Francisco Tapia
fhtapia at gmail.com
Wed Oct 26 15:51:29 CDT 2011
Mr Jack of All Trades (master of none) so you also change your own tires, belts, tune up, etc? If you are loosing > $$ to maintain your environment, it may be worthwhile to hire a contracting firm that can help reduce your costs so you can keep making $$, you won't need to think about backups, server hardware etc... -Francisco http://bit.ly/sqlthis | Tsql and More... <http://db.tt/JeXURAx> On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 1:15 PM, jwcolby <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>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 this stellar advice comes 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. > > 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<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@**databaseadvisors.com <dba-SQLServer at databaseadvisors.com> > http://databaseadvisors.com/**mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver<http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-sqlserver> > http://www.databaseadvisors.**com <http://www.databaseadvisors.com> > >