How would you charge a customer when you’re traveling to their location to train their employees and generally help out with getting new products organized, assembled and out the door? Daily fee, hourly, weekly? They’re paying airfare, hotel , car and food. What sort of daily fee would be considered reasonable? Likely to be living in their area and working at their facility for 7-10 days. Any ideas appreciated, thanks. Pat
Determining a rate is very specialized, Id suggest searching on GSA Advantage to identify what others are charging for a ball park estimate: https://www.gsaadvantage.gov/advantage/main/start_page.do
Yea, depends on the industry. I do hourly up to a max daily fee (i.e. if it's overnight, the meter doesn't stay running, but the rate is high enough to make it worth my while). I try to be reasonable about travel time at the full rate. At the same time, those are hours I could be spending making full rate working on other things or personal time in the case of nights and weekends.
I would suggest that you consider your current rate and proposed a daily fee based on eight or ten hours. Establish the need for OT and what rate applies - in consulting a multiplier does not apply. The suggestion to go daily will facilitate billing/tracking. However, if the scope is not cemented, I would be weary of daily rate. If the work scope is clear, you may also consider a cost to deliver a product/report, etc. + expenses. On a short term assignment, less than a month, I would caution about per-diem. If the Client has agreed to pick up expenses, go with that.
Depends on what you are doing as it could be anywhere from $400 to $10000 per day. Same with airfare, hotels, meals too. I.e. Staying at Super 8 or a suite at the Westin? All depends on the industry and what you are doing.
One way to estimate this is to look at the typical salary in the industry you are working in for the job level you are operating at. Then convert that to an hourly rate and add a % plus up depending on how specialized your service is.
Hey, thanks to everyone that responded, it's a help. I'm not trying to gouge anyone on this deal, the airfare will be economy, the hotel will be the Hampton and I'm a beer and pizza kind of guy. At the same time I get like $50/hr working on boats for people and I can sleep and eat at home with the family. Do you normally charge for the travel days, or write that off since the travel is paid for?
If you can...figure out what the fully loaded cost for their top rated similar employee is. This forms the bottom hourly rate and go from there. I have negotiated rates at 125 to 150% of this rate. I charge by the hour and they determine how many hours they want. I almost always find that they find more and more work for me until I initiate the "parting of the ways". I don't charge per diem (this may be a mistake on my part due to tax advantages) but I do itemize expenses and keep them reasonable. Deliver more than you contract for and be seen as an asset and return engagements are most likely.
You should be able to charge your travel time. I generally charge half day. It can be argued that it is loss time but it is also part time-off.
You have to charge your hourly rate you want then add your fringe on top of that. Plus payment terms? Cost of cash as well. Plus PITA factor being away from home.
If they want me to travel when I could otherwise be working, then I'm still at the full rate. If it's off hours or weekends when I would be sitting on my ass, it's less. In general, it's better if there is a scope of work and most of the expected costs are laid out ahead of time. And yea, use the salary as only a starting point, but don't be afraid to add a multiplier. Salary includes benefits, lack of self employment taxes, etc... Don't undersell yourself. You can probably look up comparable consulting rates for people with your experience and education. That also reminds me, (you probably already know this) be sure you are setting aside enough to pay quarterly taxes, state and federal.
