As a contractor, I am frequently a wearer of many hats. I act as a consultant, developer, project manager, quality assurance expert, data analyst and UX engineer to name just a few. I learned long ago that adjusting my hourly rate based on an acting role is highly impractical and I therefore always charge the same rates for my time.
My hourly rates vary depending on several factors, including project details, duration, and priority. To retain my services with no commitment to a minimum number of hours, my rate range is $90 – $100 per hour. However, I generally prefer clients pre-purchase blocks of my time. As an incentive, my hourly rate is discounted based on the amount of time you commit to purchasing.
Purchased hours are non-refundable and expire after 30 days in a “use it or lose it” fashion. This prevents me from being perpetually on the hook for unused hours of work and allows me to better manage my time across projects. Regardless of how many blocks are purchased, I will always be prepared to provide a description of work for hours used on a regular basis – weekly or even daily if you so desire.
Generally speaking, I should be assigned work in no less than 4-hour increments, not to exceed 10 hours per day. This is to prevent excessive task and project switching or the scheduling of too many hours in a single day, both of which often lead to a degradation in quality of work. That being said, I make every effort to accommodate reasonable requests and I think you’ll find that I am pretty flexible.
As a contractor, I expect all payments to be recorded on Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, for tax purposes. As such, I would not expect any matching of federal payroll taxes, employee benefits or advance notice of a termination of the arrangement or other such expectations of an employee.
