contract work..price

woody1

ok so i may have a couple of days of contract work lined up, question is how much is the going rate per hour... work is for an old boss, dont want to scare him off, dont want to get done either.. its 2 years since i did this kind of work ( architectural ) so ive no idea what the current going rate would be..
cheers

sydthebeat

Woody, the current rate is, unfortunately, whatever you can get.
Its a case of the employer calls the shots.

If you can get anything from 15-20 hr your doing extremely well.

woody1

sydthebeat wrote: »

Woody, the current rate is, unfortunately, whatever you can get.
Its a case of the employer calls the shots.

If you can get anything from 15-20 hr your doing extremely well.

yeah im aware of that, thats why im trying to guage what to look for, could live with 15-20 given that its only a couple of days and its not likely to be the toughest work ive ever done..

sydthebeat

if you know what the job is, can you give him a a whole overall price rather than a per hr quote?

woody1

at the moment i have a very basic outline of the job, i dont know the specifics,
it also involves 2 days away from home and driving for 4 hours each way, kids being minded etc, so all that has to be factored in,
but yeah i could do that, but id rather go with the per hour cos the job involves finishing off a lot of his work and pulling the whole job together, so it could end up being a lot more work than it looks ( the opposite is also possible but unlikely )
il give him a basic quote probably and say if it ends up taking more than the couple of days then we'll renegotiate,
trying hard to be very reasonable here, there may never be any repeat business but on the 1% chance that there might be id like to be in line for it.. providing we dont kill each other over the 2 days..

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

If you can get anything from 15-20 hr your doing extremely well.

Have to agree.

Poor Uncle Tom

€15/hour

(and Laura, if that's you, €10/hour.....:D)

muffler

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

€15/hour

(and Laura, if that's you, €10/hour.....:D)

Tight arse

No6

At 10 to 15 an hour its not viable, even at 20 its crap, are you getting paid for your drive time and fuel, like how much does it cost to fill your tank, four hours each way in my car is more than a tank of petrol at around 80 euros a fill that's the first day's wages gone at a tenner a hour...fill in a bit and you too can work for nothing for a few days!!:eek:

woody1

yep petrol / kids / whatever are the killers here..so as you say id be hoping for the 15 + but il know shortly how that goes down...
he can always take someone local to him to do the work , they wont be getting on to him about what its costing them to get up there to do it.. but il just have to stick to my guns on it, it has to be worthwhile financially to do it..

am i interested in doing serious architectural work for the first time in 20 months...you bet..
do i want to work for nothing...no

i dont see our industry having any kind of an upswing in employment for a long time ( if ever ), but in the event that there is , it would be no harm for me to have something on the c.v. to show some relevant work even if its only contract and on and off ....

so i may have to take the hit on this one, ( i wont be losing money i just might not be making a whole lot ) and hope that some more work comes from it, work that i can do from home...
if that doesnt come about il have to chalk it down to experience

Slig

I'm doing bits and pieces of contract work at he minute, mostly planning and design drawings for €15 ph from home and on my own equiptment. Anything that might concievably involve my PI such as construction drawings is €20 ph. Its a huge drop from a couple of years ago when it was easily €35 ph for design drawings but its an employers market now.

I'm finding it tough as most of my work is for engineers and architects that cant use cad and expect a high standard drawing including changes to only take 3-4 hours as I "just have to press a few buttons," its also abit frustrating having no real imput into the work in most cases. I also have no imput into the deadlines and often have to work through the night to get the stuff done.

My advice would be to make absolutely sure that they understand the fees and the possible hours involved from the very start and keep really really detailed time sheets for everything you do. No harm reminding them of the hours done every so often throughout either so they dont get a shock at the end. Best of luck with it, unfortunately it is very rarely "real" architecture that you end up doing

woody1

slig, thanks for the detailed reply,
so on this particular job im working with a guy i worked for for years and we have a good relationship, hes not the quickest to pay but he gets there in the end, he doesnt owe me money, which is more than i can say for other people ive done jobs for,
weve agreed a price for this one,( between 15 and 20, and if it goes way over time then we'll renogotiate ) its 3d work, so while its non technical its enjoyable, if it goes down well then hopefully more will come from it..
since that there is more contract work on offer with someone else that i dont know well at all, so its gonna be structured more like you said there, find out what they want, regular contact to keep things on track and to make sure the work is going in the right direction and everyone is aware of time being spent on it, and then invoices, maybe every 2 weeks, and if im getting paid then great, if not, all work stops.. and im too badly off, i havent put a load of time into a job and got nothing for it,
im wary of how this one is going to work out, as for work being architecturally stimulating, its a nice thought, but somehow at the moment i like the idea of just doing the cad monkey work ...