Originally Posted by
andy bessette
MK--what you guys are missing is that this is a startup, not a profitable company with employees, and with the company executives earning $200+/hour. I'll bet when you started out, 25 years ago, you did't charge every minute of time spent at $100/hour. It is misleading to imply that this is what the OP should expect to get while he is trying to start a new business. There'll be lots of time spent that can't even be charged into the jobs he may be fortunate to get. And there'll be jobs where he winds up on a very steep learning curve and not all his time will be chargeable.
I'm a start-up and my target rate has been $100 an hour from the get-go, whether it's work I'm doing with my hands or machine time for the CNC. I'll cut a true friend a break, but decided early on that undercharging is a hard thing to break away from as mentioned by others above as well as by folks I trust who have their own small businesses in trades and otherwise. Yes, it's true that there will be "uncompensated time", especially in the beginning when initial marketing is involved, but that's not something that should be used to drive the expected hourly rate down since it will only hurt later on.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...