Contractor FeeHi everyone, I'm in the Houston area and I did some graphics and web work for a company through a temp agency. The job ended a while ago but I left on very good terms. They kept my info and recently contacted me directly to do a graphics rush job. I got the job done, sent it on to the processing company and they were happy with my work as well and seemed interested in keeping my name on file as a freelance graphics person. This is my first time doing this NOT through an agency. I have no idea what to charge for something like this. What the industry standard is or if there even is one. The initial company didn't even ask what my rate was, just said send them an invoice. Now I don't want to be greedy, but it WAS a rush job, with a lot of changes and it got plowed out in about 3 days. I looked on sites like Guru and Elance to see what types of fees are charged and the ones that aren't hidden are all over the map! Any advice is greatly welcome! Nick, it really, really depends on the part of the country you're in and what the work was. In NY, where I'm from, freelance graphic artists charge anywhere from $35/hr for a straight production job to around $75/hr for concept & design. When I moved to PA, the rates seemed about $10/hr less overall. (I am not a designer, but I work with some.) One guy I work with now charges $65 to $75/hr. for creative, another guy charges about $40/hr for production art. If you can't find what the local market is paying, I would start with what the job shop paid you, then add about 25% to that to come up with a billing rate. Chances are that's about what their "take" was above what they paid you, so the client would have paid them your base plus that profit amount. In any event, regardless of your local market, I don't think you should charge any less than $35 to $40/hr, as long as that doesn't put you way over the above formula-derived rate. Hope this helps. I think Anne Marie's right on target. Figure out what you were being paid by the hour when you were working through the temp agency and tack on 25% to 30% and see if the hourly rate seems reasonable to you. Regarding the rush job, you might calculate your hourly rate as just proposed and then tack on another 10% to that new rate because it needed to be done quickly, but if you do that, I'd make the add-on percentage a separate line item on my bill so it will be clear to the client that rush jobs cost more. Make sense? Paul W. Barada The Negotiation Expert | |
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