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12-05-2012, 12:50 PM
#4
Lowengard is offline Lowengard
Status: Member
Join date: Feb 2010
Location: New York City
Expertise: all editorial, bsns consulting
Software: zotero
 
Posts: 238
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Lowengard is an unknown quantity at this point

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If you had already done a search I apologize for calling you out about that. In general questions of the "tell me everything I need to know" type suggest to me (and some others here) that the poster hasn't done their homework.

The truth is, there is no standard way to charge, just as there's no standard rate to charge. (Establishing either would be considered restraint of trade.)

However (and I get really crabby teacher-like about this), if you are taking this on as a supplement to your real work, you owe it to those who actually attempt to earn a living doing this kind of work to charge a professional rate. You also owe it to yourself: the fact that you don't really need the money shouldn't be a reason to offer a discount price.

If you're totally in the dark about how to charge try this:
1. Determine your monthly expenses: rent, food, utilities, car or other transportation expenses, insurance, etc. etc. This is the amount you must have to keep body and soul together (as they say)
1.a add to this number federal, state and local taxes that you will (ahem) pay on this income.
2. Divide this number by 4 (number of weeks in a month). This is what you have to bring in per week.
3. But using this number alone is also called "working for expenses," You might consider adding something between 5% and 100% to cover what would be profit and salary.
4. If you think it will take you 1 week's worth of time (40 hours) to turn out this email newsletter, then the unit of money you've figured out from above is the least you should charge.

Should you ask this company to provide you with access to Dreamweaver, if that's the program they want you to use? Should you just eat the cost as the cost of doing business? Account for it in some other way? Up to you.

I believe that I and others have outlined this further in other posts on TF.