Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

My rate on my website? 1

Status
Not open for further replies.
shahyar

shahyar

Chemical
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
216
Location
CA
Hi,
Is there any thing that prevent me from putting my hourly fee for consultation on my website?
Thanks for replies
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
That rather depends on where your business is registered, I would think. It's certainly unusual to quote a rate for professional services, except those advertised on postcards in public call boxes.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The only reason I can think of for not doing it is it limits your flexibility to tell a jerk "My hourly rate is [50% higher than it really is]". You can always discount a published rate but you really can't reverse discount it. If you publish a 50% higher rate with the intention of discounting it you run the risk of people who would have otherwise hired you not calling you.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dave, specifically I was thinking of lawyers in Australia who used not to be allowed to advertise their rates. I agree, I'd rather leave myself the option of quoting a higher rate for dull jobs and cantankerous clients. On the other hand, at least if your quoted rate is higher than a lawn-mowing service it might dissuade some hobbyists (BTDT).

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
When I first started my business I thought there was a legal requirement to advertise in the Yellow Pages and Google. Every single call I got from those expensive adds were people who thought they should pay $10-$20 for a week's work. When I told them that my rate was $150/hour mostly they hung up on me. When the adds came up for renewal I passed. There is still a one-line entry for MuleShoe Engineering in most of the directories around here, and I still get the occasional homeowner question but mostly they leave me alone.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just say "competitive" and that leaves you the ability to judge the customer and job??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
In my opinion, rates should not be published for professional services. That leaves you flexibility to raise your rates when necessary.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Agree, agree, agree. Don't do it.

If your rates are flat, then you'll only allow yourself flat customers. One company I know (custom machinery engineering, design, build) had a project cost estimation spreadsheet for developing project costs. They included several additional charges or percentage markups over their standard cost rates. These included such things as penalty percentage adders for "difficult customers" (affecting their design efficiency), "new unknown technology" adders for moderating the risk involved, and other such things.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Tygerdawg,
That kind of thing is really effective for bidding the whole project (I just double my hourly rate and add between 10% and 50% to the sum depending on those kinds of factors), but unless it is a hard-dollar bid it is really hard to recover those elements unless at the end of the spreadsheet you divide the total dollars by the estimated hours and get a project-specific hourly rate (which I suppose is not a bad thing, but logistics of keeping up with it can be tough).

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DOn't do it. It simply allows your competition to undercut you by $5 and hour and lot of clients are simply dollar shopping for engineering. You need to explain the value of professional services. 100 hours of a senior engineer's time is worth XX hours of a junior's time - plus publishing your rate means you never get to negotiate it to suit the needs of the job.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Cracks me up. "100 hours of a senior engineers time is worth xx hours of a junior's time". "xx" implies less than 100. So Junior Engineers are more valuable than Senior Engineers. You don't happen to work for BP do you?

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yu've misinterpreted my point - use YYY hours of a junior's time. You're going the wrong direction. Here's my point, a senior can do 100 hours of solid engineering work that will take a junior 150 hours....and will still need a senior's oversight.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I knew that was what you meant. The "xx" just made me smile on a day where not much has.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah, I'm in the same frame of mind - one of those days where even a little spelling mistake on a drawing just winds me up....grrr.. Might need to find a corkscew this evening. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
An advantage of posting your rate on your website is that it adds straightforwardness to the process. One of the things that drives me nuts is complexity in financial agreements. For me there are two modes of operation: 1. Its a lump sum fee, and no matter what I will finish the job for that fee.
2. I will charge you $X/hr, and you will pay me for every hour that I work no matter how many that is.

Total transparency about your hourly rates is a positive because clients understand that this is just your rate, and you are not screwing them or giving someone else a better deal. For bonus points, you can even round off to a nice even number like say $100/hr, or $200/hr.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thank you very much. You shed the light from different angles on it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
"For bonus points, you can even round off to a nice even number like say $100/hr, or $200/hr. "


Sorry, my last post was cut off in mid flow. That is the most ludicrous suggestion I have heard since I last listened to parliamentary question time.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

bigmig
  • Question Question
Contractor Stealing My Plans
2 3
Replies
51
Views
28K
gte447f
gte447f
EngrPaper
  • Locked
  • Question Question
When to hang up my shingle
2
Replies
23
Views
3K
AgMechEngr
AgMechEngr
MRob909
  • Locked
  • Question Question
How I started on my own (Mk II)
Replies
16
Views
1K
Enhineyero
Enhineyero
Science_Geek
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Looking for guidance to find contractors to create prototype for my invention
Replies
15
Views
1K
JStephen
JStephen
benny12
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Billable rate question
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
TigerGuy
TigerGuy

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top