Billing rates

[grantime]

I may have some opportunities to do some independent consulting (in addition to my regular job) .  Part time stuff but may require some travel.  Do any of you have experience with what are normal billing rates for CHP level consulting?   

[Incline]

I saw a billing rate of $50-$70/HR depending on the level work involved. Consulting was on the low end and project management was $70 and higher. That was about 1.5 -2 years ago. Hope this helps.

[Already Gone]

When you are self employed, the hourly pay rate and the billing rate are the same thing.
But, those numbers seem pretty low to me either way.
I would bid at about $90 - 100 per hour not counting travel expenses.

[Marlin]

I may have some opportunities to do some independent consulting (in addition to my regular job) .  Part time stuff but may require some travel.  Do any of you have experience with what are normal billing rates for CHP level consulting?   

What the market will bear... any individual company may have a range they pay consultants but depending on the service, project management, or deliverable it can vary greatly. Do you belong to a local chapter of HPS a little networking there may help. $50 to $70 looks more like pay scale than billable rate.

[OldHP]

I may have some opportunities to do some independent consulting (in addition to my regular job) .  Part time stuff but may require some travel.  Do any of you have experience with what are normal billing rates for CHP level consulting?   

A lot depends on if you are newly certified with very little practical experience or have heavy practical experience (in the area of the contract requirements).  In either case you need to look at what you are willing to accept to take on additional work.

If you have the required CHP and are short on experience, $50 to $70 (plus travel expences) might help to gain additional experience plus provide income.  Keep in mind as a consultant all of the tax burden is on you.  My first swing at it 20+ years ago was more than that.

If you have the experience and credentials, you are selling yourself short at that rate.

In either case a frank discussion with the potential customer would not hurt, i.e., what your services are worth to them and what their budget will stand.

[hamsamich]

My buddy's fiance who acually has some of the contracts and knows about some of the others says the low scale is about 70 an hour for BILLING rate not including per diem.  I was asking to see if the gain is worth getting the chp, which would take alot on my part.  It would be more money per hour but not always more hours and not much more than I make usually. Anyway, that is what she says.  Of course there is always the possibility of making WAY more than normal senior hp money, but I'm talking about low to average.....

yes, I'm talking about BILLING rate in my first sentence.

[Already Gone]

That is not necessarily so.  As the sole proprietor and employee of an LLC you may bill the client $100/hr but pay yourself an hourly rate that is considerably less.

A sole proprietor is never his own employee -- he is self-employed.  For tax purposes, there is no such thing as an LLC.  A sole proprietor or Subchapter S Corporation (either of which may be an LLC) pays taxes as an individual.  So if you bill $70.00 hour, your gross individual income is $70.00 per hour.  If you "pay" yourself less than that, the rest is still income, regardless of the fact that you put it into the bank.  The $30.00 per hour (or whatever you "pay" yourself) is your income as wages.  The other $40.00 is your business income.
What you invest back into your business can either be written off as a business expense or depreciated.  But, the bottom line is that your billing rate is your pay rate.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98277,00.html

[OldHP]

My buddy's fiance who acually has some of the contracts and knows about some of the others says the low scale is about 70 an hour for BILLING rate not including per diem.  I was asking to see if the gain is worth getting the chp, which would take alot on my part.  It would be more money per hour but not always more hours and not much more than I make usually. Anyway, that is what she says.  Of course there is always the possibility of making WAY more than normal senior hp money, but I'm talking about low to average.....

yes, I'm talking about BILLING rate in my first sentence.

Sounds like, he said that she said, which then you repeated!  grantime, you have to do what you think is right for you, at this point in time, but remember that a year down the road a potential employer might say, "you did the same thing for X bucks less 12 months ago!

JMO 

[hamsamich]

both.

[atomicarcheologist]

I saw a billing rate of $50-$70/HR depending on the level work involved. Consulting was on the low end and project management was $70 and higher. That was about 1.5 -2 years ago. Hope this helps.

This price for a CHP seems low to me, and the reason I think that is what I am billed at as a Sr. HP technician.  My billing rate is $67.5/hr.