Had a sit down with him. Here's his basic premise:
He wants to make sure that the end user sees an invoice from him that shows my output listed as a line item on his invoice at a price that would be the same the one I'd charge if I went to the end user direct.
Let's use $1200 as an easy example.
So if my invoice to the end user would have been $1200, he wants to make sure his invoice to the end user is $1200. So I'd have to invoice him $1000, and he marks it up. The kicker is, he doesn't want to mark anything up or show anything on his invoice. He wants to show the client my invoice on my letterhead. So for clients of his where he introduces me, he wants me to invoice the client $1200, but he also wants to send me an invoice for $200 for "consulting". Basically what he would have made on markup.
And so far he's been pushy on what it's supposed to cover. Not only my rate, but any subs I use myself. Basically the entire total that I invoice. So if my $1200 job had $500 in subs, instead of being left with $700, I'm left with $500.
I also own another company, a specialty construction company, and he's tried to apply the same logic there - "if one of my clients needs this and you can do it, I'll introduce you but you need to give me 20%." He tried to say that's how GC's work it, but I put my foot down and said, look, I've been dealing with GC's as a sub for decades, and a GC has never asked me for a cut of my end of any kind. They ask for the best price I can do it for, period. He said, well I'm not an engineer, but this is how I've been doing it.
