Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with consultant

Advice for someone transitiong to freelance consulting and software dev

spacefire — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:38:05 -0800

I would like to do some consulting in the area of software development for Engineering firms. I would also like to develop my own software products and sell them. How do I go about this from a legal standpoint? I plan to alert all my potential customers that I am also working on my own products and that any software I build for them can either remain proprietary for their company (assuming of course it is not the exact same thing as what I plan to create and sell on my own) , or that we can enter an agreement where if I sell the software developed on their dime we would split the profits - assuming they don't want to keep it proprietary which will be the most likely scenario. YANAL, but is there a way to draft this in legal terms? S uch that if obvious small classes or libraries appear both in my product and the product I develop for them - and any programmer knows there are only that many ways to skin a code and overlap is inevitable - I won't get sued.

Management consultants of metafilter - tell me about your work day!

Kurichina — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:36:17 -0800

I'm in the early stages of exploring a career shift into management consulting. I've spoken to a few people in one company, but I'm interested in hearing from people who do not have to speak for their employer as well. The nature of work I'm looking at would almost certainly involve a fair amount of travel and time away from home, so I want to get a better idea if the lifestyle would be rewarding for me. For background, my current role is in the public sector as a subject matter expert/senior policy analyst. If you are in consulting, what do you love about it? How do you feel about dealing with different clients and reporting structures? What's a really bad day on the job like? A really good day?

Also, if you used to be in consulting and decided to go back to a traditional, full-time employment arrangement, what prompted that?

Please help me know how much I'm worth!

la petite marie — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:58:54 -0800

I need to know how much to charge a non-profit organization to set up and maintain a DB, having never done it before....and I need to give an amount before tonight! :-/ I have been volunteering for a very small non-profit (3 PT employees) in the Chicago suburbs. Recently the Director asked me to research and recommend a donor database, after which they decided to go with GiftWorks. She has been impressed with my work and has just told me that she would like to talk about hiring me as a consultant to be the person to install and maintain the database (they currently have about 700 records). While I'm comfortable with technology and have a little knowledge of how this database works, I've never actually used it myself or been the person who would be the lead person on this sort of thing.

She wants me to give her an estimate of how long this all would take and how much I would charge. (This would be as a consultant, so I would need to pay my own taxes, so I'd want to charge more than if I were an employee.)

I would need to learn the database as well as correctly format all the excel spreadsheets they have been using to track donors, volunteers, class participants, school contacts, etc. so that they will upload to the DB. (For example, I know that they currently have the first and last name in one column, whereas to upload these they would need to be separate columns, etc.) Then I would need to define custom fields and go into each DB contact and clean it up and assign all the categories to which each contact belongs (I think).

I know they don't have much money (my friend works there), and I have absolutely no idea how much to say I would charge. I also don't think it's even possible to estimate how long this would take since I've never done it before and don't have a firm grasp at this point on how incomplete and messy their info is now (but I think it's bad!). I don't have a job right now, so whatever money they pay me would be helpful, but I don't want to give my services away and if they decided not to pay a fair wage, I could go get a temp job.

Can anyone help me to set a fair price so that I'm not gouging them but I'm also not undervaluing myself? (I've seen this but I don't think it really applies too well here.

Thanks so much!

Seeking the right business consultant

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:22:53 -0800

Our company is successful. We (the three founders) are realizing that we need to add more structure and middle management. And we're looking for the right consultant to help us do that. We have a great company and we love what we do. It's grown to a size where we, the founders, spend more time dealing with small details and managing lower level employees than focusing on the big picture vision stuff, so we've realized we need to add more middle management and structure to the company.

We tried working with a business consultant last year to help us in this transition and it wasn't a great experience: she didn't "get" us/our quirkiness/the things that make us special and mostly seemed to want to offer us advice as to how we could become bigger/more successful, without helping us figure out the structure/management stuff.

We're not a very small company but we're not a big company either. I think this also has hampered our search for the right consultant: it seems they either cater to mom-and-pop operations or huge companies.

We'd like to find a consultant in the Seattle area, though we're open to Skype/phone/email sessions with the right person if they're outside of our area.

