How do I charge for freelance work?

[Chell]

I am thinking of doing some freelance work that I got a referral before but Ive never done anything freelance. What do I charge? I am in northern NJ (30 min out of NYC).

[gruhn]

More than you would if it were just "what my employer should pay me". Estimates run from 2x to 4x "fair wage".

[Warm Worm]

It depends on all kinds of variables, such as how much time I can take/need; how stressful the project might be; what the client's budget/time is; the status/importance of the project; how much I want the project/client/$; the cost of living; how much the client wants me; exchange rates... and so forth. Negotiation. :)

A 500 000-dollar house is only that if there's someone willing to pay that for it, otherwise, it's "$0". ;)

[RicodJour]

Most of those variables have relatively little impact on the amount charged. The operative go/no-go factor is do you "want" it. After that the other factors would be in the neighborhood of +/- 20%

Tell that to your tax assessor. ;)

R

[creative1986]

Very well said, obviously from experience.

Those vital words, "want it", are very powerful. I was given exactly 3 days to figure out what those 2 words meant, and when I did figure it out it put $12k in my pocket. I could have very easily figured wrong. Many times over the years I've wondered about those words and how many people have let them slip by, misunderstanding them.

For the OP: Figure out how many hours its going to take you to do the job, then double it and charge $20/hour CASH, and don't give the client your SSN, ever. Also, define precisely what you are going to do and when it will be completed, for the money, on paper, make 2 copies and you and the client sign both and s/he keeps one. Then do it. No matter what, live up to what you wrote as your future depends on it.

[Warm Worm]

Well, I admittedly sort of threw them out there for the helluvit, but still, "want" seems a distillation of those kinds of variables. Sometimes people don't always know what they want or why, and some may not always have some luxuries to reject want-nots.

I want to fly around like Superman.

Well ya of course. ;)

[RicodJour]

Most people, myself included, don't usually know what they want and why. They/we just think we do. Our conscious analytical mind is the stupid brother of our unconscious. People like to feel they are in control, and of course will come up with all sorts of analytical approaches and systems to help them justify the "I want to" or "I don't want to". The trick is to cultivate the gut feelings, instincts, intuition - whatever you want to call it, pay attention to things not written and said, and make the decision.

The OP is not going to get rich off of some freelance projects, and unless they're totally clueless and a major catastrophe occurs, they won't go bankrupt, be brought up on criminal charges or die. More likely a little extra money will be made, and quite possibly they'll have the realization that they'd rather have total ownership of their little slice of the business, than be a cog in some bigger machine. This is also a risk. ;)

How 1930s of you. :)~

R

[Warm Worm]

Sounds something like dialogue between the 2 brothers, dialogue like in the practice of architecture, with the hope that intelligence can learn from stupidity.

I would be willing to be trapped in time if I could do that sure. :)

Hey while I have you, I have a question: I'm back in the miserable high-rise and since being gone, the water in the shower (maybe throughout the apt. too, but it's noticed more where it counts) has acquired extreme swings of temperature. Might there be some kind of valve or ? that they might have forgot to add or replace when they might have fixed something somewhere?

[RicodJour]

It might be your shower body, but if it's throughout the apartment, that's not it. If the shower was fine before it's possible that the building super adjusted the water temperature coming out of the hot water heater, there's a problem with the pressure balancing shower body, etc.

Since it's an apartment building get building maintenance up to look at it. You should keep a record of when you notice the temperature swings - it's also possible that it's water pressure related due to demand.

R

[Warm Worm]

Fair enough, and thanks.

[creative1986]

Never understood why anybody would want to heat hot water.