[consulting] Salaries

[Fred Jones]

>> Hi Fred,
>> We can talk offline about this, but here are some things to consider:
>> * Who pays your taxes when you are consulting?
>> * Who handles your health insurance?
>> * Do you go on vacations?
>> * What happens when you get sick or come down with a short/long term
>> disability?
>> * Do you attend training events/Drupalcons?
>> * Do you defer money towards a savings plan?
>> * Do you go on interviews or how much non-billable time do you
>> spending
>> sending out your resume or marketing your services?
>> * Do you work or get paid on holidays?
>> * Who handles the administrative duties of your consultancy?

Good questions. Some have good answers, as in I spend very little
time/money on this or that, but for others you are quite right--these
are real issues.

>> Anyway, I'm not trying to come down like I'm against freelancing,
>> but these
>> types of factors must be considered when doing an apples to apples
>> comparison of FT v. contract employment.  For what it's worth, I
>> grew and
>> sold a staffing firm in Atlanta before getting involved with a
>> Drupal shop
>> with a lifelong friend (that's another story in itself :-). If a
>> consultant
>> was able to maintain a 70% utilization based on a 2080 hour (52
>> weeks x
>> 40/hours) year then that was considered pretty good.

Interesting. That's $87K a year.

> Agreed on the 70% -- sounds outstanding for a contractor who's
> handling on their business development opportunities in addition to
> technical work.  Within a consulting firm I've always planned on
> 70-80% utilization for a "heads down" type role and 50%-60% for a role
> that is involved in building the business.
>
> In my previous position, I interview a lot of people who were moving
> from independent contracting.  One thing that was similar about them
> was that they were typically on the older side of the candidate pool
> (primarily over 40).  I found that benefits (retirement and health
> insurance, primarily) were at the top of the list for reasons to join
> a company.

Very interesting also. My problem is that I am the type of person who
can't work in an office--I must work at home (for better or for
worse). I also can only work 20-30 hours a week, so any of these full
time contracting jobs I have seen offered aren't for me. Well, perhaps
I do work more, but I only BILL 20-30 hours a week. I certainly sit in
front of my PC more than that.

I tried to create a little programming company once but business is
not my skill--computers is.

> One way to think about it is the "fully loaded" cost of an employee --
> I typically use a 40% uplift to budget for an employee.  If you're
> pulling in $115K a year as a contractor, then to cover these expense
> at the same level a company does you'd really be paying yourself less
> than $85K.

Hmmm, Dave's figures came out to $87K (unless I am misunderstanding
something). So either you guys are in cahoots, or you are both right
on.

My original question was what are people like me making. Michael from
Trellon said:

> the starting salary for Lead Developer
> positions is between $60k and $80k annually, , and there are 2 financial
> incentive plans in place designed to give people the opportunity to go
> beyond that amount.

So if I am following this thread correctly, that is the equivalent of
a bit under $60 an hour for a freelancer, just to start. With the
bonuses or whatever they are, one could get more. Sounds like that's
about what I am making. I think.

Thanks.