OT Anyone here work as consultants?

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Further

Further

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I moved back to NW. I recently took a salaried position at a school (wine). I’ve also been recommended to someone as a consultant but I’ve never done consulting work before. I’m trying to figure out how to set my consulting price. There is nobody local who does what I would be hired for, and the ones in CA are so much more established they can charge extremely high rates (300-750/hour.)

I’d like to get pricing right to start so I don’t piss folks off in a small industry. Typical job would be 20-100 hours to start a process, then 5-20 hours a couple times a year. The minimum that would make financial sense to accept would be around $75/hour but I’m feeling like that price might be too bargain basement and something $125-250/hour would be more expected.

anyways, without good industry comps, how would you figure out how to set your consulting fee?
 
Is that your business card pic?
 
Further said:
I moved back to NW. I recently took a salaried position at a school (wine). I’ve also been recommended to someone as a consultant but I’ve never done consulting work before. I’m trying to figure out how to set my consulting price. There is nobody local who does what I would be hired for, and the ones in CA are so much more established they can charge extremely high rates (300-750/hour.)

I’d like to get pricing right to start so I don’t piss folks off in a small industry. Typical job would be 20-100 hours to start a process, then 5-20 hours a couple times a year. The minimum that would make financial sense to accept would be around $75/hour but I’m feeling like that price might be too bargain basement and something $125-250/hour would be more expected.

anyways, without good industry comps, how would you figure out how to set your consulting fee?
Click to expand...

20 to 50 hours - $10o per hr
51 to 100 hours $75 per hr

or

20 to 50 hours - $10o per hr
51 to 100 hours $85 per hr
101+ hours $75 per hr
 
I do some consultant/analyst work, but it's strictly percentage-based, so I'm probably not much help in this regard.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
20 to 50 hours - $10o per hr
51 to 100 hours $85 per hr
101+ hours $75 per hr
Click to expand...

That looks like a good structure. It’s kind of exciting to start something new. I highly doubt I’ll want to give up my regular job for a bunch of non-financial reasons, but if consulting can bring in enough then who knows. It’s exciting either way yo start something new.
 
Further said:
That looks like a good structure. It’s kind of exciting to start something new. I highly doubt I’ll want to give up my regular job for a bunch of non-financial reasons, but if consulting can bring in enough then who knows. It’s exciting either way yo start something new.
Click to expand...

Don't forget my 10% consulting for your consulting fee.
 
As a message board consultant, I make an infrequent appearance when an owner makes a ship-to-ship "ahoy" call.
 
ABM said:
I do some consultant/analyst work, but it's strictly percentage-based, so I'm probably not much help in this regard.
Click to expand...
This work wouldn’t be directly connected to sales so that won’t work. It’s basically helping them buy equipment, set up a lab and train employees so wineries don’t need to use outside labs for routine analysis. It would save wineries time and money but not in the short run and would be hard to directly show.
 
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$169.420 an hour.

But yeah, go $175. You'll weed out the cheap fucks.

dr4bibp8gwf61.jpg
 

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Further said:
I moved back to NW. I recently took a salaried position at a school (wine). I’ve also been recommended to someone as a consultant but I’ve never done consulting work before. I’m trying to figure out how to set my consulting price. There is nobody local who does what I would be hired for, and the ones in CA are so much more established they can charge extremely high rates (300-750/hour.)

I’d like to get pricing right to start so I don’t piss folks off in a small industry. Typical job would be 20-100 hours to start a process, then 5-20 hours a couple times a year. The minimum that would make financial sense to accept would be around $75/hour but I’m feeling like that price might be too bargain basement and something $125-250/hour would be more expected.

anyways, without good industry comps, how would you figure out how to set your consulting fee?
Click to expand...
it depends on your credentials and experience.
A PhD would be more in the range of $300/hr. and up depending on the PhD and experience. A previous friend, roommate and classmate of mine probably earns about $400/hr. with only a bachelor's degree in EE working as a software consultant but he's one of the best in the state. About 30 years ago he worked as a consultant for Intel designing a mother board's interface.
 
