Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Wed Oct 26 15:54:00 CDT 2011
You are correct. This stellar advice does come from a sole proprietor who is intimately aware of the problems of marketing your business, setting your billing rate, what the market will bear and all of that, Lexacorp is Me. There's no one else. It's been that way for the last 18 years. I said "required", not "desired". You determine your minimum required income to cover all costs and an accceptable wage for yourself. You estimate your minimum billable hours factoring in all those other things and that determines your minimum billing rate. You then look at the market to see how that rate stacks up. If you can sell your services at that rate for the estimated hours, you survive. If you can sell your services at a higher rate or sell more hours, you will do well If you can't sell your services at that rate - get out of the business. -- Stuart On 26 Oct 2011 at 16:15, jwcolby wrote: > > You set your billing rate to generate your required income from > your billable hours/outputs > factoring in that 75%. > > I am assuming of course that > > My guess (from your response) is that you haven't a clue. It is not > as simple as "OK guys, I am going to charge $250 / hour". Do you > honestly think I have a little "I want to make a million this year so > I am going to charge $X / hour" kind of thing going on here? > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_maximization > > Hmmm... that doesn't look *anything like* "set your billing rate to > generate your required income". > > Time spent in work that is not billable is time spent in work that is > not billable. How much I *can* charge is almost entirely unrelated to > my costs. If that were not true, then a Ford Escort would cost 100K. > Do you honestly believe that if a business could charge whatever they > want, that I would charge what I charge now? Or that a Ford Escort > would not cost 100K? > > What happens is that I spend more hours (un-billable) working. It is > quite as simple as that. > > > You set your billing rate to generate your required income from > your billable hours/outputs > factoring in that 75%. > > Take a business course before you make statements like that Stuart, > then you won't make statements like that. > > I do not work for a Lexacorp Stuart. YOU do not lose money when you > are maintaining your systems. But Lexacorp does because YOU are not > then doing billable work. Or you are just an expense to them. > In either case, you can bet your sweet ass somebody in Lexacorp is > spending time caring about all > the "sucking it up" that they have to do that is costing them money. > And I would guess that if you ever said "suck it up" to them you would > be out the door in a heartbeat. > > Lexicorp has an advantage in size Stuart. They can train you to do > whatever it is you do, and then have you do that thing, and after > awhile you become efficient at it. If that is SQL Server admin, you > become an *efficient* SQL Server admin. If it is programming, then > you become efficient at that. And you do that and they pay you > *relatively* little money to do it because you are efficient. > > A "Jack of all trades" (which I never claim to be, but I am going to > run with that) doesn't have that luxury. I learn just enough to get > my network running, and I kinda sorta remember some of it but if I > need to do that stuff again... I go learn much of it all over. SQL > Server... I learn just enough to get it running then if I ever need to > do that again... I go learn much of it all over. > > I am *NEVER* efficient at all the crap that is not my job, but I still > have to do all that stuff. I am efficient at C# programming, and > Access stuff, and SQL Server programming stuff... but all the rest I > *lose money* every time I have to go touch that. > > > You set your billing rate to generate your required income from > your billable hours/outputs > factoring in that 75%. > > OK so I just notified my clients that I really need to make four times > the hourly rate that I am currently charging them, and I am raising > their rates effectively immediately. My wife and family will be > thrilled to see more of me. > > I will let you know the outcome. > > ;) > > > John W. Colby > Colby Consulting > > Reality is what refuses to go away > when you do not believe in it > > On 10/26/2011 3:31 PM, Stuart McLachlan wrote: > > You are not "losing money" while maintaining your systems any more > > than you are when you are doing your tax returns, learning how to > > program in C# (professional development) and.doing all the other > > things needed to run your business. > > > > You set your billing rate to generate your required income from your > > billable hours/outputs factoring in that 75%. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-SQLServer mailing list > dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver > http://www.databaseadvisors.com > >