OT: General technical contracting

[David Halliday]

Don't forget to take Don's figure and double it again.

You need to spend money on:

Rent on your space
Insurance - commercial insurance if people actually visit you or use your
facilities for their own.  ( yes, commercial insurance is more expensive and
the company will try to wiggle out of a homeowners or renters policy claim
if they can prove that you made money from that equipment at any time )
Copies and postage to get your name out there - sending regular newsletters
out to customers, etc... ( There are *still* loads of people who have web
access but who do not think to tune in for news and such - you will always
get a flurry of new calls when you send out a flyer )
Software upgrades and "technology refreshes" to your working equipment
Classes and certification
Spare parts

Plus, consulting is by nature a boom and bust business with zero way to
predict when either will happen, you need to build up a chunk for when you
have those dry spells.


Ran a small business for 12 years before bagging it and going to work for a
very competitive software company a few miles outside of Seattle... :)


Dave


-> -----Original Message-----
-> From: owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
-> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl]On Behalf Of Don Tillman
-> Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 9:31 PM
-> To: voltagecontrolled at home.com
-> Cc: synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
-> Subject: Re: OT: General technical contracting
->
->
->    Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 12:44:34 -0700
->    From: Buck Buchanan <voltagecontrolled at home.com>
->
->    I would really appreciate reading suggestions, web site
-> links, or any
->    general off-the-cuff advice you want to give.  In addition, I'm
->    particularly interested to know what "average" (if there is such a
->    thing) prices similar contractors charge.  I certainly
-> don't intend to
->    ask for top dollar but would like to have a reference
-> point to start
->    from.  I do realize you can't give advice specific to me
-> since you don't
->    know what my skills and facilities are.  So I'm just
-> looking for general
->    stuff.
->
-> Assuming you're in the US...
->
-> For a first approximation I would suggest taking your regular
-> engineering salary, work it out per hour, and double that.
-> This is to
-> make up for the extra taxes you have to pay being self-employed, the
-> doubled social security tax, the health insurance benefits
-> you have to
-> handle yourself, to cover the fact that you have no assurance of
-> employment, to make up for other benefits, and so forth.
->
->   -- Don
->
-> --
-> Don Tillman
-> Palo Alto, California, USA
-> don at till.com
-> http://www.till.com
->