New To Contract Work - Hourly Rate?

[Deeside]

Im to begin as a freelance / contract for a small development company that was requesting designers. Im very new to this aspect of it as Ive worked as a web designer/webmaster for a small corporate site for about 4 years. I have designed about 10 sites on top of the full time work but the terms of the pricing was fixed, not based on an hourly rate.

The work Im about to do will be asking for HTML, CSS, Photoshop, DHTML, light Javascript maybe some Flash (all of which i am 4 years proficient in) and Im in a major market on East Coast USA. Ive searched around online to get some rate figures but the range is very wide. What would be a realistic hourly rate?

Thanks (and apologies if this kind of question has been asked a million times).

-Dee

[jonabyte]

Personally, I use what they (the client) are willing to pay. I am not a full time contractor so I can afford to be cheaper for some clients and more expensive to others.
Sorry, I cannot give you a number but I have found that if they like you and you them, you will always be able to come up with a figure.

[timchuma]

I have also been asked my hourly rate, but it was for training explaining what domain names are, hosting issues and what web site development tool to use.

I said I would get back to the person who asked me, but at least they contacted me again after asking me about it last year.

[gstick]

The general procedure for pricing in your kind of situation is as follows:

1. Set a monthly salary that you could expect on the job market.
2. Add to that figure about 30% to compensate you for fringe benefits that you will not be getting.
3. Take 160 hours (8 hours X 20 days per month) and adjust that for utilization. Remember freelancers are not guaranteed 40 hours a week. Say you guess that utilization will be 80%. Multiply 160 hours X .80 and you get 128 hours per month that you can bill.
4. Take that 1 & 2 above and total it to get a potential job market value for your services.
5. Divide that total value by 128 hours per month and you will get an hourly "cost" value. I. E. that's the value you estimate the job market will place on your work. That is the human resources cost that you bring to the free lance market.
6. Now comes the entrepreneurial part. Think about your own business situation. Are you worth a premium over your peers? Are you worth a premium for taking the risk of free lancing? How attractive are you to the client? For example, if you have had recent experience in exactly their applications, they may want you more than the average qualified free lancer. To the hourly "cost" figure in 6 above add your own unique free market "profit" guesstimate.
7. Look at the number again and reflect on how much you need work right now, your personal financial situation, the value of this client as a future reference, i.e. all the business considerations.
8. Then make a decision. That's the way entrepreneurship works.

Good luck.

[adeelshahid]

Thanks for that good analysis it would help me and other's seeking for such info a lot.