Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jeff Higgins Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: General Consulting Advice Urgently Needed Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:37:19 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 61 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:34:58 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="LeYHhbGybw/UJKDU4EuZlA"; logging-data="4641"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/EB23/t+5LZCQSF7MEgme5YJKavvHAlRw=" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20111110 Icedove/3.0.11 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:af9TC0JGkTM+utOZKe6NMBf6mdk= Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:10293 On 11/28/2011 10:41 AM, Novice wrote: > I've got some questions about consulting as a Java developer. Thanks to a > personal connection, a project needing a Java developer has just come to > my attention and I can probably get this contract if I play my cards > right. > > Unfortunately, as I've said elsewhere in this newsgroup, I'm a Java > hobbyist and have done very little paid work as a Java developer so I'm > not completely sure on how to land this project. Most of my past > consulting has been developing websites so I'm not sure on several > details of how to present and sell myself. > > The opportunity is literally sitting in my inbox as we speak in the form > of an email from my friend's friend. He's asking me what my rate is and > I'm not sure what to answer. I don't know what the going rate is for Java > development in this area since there isn't a whole lot of Java > development around here and I have no idea what rates people are asking. > Frankly, I'm willing to do the work at almost any rate he's willing to > offer, although, naturally, I'd rather get more than less. I'm also > concerned that if I set my rate too low, he'll think that I'm really > awful at what I do and look elsewhere for someone to fill the > opportunity. Can anyone suggest a way to come up with a rate that > encourages him to give me the job, even if we have to negotiate it down > (or up) to something we both can live with? > > In a nutshell, if I tell him $10/hr, I think I'll be signalling that I'm > so awful that that's the best I think I can get. If I tell him $100/hr, I > think his expectations may be beyond my abilities and/or I'll be so high > that he won't even bother to try to talk me down. I don't want to give > him a number that is going to scare him off and convince him that this is > not worth further discussion. > > A related issue is what I think of as R&D work. In the past, if I've > gotten jobs to do something that I don't entirely know how to do, I've > made a point of absorbing the R&D costs and not passing them to the > customer. For example, if someone wanted me to build a website and > include an online shopping component so that customers could buy things > via a shopping cart and credit card, if I didn't know how to implement a > shopping cart and set up a merchant account, I'd research that on my own > time and not charge the customer, since he basically assumed I knew how > to do that going in. It didn't feel right to charge him for the time it > took me to get up to speed. I treated it as an investment in my own > education and did the learning on my own time, charging him only to > implement the solution, once I figured out how to do it. I'm not sure if > that's standard practice among other consultants or something very odd, > maybe even unprofessional. I'd really like your thoughts on how I should > handle this. Should I assure him that the things I have to teach myself > in order to complete this project won't show up on his bill? Or will that > seem unprofessional? Or is he going to expect to pay me while I teach > myself the elements of his project that I don't already know? > > As I said, this opportunity is sitting in my inbox and I don't want to > keep him waiting excessively. I know that requests for urgent help are > greatly frowned upon in newsgroups and believe me, I'm kicking myself > that I didn't figure out this kind of stuff long ago but it just wasn't > anything I particularly needed to know at the time. Any advice you can > give me would be much appreciated. Sorry to put it on such an urgent > footing; this came up very suddenly and unexpectedly. >