IT Employment

General concepts: Supply and demand is a good means of determining a price. If your skills are in high demand and low supply, then you can set a high price and get it. That will then attract others to the field who will charge less for what they say are the same or better skills, forcing you to adapt or advertise your superiority.

Are you finding a lot of work? If so, you can start raising your prices and see who drops off. You may be able to work less for the same income, or find bigger customers willing to pay your price. As long as you give a good result for the pay, you should be able to compete well.

I've always had a hard time setting a price also. I've done so much work as charity that putting a competitive price on my work has been difficult at times.

My blog (link in profile) has a really detailed article on working out consulting fees, if that's what you mean. It goes over the various ways of calculating fees. However, as noted above, it does come down to what the market will bear. I know that I have raised my fees substantially in the past three years and I have not noticed a drop in work. I grandfathered my existing clients, though.

It is pretty hard to find exact rates for your work because having a discussion about how much to charge can be considered price fixing or collusion. However, if you use some of the calculations I include in my article, you can probably come up with a good guess.

What space are you playing in? 1-10 users or 20-50 users, bigger? These groups have a different threshhold for pain when it comes to consulting fees.

What is your education and what certifications do you hold? If you are going to charge on the upper end you'd better have the paper and the skills. Seriously, this is your client's critical data. The lifeblood of their business. Would you see a surgeon without a medical degree? Certs are important if you are going to present yourself as a professional. As far as your client can tell his neighbor's kid has the skills. You need to be able to differentiate yourself with BOTH skills and certs.

Finally, being an IT consultant to businesses is not a part time gig. If you can't provide business hours support you should stay home.