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What is our rate

R

ricebox

New member
I am wanting to start up some side work to earn a little $$$$ by creating technical prints and models, does anyone on here know what would orhow tocome up with some sort of price rate to charge people i.e. $$ per hour or $$ per job? Any input will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.
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depends on your speed, quality, and if you own your own seat or are hijacking your companies software- 75 and up are good numbers.
 
I too would like to here if any of you folks do work on the side. I have a full copy (legal) of Wildfire 2.0 and was thinking about doing some basic design work on the side, more for experience than pay. I have been wondering what people charge, now I am no expert on Wildfire, so I would just take jobs I could handle and wouldn't charge them if I ran into a problem that I had to solve. Anybody else got thoughts on what some light mechanical design/drafting is worth an hour? Thanks!!


Seth
 
Depends on what your looking to get out of it. Money I'm sure, but what is your overhead? Maybe you already own a good PC and a seat of Pro but maybe it would be a good idea to get this overhead back. Sitting in front of a computer for a few hours at a time will add somebucks to your power bill. Your going to have to have some kind of internet I'm sure to share files and communicate, throw that in the mix. On top of everything you need to charge what you think your time is worth. Overhead should also include resources needed to do the job, Just keep in mind that to get the jobs you need to be cheaper than the guy next door.


Working contract for a company is just like having your own business, you step in, do the job and leave. You get paid really good to do this. But remember your overhead. You take a contract position, for example,of about 55,000 to 60,000 and then add what you will be paying in taxes. 10% should be close. Then add your overhead, what ever that is, and you should have a close range on your rate.
 
I hate to rain on your parade, but don't forget about your competition - I was just reading an article about overseas outsourcing. With better data connectivity, outsourcing this type of work to Indiacosts only $10 - $25/hour.
 
The only reason why we have higher salaries than overseas is because we have to in order to pay are bills. The cost of living is crazy here with over inflated housing and goods. It all goes back to greed in this country.We're not demanding 30 to 40 bucks an hour becausewe're worth it alone, we're doing it so we can pay all thoughs greedy bastards and hope to have some left to maybe have a life.
 
"The cost of living is crazy here"


hm...and you think you got it bad....you aint seen nothin, you wanna come to the UK
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I watched a tv documentary about people moving/living in America and it was said the it is...overall 20% cheaper to live there compared to the UK.


America ROCKS !!


Matthew.
Edited by: MattUK
 
I live in Europe,and i can tell you life is expensive too.After UE was created the life is x2 expensive in Europe


We for our competence we work with 80 Eur by hour.In eastern of Europe,you can find guys working with 10-30 Eur by hour 1Eur =1.3 usd


That sdepend abbout you do,where placed, etc


Cristelino
 
I have been doing side wok for a while on several types of drafting jobs, for example constrution, fire sprinklers systems, and mechanical drafting. Latelly I have this client who owns a machineshop. His main client asks for the drawings of all the parts he makes for them, so I make those drawigs. I am charging him in a simple manner, I clasify the drawings in three categories: easy, medium and difficult. I charge 15, 25 and 35 dlls respectivelly but if the volume is grater than 15 drawings I drop the price5.00 dlls off each category. The time spent on each one is 15 min. 1/2 hour and grater than 1/2 hour. In the difficult ones I clasify assemblies with an exploted view and bill of materals included.


Are we okay dicussing this in this section of the forum? Sould it be in the rave section? I have some questions too about outsourcing.
 
It's amazing that everytime somebody says something about prices here in America, all that comes back is "Well over here and over there". Your talking about a totally different country here. Of course you'll have differents, It's ran differently. By saying things like that you're saying that just because a different country is ran differently I can't complain about my own? Just because they may charge more for things somewhere else does'nt make me feel the money hurt any less. If we are so cheap then why are companies moving to Mexico and India? Salary right; of course salary is cheaper there so is everything else.


I hate that America is some how known as the better of the worsts.
 
Contractors may be located indifferent countries, but, unfortunately for some, the free flow of information provided by technology has created a global marketplace for them to offer their services. I can appreciate that you've got added expenses because of higher costs for rent, utilities, etc, but many companies that purchase these services can't afford the upcharge. Look at it this way - margins are so slim already that subsidizing the right to a higher standard of living, is going to put companies out of business. Then, it won't be GM or Cummins selling their products but whatever Chinese orIndian company hasstepped up in their place.If you think things are bad now, if that happens, it will all be over for real.
 
Does anybody live in the now?


Things are getting worse I agree, but things are'nt all peachy at the moment neither. It's a domino effect out there, one thing goes up and everything follows suit. Look at oil in this country, The oil companies in this country reported a 3 times higher profit margin this year. How can you have less supple of something and make more money? I know...Greed or what they would like to call it Supple and demand. They demand it and we supple it.


As far as other countries charging 5 bucks for gas well we're getting there. And on top of that we're still paying for property taxs and this tax and that a tax. They get it, I don't care if it says 3 buck a gallon or 6 they get there money. It's just suger coated and hidden in other things.
 
Well, things are tough all over, I guess. Anyway, getting back to the original question, don't expect to get rich with contract work, make sure your'e providing quality work, and especially know the manufacturing process. Providing some value added services like a good knowledge base will only help you. Also, supply has got to catch up with demand sometime and I'm sure some of those oil companies have suppliers that use Pro/E. And forget what I said about GM - it looks like they and Delphi are interlocked in some sort of death spiral, but thats not our problem because they use UG over there.
Edited by: mgnt8
 
Thanks for the replies folks, mgnt8, I understand that contracting isn't a way to get rich. I have talked to a few people that have done it and they said you go through times when you are busy as heck and then times of drought, so you really have to plan ahead. I am looking to do this more for experience than a huge income, I work fulltime as a mechanical designer. I am just looking to get some experience in different fields. I don't plan on biting off more than I can chew, or working on a project that has an extreme deadline (well they all do I guess!) I would just like to gain experience in different aspects of the field and pay off the software. I was thinking $30.00/hr but we shall see. Thanks again for the responses!


Seth
 
Instead of offering design, there are a lot of companies that have legacy data and for the right price would like to have it transfered to electronic form. Companies that use Pro/E but can't dedicate man power to modeling and detailing the old stuff. You could set a fixed price depending on the work load and then finish them at a leisurely pace.
 
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