Tanya, same thing as what Arnie says, but even more. you have to figure your break even rate, what you need to run your business and stay open. cost of materials is a small portion of that total and that is entirely billed to your clients. you have obvious business expenses like equipment, telephone, computer, software, insurance, travel, advertising, and so on. anything you can claim on your income tax forms as identifiably for business use should be included as part of the cost of doing business. if this is full time (you aren't doing anything else that generates income), then you have to figure in yourself as the minimum you need to support yourself. don't cheat by saying hubbie can support you even if you made nothing. take whatever that figure is annualized and divide by the number of billable weeks you want to work a year. you need to run your own business and it takes one day a week. that's ten weeks gone right there. add four weeks for vacation, sickness, and education. you're under 40 weeks. two assignments a week is a lot of work and i don't think you want to exceed that. better to have fewer high paying ones than lots of little ones. this is the absolute minimum you should charge. you have to charge more than that since you want to do more than break even.
you don't have to go through all this complicated calculation though. what do your successful competitors charge? you can't charge big city rates because you don't live in a big city, but surely you aren't the only one around where you live. they're pros and charge what they have to so that they stay in business and make a living. you have to charge about the same as well. your lowballing will do two things, force them to lower their rates and possibly go out of business because their margins drop too low, and force you to keep your rates low so that you end up making money only because you are being subsidized by your hubbie. Herb.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "arnie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 1:26 AM Subject: Re: Today, I feel as though I have achieved something.... > What you need to realize is that you are not an amatuer doing this for fun. > You are a professional, and you work reflects that. Your rates also need to > reflect this if you want to make a living. I went through the same thing in > my line of work. One day I realized that I was a professional at what I do, > and I needed to charge what professionals charge, otherwise I wont be able > to work.
