NYCPHP Meetup

[Mark Withington]

Adding my two cents (or perhaps non-cents).

Nearly all the "big" consulting companies follow this format when proposing
consulting work:

1.  "Through our vast knowledge we think this project will cost $xxx" (fyi -
this rarely occurs);
2.  "This is only an estimate, using best practices" (and witchcraft);
3.  "We used the following rates/project plan to price this estimate";
4.  "If for some reasons the job take longer (e.g. reality sets in) we will
use this rate card for all work going forward";
5.  "We of course will never charge you additional money without another
estimate and your approval" (oh, btw when we get to this point you'll be so
far into the project you'll have no choice but approve the new estimate)
6.  We will meet frequently to ensure that you're aware of when we're going
pull this stunt.
7.  rinse and repeat. 


Can you tell that I live up in Boston - home of the "Big Dig" ;-)

Enjoy the weekend


--------------------------
Mark L. Withington
PLMresearch
"eBusiness for the Midsize Enterprise"
PO Box 1354
Plymouth, MA  02362
o: 800-310-3992 ext. 704
f: 508-746-4973
v: 508-746-2383
m: 508-801-0181
http://www.PLMresearch.com
Netscape/AOL/MSN IM: PLMresearch
mwithington at plmresearch.com
Public Key:
http://www.plmdev.com/plmr/plmresearch.com/keys/MLW_public_key.asc
Calendar: http://www.plmdev.com/plmr/plmresearch.com/calendar.php



-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org
[mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org]On Behalf Of Mitch Pirtle
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 11:01 AM
To: NYPHP Talk
Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] [OT] Consulting work


On 6/3/05, David Mintz <dmintz at davidmintz.org> wrote:
> 
> May I ask real dumb dilettante question? Thanks. How is it that a client
> can agree to an hourly rate without there being some kind of cap on it? If
> I say $75/hr and bill for 20 hrs, that's one thing; quite another if I
> bill for, say, 50.

There is the balancing act. If you push too high on the hourly rate,
the client will then push you to get the whole thing done in an hour
;-)

Ultimately, they will have say $20,000 to get a given project done,
and they will pay you the same amount in the end, either take your
time with a low rate, or bust your butt for a high one.

I avoid T&M (Time & Materials) projects for this very reason - they
already know how much they are going to spend, and are only looking to
get someone cheep.

-- Mitch
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