How to get another position at a company I'm temping at

reenum — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:51:48 -0800

I'm a temp/consultant at a Fortune 100 company. My project is ending soon and I to find another one. How do I do so? I've been working at a large company since February. I was brought on to help do document review and data entry. But due to my barely above beginner level skills in Excel, they moved me to more of an analyst role. Right now, I review data and create spreadsheets to summarize and make the data more accessible.

My current supervisor told me I need to go and network with other managers within the company so I can get something permanent. There are no permanent roles still available on my current team.

So how do I go about talking to people I don't know well in hopes that they will hire me? Ask them straight out? See if their division has a job posted and do a blind application?

I'm not good at job hunting so I hope you can help me.

What's a reasonable hourly rate for private consulting?

Beardman — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:26:29 -0800

How much should I charge for consulting, when it's about something (grad school admissions) where consulting is uncommon? I've never done this, so I'm not sure what a reasonable hourly rate would be. I might be retained as a consultant by someone who really wants to do a Ph.D in the department where I recently got my doctorate. My job would basically be to give advice to help him strengthen his application package--look over and critique his statement of interest, his writing sample, and possibly some of his external grant applications.

(He knows this service is not normal in academia, but everyone else in his family is in business/finance, where 'getting a consultant' is often just what you do. I guess their thought is that it can't hurt to get someone's opinion who's been through the process relatively recently.)

What hourly rate should I propose? A bit of Googling suggested the rule of thumb that for consulting, you should double or triple the hourly rate you make at your own job. For me, double would be $80/hour. That strikes me as steep, but I really have no idea how this stuff works. And when I consider that I'll probably only do a few hours of work (my estimate is 5-10), it seems less stratospheric.

What do you think?

Essential non-profit analyst skills?

hala mass — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 09:47:10 -0800

What are the skills I need to acquire in order to become an analyst or consultant in the non-profit world? I'd like to get back into the non-profit world but I don't want to be on the frontlines of fundraising and marketing, which dominate the North American job openings. I'd like to do the analysis that drives the fundraising campaign strategy.
Some skills I've thought of and seen in previous ask mefi questions:
- qualitative and quantitative analysis
- donor management software training

What else?
Also what official training would look good on a resume vs. what I can learn on my own or through volunteer work?

Can you recommend a tax consultant for an American ex-pat in the UK?

olinerd — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:14:32 -0800

I'm seeking recommendations for tax consultants in the UK, or in the US, or maybe both, to figure out where I need to pay taxes. Background: I just relocated to the UK on a 2 year visa as the spouse of a visiting armed forces serviceperson. That visa gives me the right to work in the UK, but I am still working for my US company, based in Boston, on a telecommute basis as a part-time employee, being paid in US dollars directly deposited into my US bank account. We called the HMRC office and they after hemming and hawing a bit they said they think I should be paying taxes here, not in the US, since the work is being performed here, but a private tax attorney we spoke with briefly said I may still have some liability for state taxes in Massachusetts since that's where the company is based. The CFO of my company mostly wants to avoid running afoul of any laws so he wants to make sure I get as accurate and confident an answer as possible before my company changes any witholding.

I need to figure out where my tax liability is and how I should either withhold or make periodic estimated payments. But that's all I need to do. My partner and I can do our own returns and everything, and I know I have to file in both countries regardless. We got a quote from a tax consultancy here in the UK that works with a US firm and it was a bit outrageous (twice as much as the immigration lawyers were charging us to figure out our visa situation!) so we're looking for alternatives.

So. Can you recommend a firm to work with who has experience helping out ex-pats to tell me which government I should be giving my money to? I'm living in Plymouth, if you know anyone in the Devon/Cornwall area, but if they're willing to do most of their communication with me by phone or email then I don't care where they are. Like I said, I'm not interested in having them prepare returns for me, I just want them to do the research and be able to tell me where all the laws say my liability is.

