Design Rates
Design Rates
(OP)
This may not be the proper forum but I will post anyway; there seems to be many of my type in this forum! I will be starting my own design service within the next three months and was wondering if anyone would care to share what the average hourly rates are for mechanical (primarily machine) design these days. From what I have gathered the rate for full blown 3D design sits right around $60, detailing $40, and checking $25-30. Does this even sound accurate? I have 12 years of experience in design of dies, tools, jigs, fixtures, and specialty automation machinery primarily for the automotive industry and have decided to make more out of my time put in. I am a veteran Autodesk user and got sucked into the Inventor world but have decided on Solidworks for my design service. I wont go into the whole Inv vs Sldwks war. I went to the 3D skills seminar and I am taking the 2006 personal edition test drive. Its frustrating trying to learn at such a fast pace, but I think Solidworks has the upper hand; there has to be a reason why its so popular in mechanical design; plus my primary customer uses it and this weighed heavily in my decision.






RE: Design Rates
The others here that have their own business will know more.
Chris
SolidWorks 06 5.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 01-18-07)
RE: Design Rates
Basically you can charge what someone will pay, although I doubt many will pay you an hourly rate, we always have to quote for a project. As I am sure you are aware this is not an exact science, so the hourly rate is only really a best guess.
Don’t expect to earn every hour you work, you will spend a lot of time quoting, attending design buy offs and the like for which you cannot charge, or at least I should say I have found no one who lets us charge. As an estimate if you work 80 hours per week 50 will be chargeable.
Good luck it is very hard work and don’t expect to earn big money in the early days, but it is hugely rewarding.
RE: Design Rates
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
RE: Design Rates
RE: Design Rates
In the UK we have a couple of bodies the chamber of commerce and the federation of small businesses both are geared up to make small companies a sort of co-operative. I do not know if there is anything similar in the US but if so they are well worth joining. You get time with lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers and the like that understand small businesses at a very cheap rate. You will get very good advise on things like professional insurance rather than some company the thinks you design nuclear power stations.
RE: Design Rates
I may be tainted by my Silicon Valley roots, but the rates you stated seem a little light. I would look into what is appropriate for your area, consider who your customer is, consider whether or not you are competing with others (and who they are) for the work (if you can), how fast you are in comparison to others, and how much skill you have to offer your client.
Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php
RE: Design Rates
RE: Design Rates
However, most projects I quote in phases with deliverables expressly laid out in an agreement for the project. So if the client wants to creep the project, it's no problem. I re-quote the phase concerned and restate the deliverables--and the client pays to get what they would like to change. I find that many clients really aren't too serious about what they say they want and back off the changes. The others are serious, and don't mind spending more to get what they need--and I remain respected.
One of the toughest things I encountered when starting off was giving someone my rate--I'd almost always reduce it at the last minute. Never do that. You'll tend to be worth what you can actually get for your work. If you undercut yourself, you'll have a different class of clients than if you hold firm and let the "bargain" hunters go find someone else. (I've NEVER found working with such bargain hunters worth my while--and ironically, those are the only clients for whom I've had to forgo being paid from.)
Depending on your state, getting into an LLC can be quite simple--and definitely worth your while.
I generally don't worry much about liability--after all, I'm only an industrial designer.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.