NYCPHP Meetup

[Brian]

Jumping at a low rate has a tendency to put you in a low pay bracket for any 
future work that may come out of it.  People start passing out your name as 
'the cheap guy' and that type of pigeon-holing is a trend that is difficult 
to change. 

That may be easy for me to say, since I am not at a loss for projects at the 
moment either.  I will say that it was necessary for me to cut some of the 
cheap ties lately and make contacts in bigger companies with bigger budgets 
and with a better understanding of quality work.

Brian

On Monday 20 January 2003 12:29 pm, Sterling Hughes wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-01-20 at 12:15, Bradley Baumann wrote:
> > Ed,
> >
> >     I charge anywhere from 80-120+ an hour. Completely depends on the
> > job, and the company.
> >     Someone wanted me to do a job at 3am once, to save their company
> > because their huge ecommerce site was launching the same day, and it
> > wasn't working. Obviously, I'd take this into consideration, too. I
> > charged ~250/hr. Honestly, I think charging 40-50/hr isn't professional
> > ($10/hr is almost childish -- Babysitters charge more.). If you're a
> > beginner just trying to get some money, perhaps that fee is appropriate
> > -- but if you're a professional who knows your stuff and know you can get
> > the job done faster then most others, I defiantly believe that a higher
> > price is more than acceptable.
>
> While I charge around the same, I don't think "unprofessional" is the
> right word for charging less.  I'm as busy as I'd like to be at this
> point (although I'll always consider new projects :-), so my rate works
> for my experience and contacts.  But, if I needed work, given my current
> experience, and someone offered me a job for $10, I'd jump.  Jobs lead
> to experience and contacts, and you can always renegotiate for further
> work. Professional or unprofessional, your rate is what you can get,
> when the offers start pouring in, then you can charge at your liking.
>
> :-)
>
> With that said, I think the original poster should hold out for more.
> $20 a hour is low.  State your advantages over a programmer that charges
> $20.  But if you can't get them up, then you need to decide: do you have
> a better offer?  Evaluate the opportunity cost and don't let pride get
> in the way.
>
> -Sterling