1. Make sure your employer doesn't have an objection to your side hustle.
2. Rule of thumb: double the hourly rate you'd expect as a full-time employee doing the same thing.
3. If you trust the counterparty, you could be honest and tell them this is your first consulting gig and ask them to suggest a rate they think is fair. You might be pleasantly surprised. Or not. But either way, if you want this to lead to to more consulting work, getting it onto your resume is probably more important than the pay rate.

barfo
 
Lanny said:
it depends on your credentials and experience.
A PhD would be more in the range of $300/hr. and up depending on the PhD and experience. A previous friend, roommate and classmate of mine probably earns about $400/hr. with only a bachelor's degree in EE working as a software consultant but he's one of the best in the state. About 30 years ago he worked as a consultant for Intel designing a mother board's interface.
Click to expand...
BS is highest degree but a lot of highly specialized experience. There aren’t many real experts.

The interview for my first consulting gig is later today. For now, I think I’ll just talk to the owner and see if we can come to number that makes sense for both. Using that, I guess I can establish a rate going forward. We shall see.
 
barfo said:
1. Make sure your employer doesn't have an objection to your side hustle.
2. Rule of thumb: double the hourly rate you'd expect as a full-time employee doing the same thing.
3. If you trust the counterparty, you could be honest and tell them this is your first consulting gig and ask them to suggest a rate they think is fair. You might be pleasantly surprised. Or not. But either way, if you want this to lead to to more consulting work, getting it onto your resume is probably more important than the pay rate.

barfo
Click to expand...
1) No issue yet. A conflict may arise in a year but as it stands there wouldn’t be any crossover between jobs.
2) this is the hard part, what I’d be doing doesn’t really exist in this way, but I might be able to ballpark it.
3) I think this is where I’ll land. I have a number I won’t go below, but aside from that we can discuss.
Thanks
 
Further said:
I moved back to NW. I recently took a salaried position at a school (wine). I’ve also been recommended to someone as a consultant but I’ve never done consulting work before. I’m trying to figure out how to set my consulting price. There is nobody local who does what I would be hired for, and the ones in CA are so much more established they can charge extremely high rates (300-750/hour.)

I’d like to get pricing right to start so I don’t piss folks off in a small industry. Typical job would be 20-100 hours to start a process, then 5-20 hours a couple times a year. The minimum that would make financial sense to accept would be around $75/hour but I’m feeling like that price might be too bargain basement and something $125-250/hour would be more expected.

anyways, without good industry comps, how would you figure out how to set your consulting fee?
Click to expand...

Don't sell yourself short
 
$150/hr is half the high end competitors. Quote that as your rate and offer discounts as needed to get your book of business off the ground. Always hit them with high rates first to see how they react.
 
barfo said:
1. Make sure your employer doesn't have an objection to your side hustle.
2. Rule of thumb: double the hourly rate you'd expect as a full-time employee doing the same thing.
3. If you trust the counterparty, you could be honest and tell them this is your first consulting gig and ask them to suggest a rate they think is fair. You might be pleasantly surprised. Or not. But either way, if you want this to lead to to more consulting work, getting it onto your resume is probably more important than the pay rate.

barfo
Click to expand...
The double the hourly rate thing works sometimes and other times doesn't. My software engineer buddy only charges for about half his time while I've known others who worked all the time and charged all the time.
 
Thanks all, I booked my first gig. We just discussed the project and he’ll pay $125/h for first phase for the first 50 hours. After that, my rate will drop to $50/h. (my estimation is 40 hours for initial phase. We will discuss the second phase after first phase is complete. Dude was very understanding that I haven’t worked as a consultant before. His main worry was the project dragging on, hence the significant price drop after 50h. Seemed reasonable to me.
 
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