Help me lawyer up!

cinoyter — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:09:57 -0800

I've got a special-snowflake immigrations issue that leads me to believe I no longer know enough to handle the problem. I need to meet with an immigrations lawyer/consultant. But how do I choose? (Location filter: Montreal) I've got an immigrations issue related to my girlfriend which we don't know how to handle, and while guidance would be great, what I really need is meta-guidance. I believe I need to speak to an immigrations lawyer/consultant, pronto. Thing is, I've never spoken to a lawyer before, nor received legal advice on anything. I live in Montreal.

- What's the difference between an immigrations lawyer and an immigrations consultant?

- How much is this likely to cost? Are these folks paid by hour of consultation; on retainer; some other way? (I'm certainly not rich.)

- Are legal clinics likely to be any help? I know of a few community legal clinics, but I suspect those are more about things like rent disputes.

- How can I filter for someone who is reputable and knowledgeable, particularly since immigrating to Quebec is different than elsewhere in Canada? I usually like to look for small firms; will that provide me worse service in terms of a law practice?

- How do I prepare for the appointment? Just my situation and a list of questions?

- If I ask for a consultation, is there an implication that I am going to use this professional for the rest of the process? I only ask because generally I'm pretty good at figuring out bureaucratic processes -- I just don't know which one I need right now.

- ... or am I overthinking this and just need to call names from the phone book?

If you're interested in the situation: girlfriend with US citizenship came as tourist, ended up with NAFTA permit job on a one-year contract which is coming to an end, and no longer wants to work in that field. Now we're common law but she's going to have no job. I'm a Canadian PR and while I have some savings, I can't afford to support her for what may amount to 18 months, so we need to get her a work permit. Since I'm PR, I can't really leave the country. I'm only a few months away from applying for citizenship, but apparently the waiting time on that is a full 19 months.

Anyway, thanks for any information you may have about lawyering up!

What to charge as a communications consultant

Verdant — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:48:57 -0800

What to charge as a communications consultant working with scientists?... On behalf of Mrs. Verdant:

I want to make the move from a university professor in the humanities to a consultant who helps scientists communicate better in interpersonal, public, and interdisciplinary situations. So far I have been funded to do this work through the NSF. I have, however, been invited to name my price as a consultant for a VERY large initiative. The lead scientist tells me that my off hand quote of $10,000.00 is too little to: (1) Get familiar with the initiative and its communications problems (2) Meet with his committee to develop objectives for a 30-100 person meeting, (3) meet with the lead scientist to refine those objectives and develop an evaluation tool for the meeting (4) Help conduct the workshops at the meetings including bringing my expertise in helping scientists build collaborations (5) complete an evaluation of the meeting, develop a "lessons learned" document to be used for the next meeting in six months.

So - I know $10,000.00 is too little, but I don't know what is too much. Please help this lady who is used to a humanities salary name her price.

Secondarily, I am only allowed to make a certain percentage of my university income in consulting (about 15,000.00). I think this is stupid as I will be earning this money during a time when I am not on contract with the university (I have a ten month contract) -what can the university do to me if I ignore the rule? My hope is that this gig will help me to launch myself out of the university and into full-time consulting in the next two years. I am untenured, however, and tenure is my back-up plan

How do you rebuild a professional network?

Chaussette and the Pussy Cats — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:56:21 -0800

Please help me rebuild my professional network. (Asking for a friend. Her notes follow.)

I'm a woman in my 30s with an MBA. Due to health and childbearing and a desire to focus on my family, my work in my field has been limited for the past 10 years. While I've done some freelancing as a consultant and writer for the past 10 years, I've really been out of the workforce, in many ways, as my focus has been my young family. I do still have a very solid resume. I'd like to increase the amount of freelancing I'm doing. But, to do this, I need to pump up my network.

