Hi Renoir,

Here's the two main questions: Is your time worth any less (or more) *TO YOU* because you're performing one task over another, and how much do you need (or want) the work?

When I first started consulting, I had four different rates, depending on what I was doing. I did that mostly because I was new in the business and *needed the work* (G). It just seemed to make sense (and was an easier "sell" at the time) that clients wouldn't pay the same for data entry time as they would for design time.

Then I started developing time and billing software for attorneys. Most who aren't doing contingency work choose to bill the same rate, regardless of whether they're doing the work or some member of their office staff is doing the work. When I asked my (then) primary client about this, their response was simple: as long as the quality of the work produced remains the same, it doesn't matter what task you're performing. An hour of your time working on their project is a billable hour, plain and simple.

Besides, if the client thinks your price is too high, they're free to shop around for equal quality at a lower cost. As an aside, I've gotten MANY return calls from folks who initially thought my rates were too high and several weeks or months (and in a few cases, years) later have screamed for help because their "low-priced" choices were 70 percent over budget, two months late and the project was in danger of permanent failure.

We have two base rates now -- one for work we secure from our own clients and one for subcontracting work that is secured by someone else (which is lower). The subcontract rate is different because we (usually) don't have to figure in the marketing costs for securing the client.

Another thought -- if you're going to be working away from the office (ie, "another state" as you noted), ALWAYS include your expenses as a *separate* billable item, either with receipts or a per diem. It can be an expensive mistake if you don't.

HTH.

>I just had an interesting offer. A firm in another state wants me to train their (only) IT person to learn Foxpro 2.6 in order to handle small changes and minor development on an app that they have. No problem doing it, but I'm thinking that my rate should be higher for training vs development. Any thoughts? Anyone done this already and did your rate change? Thanks!
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>Regards, Renoir