>>That extremely low side is twice what I make now. But then, you're not guarranteed 40 hour weeks, 52 weeks a year, either.
>>
>
>Not really true. Ask someone in personell what it cost per hour to keep you in the office. There is more than your salary. I assume you get benefits, have a place to sit, a PC to use, a phone to use, maybe internet conection, etc.


Personell? Heheheh... We're not that big. No benefits. I do have a place to sit and a junky old PC. Phone, yes. The internet connection is my personal one so that doesn't cost them anything.

>Well... all these thing go into the cost of an employee. Remember, as an independent... you have to provide your insurance, PC, desk/offic space, pay the phone bills...

I don't need insurance (husband has it), already have a PC and a computer room. Yeah, I'd have phone bills. Depends how much I can do locally or over the net.

>Not to mention you have to pay your MARKETING cost... business cards, ads, phone listing... etc.

Marketing costs I can't speak for. It depends how well word of mouth works.

>Then, if you are in a business casual dress office, you will have to buy suits, etc... You don't want to make a presentation in Biz Casual, even if all the workers at that office are in jeans... sure, once your hired, if you work on site you can adjust the thier dress code.

So I have to get one fancy outfit to meet the client in. It would be nice to have something fancy, anyway.

>So, even if you double your rate, billing 40 hours a week, you may be making less than you are now. That's we consultant rates are higher than EE rates... the employer doesn't have to worry about insurance, workers comp, FICA, etc, etc.

Well, we'll see how it goes. I have the luxury of being able to ease into this and see how things go.

-Michelle