How do I do that? I need to connect with the kinds of people who would hire me for business consulting. Most of the people I know nowadays are moms who run small businesses (very cottage-y) or parents at my school. I've got a bit of work from some of them, but I need to reconnect with decision makers in the business community. The kind of people who sign off on $3k to $20k consulting contracts. How do I go about meeting them? I feel very out of the loop. I've got excellent marketing tools - websites, business blog, social media, etc. I've got good testimonials and solid references. I've done okay at keeping up connections and I have a decent LinkedIn network of about 500 people. I get approached by clients and have even been in the media many times, but that's all been passive. Many of my connections are just other freelancers and consultants and not likely to send work my way or connect me to the people they want to give *them* work. How do I go up the chain in my professional network, so that I'm not just connecting with other freelancers and consultants? I know I'm in a better position than many other parents returning to the workforce, but I feel that, in many ways, I'm almost starting from scratch. Any resources - books, websites, anecdotes - welcome. Thanks.

tl;dr Semi work-at-home mom with MBA looking to rebuild professional network. Has good references & marketing tools but limited professional network.

Choose your own job title.

French Fry — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:43:36 -0800

I need a new job title... and I get to make it up. Help me come up with something both awesome and professional. I'm leaving a full time position that I enjoy to take a job with a new company for drastically increased pay, yeah! My old company also wants to keep me on retainer as I had a very public position and don't want to lose face or those connections. Double yeah!

My old title was National Director of Field Operations.

I need a new title for this role as a consultant. Senior Consultant comes to mind but seems a tad dull and forgettable. I need to put in a request as part of the contract negotiations but I am drawing a complete blank.

I'd like something memorable with pop but also professional, I work in Business Intelligence and Healthcare, so it's a suit and tie gig. It is very client facing so it needs to be something that clients (hospitals) can see and not be put off by.

Software that will nag me to track my time?

zharptitsa — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:43:52 -0800

Can you recommend free or very inexpensive software for Windows that will pop up at pre-determined intervals (e.g., every 20 minutes) and remind me to fill out my timesheet? A similar question was asked before. But that was back in 2007. All I really need is something to nag me. However, I'm ideally looking for something that will allow me to choose from a list of my projects whenever the window pops up and then create a report at the end of the day or week. I've done extensive Google searches on this and haven't found anything that works for me. Ideas?

Affordable, multi-currency small business/accounting software for dummies?

wingless_angel — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:27:03 -0800

Affordable, multi-currency small business/accounting software for dummies? I am looking for accounting/book keeping software to manage my accounts. I am self-employed, and live in the UK. However, I need multi-currency friendly software as I bill and receive income in different currencies. I prepare my invoices separately because of client requirements, but invoice generation and tracking might be a nice to have. I use a Mac, but I do have a copy of Windows 7 if a Windows solution is best. I can export OFX files from bank.

I have never been very good at book keeping, and currently do everything manually tracking income and expenses for taxes on an excel chart. I would say that looking after finances is one of my weaker points, so I don't want a really complicated system. I have previously tried out iBank, Moneydance, FreshBooks and stopped using them for various reasons but would be willing to try again if they fit requirements. Prefer desktop based, not cloud or monthly fees.

Any suggestions appreciated. Budget: Up to 200 GBP?

Clueless Consultant

peachtree — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:40:07 -0800

Becoming a Consultant: After being an employee of a major consumer goods company for over six years, and climbing up the ladder very quickly, I am leaving my job to be with my fiance halfway around the world. I have a job offer to do the same as I was before, except as a consultant. What's the difference between being a consultant and a regular company full time employee? I've had a great career at my current company but have taken a great leap and resigned to leave at the end of this year to be with my fiance. I will be moving nearly halfway around the world to Russia, where I do not know the language. However, I happened to quickly have an inquiry with a consulting company (which my current company happens to use and I never worked with them before) about a position to do roughly the same work. I have never worked with a consultant before.

- How is it different working for a company directly versus as a consultant

- what are some perks/negative points of being a consultant?

- Do consultants have difficulty afterwards entering companies directly in the industry? Such as, what if I don't want to be a consultant in the future but want to be back direction in a business.

- Consultants have a reputation for being expensive. Does this translate directly to making more money than I would as a regular full time company employee?

- Any other things I should take note of, even in regards to Russia?

If it helps, I'm in lean manufacturing /continuous improvement. The position I am leaving is as an expat based in Asia working in a regional position, so I have experience doing heavy duty business traveling.

