Lawrence, would you be so kind to forward that email to me, also ?? I would appreciate very much. Thanks. Kind regards, Antonio Sergio Sena > Dmitry, > > I just sent you offlist a long set of threads I captured from "The Code, > The Client and the PIClist", a thread which ran for a month last fall. > You might also search the PIClist archives for keywords like business > practice, quoting, and so on. > > THis is an endlessly fascinating subject for a lot of us, since many of us > do consulting or moonlighting. Electronics is generally considered a > science, and generaly has right and wrong answers (with exceptions), but > business is anything but a scinece. There are pitfalls, bad luck, good > luck, bad customers, good customers, people who are wildly successful > despite disorganized business skills and people who do everything right > and fail. Good business practice will stack the deck in your favor, but > it is still a gamble. > > > -- Lawrence Lile > > > > > > Dmitriy Fitisov > Sent by: pic microcontroller discussion list > 02/28/2004 09:53 AM > Please respond to pic microcontroller discussion list > > > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > cc: > Subject: Re: [OT]: How do you quote job? > > > Wow! > Thanks, Spehro! > Brian, thank you. > Ok, I set some digits from the sky which I think may interest me, > otherwise, I better skip this job. > > P.S. [OFF-PRIVATE] I have responded to you, but you mailserver does not > allow to pass-through :-( > > > -----Original Message----- > From: pic microcontroller discussion list > [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Spehro Pefhany > Sent: February 28, 2004 10:38 AM > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [OT]: How do you quote job? > > > At 08:33 AM 2/28/2004 -0500, you wrote: > >Hello fellas, > > I just got request to quote job, > > which I never done before. > >How do you quote it? > >I suspect it is about a week to work with. > >Thanks. > >Dmitriy > > Really difficult to describe in general. > > How difficult is it for you? Do you have to learn much to do it? > Should the customer pay for that learning or should you? > Is it a part-time thing or is this "real work" for you? > Is there the potential of future work or will getting this job > help you get more work in other ways? > > One rule of thumb for consulting is to charge at least double the > gross hourly wage that a full time employee of the required > qualifications would be paid. This is fair because the employee > actually costs the company a lot more- they are not always working > at 100%, sometimes there is no work for them, sometimes they miss > work, they must have have benefits and vacation paid by law, and > require training and equipment, all of which you are paying for > yourself. You might adjust this up or down for short vs. longtime. > > Of course if there is specialized knowledge > that you have that makes you very suitable, factor upwards. Thus, when > I do quotes, there is often a different hourly rate for something > simple vs. say complex control algorithms and other engineering tasks. > > I prefer to work out the estimated hours and quote a fixed price if > the specifications are well defined. Be careful on this, it can kill > you if there is feature creep or if there are a lot of unwritten > requirements that pop up just as you think you are done. Your week > could turn into three, over 4 or 5 calendar weeks, which means you > would be making better money, with less stress, heaving bricks around > or something. Add a bit for contingencies too. Things *always* come > up. > > Oh, and make sure the deliverables, IP ownership issue, milestones, > payment terms and so on are well understood between you and your > customer. There are also myriad tax issues depending on how you > present yourself and the facts involved. In the US there are the > IRS "20 questions", and Canada is quite similar. Don't worry much > about this if you've not done it before, just do a good job and > get paid and worry about it 14 months from now. ;-) You might want > to pay some attention to liability issues and try to limit your > exposure to the amount you are paid, but that's a whole 'nuther > subject. > > Best regards, > > Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..." "The Journey is the > reward" > speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com > Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads