Quoting Derek Neighbors <derek@gnue.org>:

> > 2. Down Time - While you accounted for benefits, I 
don't believe that you
> > accounted for time when maybe there is only 30 
hours of work available for
> > an employee guaranteed 40 hours.
>
> Thats right I dont count this, why should a company 
pay for you not
> working?  If you dont have work to keep you busy get 
out of the consulting
> business.

Think of it as the extra cost for time when they have 
to court or network with the client to get more work.  
When you buy a new car, a portion of the money built 
into the price goes for the national advertising 
campaign.  Why should I pay for advertising when I’m 
already buying the car?  Because where else are they 
going to get the money but from the people that are 
buying the cars.

> > 3. Training Costs - Besides adding to down time, 
training costs money in
> > other ways.
>
> Why should they pay for YOUR training, you arent 
THEIR employee.

They don't pay for your training, you do.  But where 
are you going to get they money for it if you don't 
build it into your rates?

> > 4. Profit - A company needs to make profit.  If it 
does not, it cannot grow
> > and it cannot weather bumps in the economy.
>
> Um 60,000 a year for an independent consultant seems 
ok to me, especially
> when this list is constantly complaining there is NO 
WORK IN PHOENIX and
> they are resorting to flipping burgers.

Remember though, consultants always risk not having any 
work at all where employees are still paid, even if 
things are slow.  Most consultants will tell you it's 
feast or famine and that it normally averages out over 
the long haul (hopefully).

I think that whatever a consultant wants to charge is 
fair whether it’s $40 or $200 an hour.  I’ll determine 
whether I want to hire them though and if I want to pay 
what they are asking, I do have the final say here.  
I’ve found that most prices are negotiable if you work 
with the person.  The best way to bring a price down is 
to guarantee a set number of hours that we are willing 
to pay for in a given time frame.

Mark Holbert