I need to negotiate smarter. Any ideas, hive mind?

reacheround — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:18:20 -0800

Freelance consultant: Any ideas on how I can change my negotiating strategy to land more projects? I am a self employed consultant providing a highly technical service to organizations all over North America. I have been independent full time for 20 years. I've been a one-man band pretty much the whole time, so besides providing the service that brings in the income, I also do the marketing.

I am expert at what I do. What I am not so expert at is the selling part of it. I have no problem getting leads, inquiries, etc. Where I fall short is in the negotiation process.

The average project runs into the low five figures in most cases. So most prospects get competing quotes. Virtually 100% of the time, it's a single stage bid (i.e., prospects don't come back to find out if I'm willing to negotiate). Very often, I know for a fact, prospects don't even check the references I provide. Probably 80% or more of the time, price is king; other aspects / benefits of my services (which I explain very articulately, verbally and in print), don't seem to pertain all that much.

And in the majority of cases, the work goes to a competitor, not to me. I very seldom am able to find out where I fell short. Was my price too high? Or was the problem something else? When I ask, the prospect generally won't say. (Actually, since most of the discussion is via email and phone, they usually disappear and I am unable to reconnect with them even to ask the questions.)

If I could learn from these experiences what's really going on at the prospect end–why they decided the way they did–I could adjust and, hopefully, land more work. But it's hard to do this when a) I can't find out what the 'winning' bid was, and b) determine what I have to do to be more competitive.

Any ideas on how I can change my approach / strategy in the bid / quote / negotiation process, to make the process more transparent and myself more successful?

Hypothetically was this person fired?

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:07:56 -0800

[Hypothetical Employment Legal Filter] In the following hypothetical employment situation, is the law being broken? If so where? Is it legally worth pursuing this and putting a hypothetical person’s business prospects in jeopardy? You are not the hypothetical person’s lawyer. You are not providing definitive legal advice. You may however have an idea as to whether and where various employment laws are possibly being broken in this hypothetical scenario, and whether there is something here that should be pursued legally.

A hypothetical small franchised business, hypothetically in MA, which provides a service to customers uses a combination of employees and self-employed freelance consultants to provide training services to their customers. To be allowed to operate as a freelance consultant, within the facility one must work for a period of time as an employee. The skill set the job requires is semi-skilled labor and requires a combination of customer facing sales as well as the training.

There are no employee manuals, or written policies. Employees have never signed off beyond two forms of ID.

Employees perform three separate types of duties. One is the actual training, which is paid at roughly three times base pay. The second category of pay is performing the same duty as a regular training session, but it is complimentary training (and is used as to leverage sales), this is paid at slightly above minimum wage, we’ll say 1.5x base pay. The third category is focused on attracting sales and is paid at base pay. This category is only offered in two and three hour increments, at fixed intervals on a first-come-first-serve scheduling basis. Each employee is required to perform at least three shifts worth of these hours a week. To keep employees focused, there are periodic staff meetings which last approximately an hour and are unpaid. Lastly, dependent on performance, there are opportunities for bonus pay. It hypothetically gets more complex than this, but this is a good start. Employees at their best schedules work between 24-36 hours – never really attaining a full-time status.

From this, one would think payroll would be a nightmare, but the business simplifies this by just using one pay rate, and modifying the hours worked to meet whatever payout they need to: Train for two hours (2x 3x = 6 units), train two complimentary sessions (2x 1.5x = 3 units) and work five hours of customer service (5 units) and your paycheck reads 14 hours of base pay, despite only having worked nine hours of actual time. Asking to rectify the payroll information is met with a “no”.

On to “earning one’s right to go independent”:
To hypothetically go independent, a hypothetical person must work for the company for a year and meet certain sales goals 80% of the time. Arguably these hypothetical sales goals are not attainable, but ignoring this, these are the stated policies. The hypothetically best performing employees are regularly unable to meet these goals – perhaps individually hitting the goals for 4 out of 12 trailing months at their absolute best performance.

Being independent is not necessarily better.
For starters, the business collects a usage fee. It is a flat rate fee in most cases; however in the hypothetical situation that the independent contractor performs the training to a group instead of an individual, the business collects a fixed percentage of total sales and waives the usage fee.

