[consulting] Should clients pay less if you work from home and they don't have to give you office space?

Thu Feb 10 22:33:29 UTC 2011

See David, that's the beauty of this system. :) We don't tell clients that it's a penalty, perse, they just understand that they will be charged that hour for any day they call a face-to-face meeting. If the meeting only lasts an hour, and then we go home, we bill them one hour for each of us who set foot onsite for that meeting. If, on the other hand, they call a meeting, and then we work face-to-face after that, we bill accordingly, up to an eight-hour day. Thing is, our clients are all corporate and they go home at 5pm, so that means we're billing eight hours, but 'working' only 7 because we had that one hour meeting. They totally understand this, because that's what they do too, in essence. See, if they'd left us alone in our own home offices, they'd have gotten eight hours' worth of 'results'. :) Granted, we might be working on a project rate rather than an hourly, which would mean we're billing each face-to-face meeting over and above the quoted price for the project. Yes, we do make this clear up front as well, but only if the client is demanding a project rate from us. That's why we're called TransparaTech. :)

In the enterprise world, meetings are necessary, but they don't ever produce any results other than take-away action items. Oh, and I totally agree with you that face-to-face meetings are necessary at the beginning and end of a project. If you can physically do one F2F (either onsite or video) each week during a project as well, so much the better.
-- 
Joel Farris
TransparaTech, Inc
"There are no mysteries here."
619.717.2805
Skype & Twitter: joelfarris

On Feb 10, 2011, at 1:29 PM, David Hazel wrote:

> Joel,
> 
> I really like the idea of the extra billed hour for on-site work (vs. calling it a trip charge). 
> 
> Do you get any push back when you discuss it with clients.
> 
> I find that a certain number of face-to-face meetings, especially near the beginning/end of a project can be quite productive. Where do you draw the line between discourage on-site for the sake of being on-site, vs actually needing the face to fact time.
> 
> On a recent project at the clients request we included a set number of F2F meetings(3), but that was greatly reduced from their original request of 1 per week.
> 
> -Dave
> 
> On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Joel Farris <joel at transparatech.com> wrote:
> Adam is right. An hour of work costs the same no matter where it's performed. If they're trying to save money by having you work from home rather than having to provide you an office space, then here's what you tell them:
> 
> "I've quoted you the rate per hour (and possibly a job rate too), and that hourly rate is the same no matter where I am in the world. Now, in the interests of saving yourselves money, remember that I bill one hour for every onsite client meeting, regardless of whether any work is done that day or not. So any day you want me to come in to your offices and work, it'll cost you $100 plus up to $800 for the day's work. If you can assign me tasks and I can do them all from home, it'll only cost you $800 for the day's work".
> 
> Time == money. Give me properly specced task tickets that I can do from my own office and you'll get billed less. Call me into your office three times a week for "face-to-face 'working meetings'", and it'll cost you $300 extra a week. See? :)
> --
> Joel Farris
> TransparaTech, Inc
> "There are no mysteries here."
> 619.717.2805
> Skype & Twitter: joelfarris
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 10, 2011, at 12:33 PM, Adam Mordecai wrote:
> 
> > The work is the work, which you can accomplish in both places regardless of location. That's a bizarre request on their part and I don't think its standard practice. Maybe they can pay you extra for the gas cost to drive to work? same principal, still silly.
> >
> > Adam Mordecai
> > Partner - Advomatic, LLC
> >
> >
> > On Feb 10, 2011, at 12:58 PM, Michael Prasuhn wrote:
> >
> >> I'm not sure how it would be less expensive for you to provide your own workplace? I would think the opposite would generally be true, since you have to furnish yourself with net connection, rent, phone, electricity, etc.
> >>
> >> -Mike
> >> __________________
> >> Michael Prasuhn
> >> 503.512.0822 office
> >> mike at mikeyp.net
> >> http://mikeyp.net
> >>
> >> On Feb 10, 2011, at 11:52 AM, nan wich wrote:
> >>
> >>> An interesting question for all of you: I just got a gig for a month or so on a local government site. I don't remember if I mentioned that I worked from home a bit on my previous gig or not. But they did ask if I would reduce my rate a bit when I worked from home. That is, it would be a dual rate deal; $x in the office, $x-5 from home (for example).
> >>>
> >>> What would you think about this? Keep in mind, I would be getting paid with my own tax money.
> >>>
> >>> Nancy
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.
> >>>
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