hakuna matata
Recycles dryer sheets
As a follow up to this poll question from awhile ago http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/go-into-business-for-myself-or-not-55721.html I have indeed went into business for myself. Question sort of got decided for me as the mother ship decided that all 'on-call' people should be laid off. Not a big deal as I got a nice severance package and it forced the decision. I was leaning heavily this way anyways and am very happy that I have opted to go this path.
So I opened up a new Architectural practice, well almost there, should be sending my announcements out this week. Very excited about the whole deal and fully recognize that initially things will be slow and fully expected to possibly do contract work for other Architects as I get this thing off the ground. Of course if any of you lovely people here need an Architect, give me a shout!
But of all ironies---I get a call last week from one of the Principals at my last office and they will be my first client! They have a project they want my expertise on and so it should be a 2-3 month assignment as a contract employee! I am fine with that as this allows me to keep my office going and running with some cash coming in. I liked my old office but no longer wish to work there as an employee but as a contract person I am fine with it. Just seems funny they pay me all this money to go away and then hire me back for even more money. No wonder the economy is in the tank if corporations can't plan better than this!
However what do I charge them for my hourly rate? Now as a contract employee I have to pay all of my FICA, I have E&O and other insurances along with overhead. I know they won't pay me what they were billing me out before as (3.3 x/hourly rate) but I think they should be able to pay me 1.5 to 2x my previous hourly rate. Just not sure how to figure out my billing rate! Any suggestions?
So I opened up a new Architectural practice, well almost there, should be sending my announcements out this week. Very excited about the whole deal and fully recognize that initially things will be slow and fully expected to possibly do contract work for other Architects as I get this thing off the ground. Of course if any of you lovely people here need an Architect, give me a shout!
But of all ironies---I get a call last week from one of the Principals at my last office and they will be my first client! They have a project they want my expertise on and so it should be a 2-3 month assignment as a contract employee! I am fine with that as this allows me to keep my office going and running with some cash coming in. I liked my old office but no longer wish to work there as an employee but as a contract person I am fine with it. Just seems funny they pay me all this money to go away and then hire me back for even more money. No wonder the economy is in the tank if corporations can't plan better than this!
However what do I charge them for my hourly rate? Now as a contract employee I have to pay all of my FICA, I have E&O and other insurances along with overhead. I know they won't pay me what they were billing me out before as (3.3 x/hourly rate) but I think they should be able to pay me 1.5 to 2x my previous hourly rate. Just not sure how to figure out my billing rate! Any suggestions?