Next, the business does not allow for the independent contractor to perform their own customer service time (on their own dime) – it is strictly an allowance for the act of training only.

The one benefit of being independent is that the business allows the contractor use of their credit card system: the client pays the business, the business pays the independent contractor minus their stated fee.
In many regards, this means being an independent contractor becomes a less desirable state.

And now the hook:
Now… after a year and a half working for the business, one of the best hypothetically best performing employees gets pregnant. Hypothetically, the pregnancy is rough and begins limiting job function. The employee scales back their job duties, failing to meet certain sales goals, failing to meet required customer service hours. Hypothetically, one month before the planned maternity break, the business states that the hypothetical employee is eligible for going independent, and that they would recommend the employee stay on for a little bit post-pregnancy and then make the transition to independent. There are no stated maternity policies. Since the job is hourly / less than full time, the legal statements in MA law start to read muddily; however, the employee states that they will consider it.

Fast forward to one week before the employee is ready to return for work. Hypothetically the employee meets with the employer and states they will stay on as an employee. Hypothetically the manager seems to agree in person. Hypothetically the employee contacts their clients to prepare for the return to work. Two days later, via email, the manager hypothetically states that they rescind the offer to return as an employee, but that they have the paperwork together for work as an independent contractor.

The employee’s hypothetical clients have pre-paid for their training. The business offers no refunds. The employee does not get paid if the employee does not work. It is possible that the employee may still get to train (and be paid out) the balance of these clients training before going independent.

Was the hypothetical employee terminated? If so, should this termination have been protected by the medical condition of pregnancy? Is the employee better off to go on their own and ignore the events, or should the employee pursue some level of legal action? Pursuing legal action will undoubtedly eliminate the opportunity to be an independent contractor. How is unemployment handled if that is the situation?

If it comes to it, there are roughly twenty-four hours to lawyer up regarding the independent contractor decision to at least stall the process.

Quickbooks alternative?

teg4rvn — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:27:44 -0800

Invoicing software recs in the spirit of this 4-year-old post Relatively new to the consultants game and want to get some software (cloud-based OK) to do some QuickBooks-ish stuff. I think QB is overkill. I am an LLC with about 1-10 invoices a month for hourly work. No inventory of goods just a service. Have always kept track of clients on a spreadsheet, invoiced by letter, and got paid by check. Would love the possibillity of offering email invoices with Paypal/credit card payment options. Freshbooks seems to pop up in my searches, but I thought this would be a reasonable AMF question. Thanks

Am I missing something here?

Buffaload — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:45:46 -0800

Neighbor is hot to start a business with me. What precautions do I take? My neighbor is a serial entrepreneur/consultant/all-around bullshitter. I mean that in the best way possible. I do like the guy. Our families have socialized together. We borrow each other's lawn implements. Have beers on the front porch. Etc. I consider him a mensch. So he wants me to start a company with him ...

1) He wants to collaborate on a business plan. He has business acumen and a track record of getting clients. I have the subject-matter skills.

2) He doesn't want any money from me. We're talking about, basically, a creative services company that would exist online and be run out of our homes. He is willing to pay for the web infrastructure and marketing.

3) We've talked about money and have decided that, assuming we can get clients, we have several possibilities but haven't settled on anything yet: a) If I want to keep him at arm's length, it can be his business for which I would be a 1099 contractor, and he would get an agreed-upon cut of any business that he brings in.

b) I could help foot the (not terribly high, but not nothing) ongoing bills -- server, some small-time ads and marketing.

c) Something else?

Wait, wait a minute, a voice in my head says. I'm the creative person. What do I need him for? Isn't he just volunteering to be my pimp? Well, sort of. Except I have been trying to market my creative services myself for two years, and have had very, very limited success. So, if neighbor thinks he can help me, what do I have to lose by seeing where this goes?

Anybody's hackles go up over this one? I guess I'm asking because I feel pretty comfortable and eyes-wide-open about this, but maybe I should be more skeptical?

Should we execute any sort of legal agreement now? Is that putting the cart before the horse?

Thanks.

