What do you usually ask for freelance IT work?

[Metallion]

I've recently been approached to develop a 2.5D game for a collegue. Obviously this will be outside normal working hours and thus can be considered freelance IT work. This is the first time I'm considering to do something like this so I have no idea how to negotiate the compensation.

Does anyone have some experience with this and could you give me an idea of how much you usually ask?

[littletinman]

Well, i'm in a tech business field, and often talk with my friends who Own, Run, and/or are starting big online companies. They often have to outsource to freelance IT guys. One of my friends, said he had to cut back for a while cause it gets expensive. If you know what your doing, you should charge at least 30 an hour. It's a lot, but people will pay it. then again, if this is just a small time thing, you could charge $20 an hour, and still be raking in a good amount. Those are the LOW rates. I've heard of some charging and getting over $100 an hour. really depends on what the work is. I imagine sever work on a major company would be the expensive stuff.

[gunashekar]

I guess the market rates also depend on the following
1. location (of the provider & client)- [were i live, the rates are low]
2. Type of work
3. Value to the client

One way of finding out what the local rates are is to send out a request for quotes with the specifications of the work to other providers.

I agree with the earlier post about US$ 20-30 for most such work. You may also consider quoting for the entire work irrespective of the number of hours you spend especially if you are not sure how long you would take to complete it.


Good luck

[wrtpeeps]

I've recently been approached to develop a 2.5D game for a collegue. Obviously this will be outside normal working hours and thus can be considered freelance IT work. This is the first time I'm considering to do something like this so I have no idea how to negotiate the compensation.

Does anyone have some experience with this and could you give me an idea of how much you usually ask?

Couple of hundred an hour if you're good.

Freelancers are expensive.

[mrsteveman1]

Server work fetches a high price, depending on what you actually have to do and the problems you expect to encounter, it can be upwards of $150 an hour. Some of the work i've done in the past we billed for $60-80 an hour.

I did see a few days ago a quote of $500 an hour for something but i don't recall what it was.

You don't want to overcharge of course, but geeks tend to drastically undervalue their skills because a lot of the stuff we do seems trivial to us, you have to remember that some skills are very valuable and in-demand, even if the hourly rate seems high at first, most people can't do the sort of stuff we can, and to a business the ability to get someone to do something very complicated and technical for them is worth a lot of money.

[wrtpeeps]

As the above guy said, it's a hard one to just because the work you'll do will vary a lot.

And if you end up haggling, don't just accept their obvious low offers. Accepting that will show signs of desperation for work, and may indicate a lack of success elsewhere.

Remember, the best guys won't haggle at all - they don't need to. So as I said, don't just accept.

[Metallion]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have a bit of an idea now. I'm gonna meet the guy tonight and talk the thing over. I'll see what exactly he offers me.