreciated!

For Access? Knowing nothing about what kind of project you're talking about, I'd probably charge around $25 an hour. But it depends on, like, a billion factors.

What are you willing to work for? How big is the project? How rich is the customer? How important is the work to the customer? Is it worth your time if they pay $x? Is it beyond their budget if you charge $y?

If it's for a non-profit center for domestic abuse, you might not charge anything. If you have a high-profile trial lawyer working on a case, maybe you double that. Who knows.

Like I said, it depends a lot, but $15-$25 an hour seems like pretty standard for any basic, rather short-term computer job for any random audience. Heck, my Grandmother used to pay me $20 when I'd come over an hang a few pictures for her--but that's Grandmothers, I guess.

Try to think of the final cost to the customer--unless it is on going or otherwise a large project or filled with unknowns. With that model in mind, it doesn't actually matter what you charge per hour. If you charge $10 an hour, maybe it takes you twice as long. Know what I'm saying?

Have you asked the customer what they expect?

jason.

Woa, $25 an hour? For a strong developer? No. When I was consulting, I billed out at $75 - $100 an hour for Access DB stuff, depending on the project size. Larger projects (several months) were less ... I had no difficulty finding customers willing to pay that.

Depends on the customer, like I said.

If your sister wants a database for her teen mags, she aint gonna pay you $75 for the whole friggin' thing.

Like I said, gauge your customer and what you want to get. And, how long is the project, etc.

There are sites out there that advertise $10 an hour for the work. I've been turned down at $25 an hour. Then again, I'm in Boston; maybe there are fewer Access Developers in OR. Oh, look another factor.

I'm still waiting to hear what sort of project Rob is looking to do. "Contract work" is so variable, you might as well have said, "I'd like to get paid doing something, what might I charge for it?"

jason.

I know labourers and Lorry drivers that earn more than $25.00 an hour. I wouldn't get out of bed for that sort of money, not to bang my head against a monitor doing MS Access programming anyway!

Don't forget, you are not only receiving money for the hours you work, you have to cover your holidays, sickness and retirement.

Whos's going to pay for you to go on a course to a learn the next phase of your MS Access education? How are you ever going to migrate into VB.Net?

You have a duty to yourself and your customer to continually learn, this costs money. MS Access is not going to be around for ever, I can practically guarantee it, there will be something new along before long. So make sure you put some money away to pay for your next learning curve.

Cheers Tony.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your posts. SleepyJay, to answer your question, I would be a sub-contractor for a couple guys that are running their own business doing all kinds of work. Web-sites, Win32 apps... mostly .NET but they have some customers that are not ready to upgrade their apps from access and they don't have anyone strong in it. I've been thinking about asking for $50 per hour.

Uncle Gizmo, I hear ya. Of course, I'm well on my way with .NET. Almost have my MCAD and I'm strong in both VB and C#. The reason I'm entertaining this proposal is to try and get in tight with a consulting firm.

Thanks again!

Yes, yes...

You are all correct.

I was thinking very much about side work, not at all main income.

But, of course, while my number is incorrect for the type of work we're talking about, the spirit of my answer is correct: it depends on what we're talking about. Sorry about that (kinda sleepy).

Yeah, ask for $50!

jason.