Where can I find a client contract appropriate for an IT consultant?

ridogi — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:07:22 -0800

I am looking for a generic client contract that I can use as an IT consultant. Lawyer recommendations in NYC who specialize in contracts for freelancers / independent workers would also be great. I am an IT consultant (a sole proprietor LLC) and have written my own contract for clients to sign. I am looking for a template or generic contract that I can use to revise mine to give me more protection against non paying clients, as well as protect myself from lawsuits. My contract is now 1.5 pages with lots of white space and plain writing. I'd like to keep it straight forward and not resemble the contract for a mortgage.

All of the contracts I have come across are for short term projects with a completion date or project end, but my situation is different and those contracts do not seem to apply to me. I am providing an ongoing indefinite service for my clients at an hourly rate.

Any LC's in the house?

Justin Case — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:43:26 -0800

My wife is interested in developing a private practice as a lactation consultant. Business advice needed. My wife is a certified Lactation Consultant and works in that capacity at local hospital. She is also an RN. She would like to use her skills in her spare time outside of her job.

I am looking for any advice or experiences anyone may have in this area. I am most interested in finding out about any requirements in regard to HIPAA, malpractice insurance or medical regulations.

How much should a freelancer be compensated for project-related travel?

SomeTrickPony — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 05:35:07 -0800

I'm being asked to travel to a 3-hour meeting as part of a freelance project I'm working on. How much time should I be compensated for? I am a freelancer in a field where travel is usually not involved. However, I've agreed to work on a project where the end client wants all project participants to attend a meeting that will involve an afternoon plane flight, hotel overnight, morning meeting, then return flight in the afternoon.

The initial offer is that the end client will book and pay for the flight and hotel, plus per diem and 8 hours of my hourly rate. I feel like this is a little bit on the low side due to the fact that it will be essentially disrupting a day and a half of my normal schedule.

This feeling of dissatisfaction is probably also colored by the fact that the meeting in question is taking place in a city that I've been to several times and dislike, and my involvement in the project is only about 2 days' worth of actual work. If I were getting a big paycheck out of it, I'd feel a little more generous about literally "going the extra mile" here.

However, if this is a pretty typical amount of compensation for a freelance/consultant request for travel, I will just suck it up and try to appreciate the opportunity to sleep on a fluffy hotel bed and not have to cook for a couple of days.

What's the pay for a software architect in the S.F. area?

storybored — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:54:32 -0800

What's the going rate for a software architect in the San Francisco area? My buddy used to work full time as a software architect/designer in a C++, Linux environment. Then the company went belly up. However, the development project (in telecom) is being resurrected in a new company and he's been asked to work as a consultant performing the same duties as he did before. So how much should he charge?

He was making $120K/yr before the company folded. Does anyone know of any good websites where this type of information is available?

restaurant consultant reading list

Infernarl — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:32:42 -0800

I'm interested in becoming a restaurant consultant. What books should I read?

Should I become a consultant?

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:51:25 -0800

Should I become a consultant? Please help me decide! Please let me know where I can find more information. I am really clueless about legal aspects of consulting. I am fortunate enough to work and have experience in a very specialized field. Will leave details out for privacy's sake, but let's say it has to do with software development. Fairly often I get people asking me to work for them in any capacity, part time, full time, contracting, etc. Right now I have a full time job in the aforementioned field.
However, it's not exactly what I want from life. It's not in the right industry. I cannot find jobs in the industry I want in the area I live, and moving is not an option right now.
I feel my career path is stagnating. I was thinking about slowly edging towards the industry I want to be in by doing consultant work from home instead of looking to move somewhere. I don't really like the corporate world anyway.
I would like to be able to continue to work for my current employer as a consultant, as well as for other companies in the area as needed. At the same time, I would try to find remote gigs in the industry I want in, leveraging my programming experience and work experience in said industry. I also feel that being independent is a necessary step to starting my own firm. And making the big bucks. Because I want to make the big bucks...and I'm not that young anymore.
Cost of living here is pretty high. No savings so to speak of right now. Single.
Has the Obama administration done anything to make health insurance cheaper for self-employed individuals? Are there government incentives, loans, I can take for starting a consulting business?
Should I even be thinking about this in the current economic climate?