Web Design Consulting Question...

felix · Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:08 pm Post subject: Web Design Consulting Question...

Hello everybody. I interviewed with a company recently for a Web Designer position. The company wants you to start as 1099 contractor and then within a year, be an employee. My question is how much should I ask for and what is the going rate nowadays for consulting Web Designer? Thanks for your help.

Felix

p.s. I live in Ohio if it makes a difference.

thehermit · Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:31 pm Post subject:

I am sorry, but any real discussion over price discussion is illegal - it can be seen as price fixing within the industry and not at all cool.

Obviously non-industry peeps can give you a guideline or we can give you general opinions or a set of guidelines to follow, but any discussion of rates would not be acceptable.

BryanDowning · Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:43 pm Post subject:

Do some research on Ohio taxes. The difference between being a 1099 contractor and an employee is that you get the full amount of your check if you are 1099 whereas they will take out taxes from your check if you are an employee.

Being 1099 sounds great because you get more money up front, but when tax season comes around you may end up paying a large sum in taxes. So if you go with the 1099 thing make sure you save money for taxes.

I get taxed through 1099 at my job and it sucks. In California they make you pay a self employment tax for being a contractor. Plus social security, plus workers compensation, etc...

Ask your employer if you will be on a workers comp plan.

On the issue of how much to charge - it really depends on what kind of web designing your doing (programming? basic graphic design? basic html layout?) It also depends on how much experience you have and believe it or not how old you are. I don't know if you're a punk teenager like me, but in my experience companies feel a little reluctant to pay a teenager a higher amount of money.

Anyway, check out this link. It lists a bunch of web jobs. Read the description and find the job that is closest to what you will be doing. It's set up to search in columbus ohio.

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layoutscripts/swzl_titleselect.asp?narrowdesc=Internet+and+New+Media&frmaction=&clickwatchname=&search=&narrowcode=IT02&zipcode=&metrocode=44&x=42&y=13

felix · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:30 am Post subject:

Sorry guys, didn't know it was illegal. Bryan, thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

felix · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:26 am Post subject:

More about the job:

It's basic graphic design, web design and layout, writing/editing copy, SEO, and maybe couple other little things.

webguy · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 12:01 am Post subject:

You'll be writing the web copy and then doing SEO.
Sounds like you have your hands full with this job.

As for pricing, visit about 20 other web design websites. See if they have pricing on them somewhere. If they do take note of the quality of work they do and then compare yourself and what you would expect to get paid.

For instance, many web designers offer packages. Do the math and you can guesstimate an hourly rate. Of which you can also coimpare yourself against.

You don't want to go to low because when you feel in about 6 months that you are being underpaid you'll run into problems. You don't want to go too high cuz then you might not be hired or your work may be expected to be above excellent all the time.

I don't know, don't be too quick to take my advice. You have to look at your abilities as a web developer, err, web master since you can do all the stuff you posted above. Then you need to be fair to yourself. You don't deserve to be short changed but you should also be realistic about your situtation. If this is the first real web devleoper job you're getting it may be best to take a blow and just get hired for the experience. Maybe discuss promotions and pay raises before you commit to a year.

thehermit · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:25 pm Post subject:

I posted this to OYBRO in a PM, but I think its probably worth repeating in this thread.

In most European countries, America (most states) and Australasia it is illegal to discuss prices with what can be considered your competition.

Even if it is difficult to prove illegality it is certainly unethical to discuss prices - it is tantamount to agreeing how much you can skin clients for in any given job. Can I get away with more? What would you charge? All unethical questions between industry pro's.

Price dicussions also leads to the denegration of the designer in the eyes of the client. If a client can say to designer A that designer B says he can do it for X amount less, therefore I am not going to pay more than that.. Not a good situation.

There is a simple formula for working how much you should charge, not my own creation:

Overhead + Profit Rate + Salary / Monthly Billable Hours = Hourly Rate.

e.g:

£3600 in overhead (bills, rental costs, advertising, office supplies, staff salaries)
£4000 in salary (what you pay yourself)
£1000 in profit (beer money)
172 billable hours per month (8 hours per day, 5 days per week x 4.3 weeks - if you're not confident of getting this amount of work per month, then adjust accordingly)

£3600 + £4000 + £1000 / 172 = £50 per hour

Regards

Mike

BryanDowning · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

Defiantely. I understand this concept much better now. It does seem a bit unfair to the client...

Thanks a lot hermit!

Patrick · Administrator

Yeah and with that, we'll close this. Thanks.

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