Consultancy - Appropriate Fee?

[LeonieCol]

I have been in charge of IT support at my current workplace for four year. I am leaving at the end of November and unfortunately the school have not been very effective in finding my replacement, or even sending out Job Descriptions and application packs.

 

Therefore it is looking highly unlikely that the new person will start before I leave, which means no chance for a handover.

 

The principal has approached me and asked if I would be willing to do evening handovers once I have left and once the new person starts. Obviously at a fee.

I have never done consultancy work before so I am not sure what would be a good fee to set, bearing in mind that if I don’t do it, their only choice would be to call in an external company who would charge an excessive amount of money and would most likely need to get to grips with the system first, before doing a handover to a new person.

 

From looking around, it seems that most people would charge about three times their hourly rate of what they get paid as an employee, which would work out at about £54 an hour for me. Does this seem a bit much?

 

Any advice appreciated

 

Léonie

[strawberry]

its out of hours, on top of what you'll be doing during the day.

 

external contractors would be about £750 a day, so £54 an hour seems on the cheap side.

[jsnetman]

When first reading the post 50 quid an hour sprang to mind and they will be having it done on the cheap.

[somabc]

Think of a number then double it

 

You have to remember that you have to charge to cover your overheads, tax, NI, travel etc. Also as you will presumably be working all day and then coming to the school so there is the added inconvenience. On the other hand you can if you choose to try and remember that they are a school and may not have much money plus you may have a good relationship with the SMT / Staff so you might not want to charge market rates.

 

I would say £50-£100 ph is reasonable depending on how you feel.

Edited October 23, 2008 by somabc

[LeonieCol]

I was thinking something along the lines of an hourly fee, with use of the swimming pool when I want it! (And dinner thrown in, too! - It's a boarding school and the meals aren't too bad!)

[penfold]

£50 /per hour sprang to my mind too. And if you look at what you've said, they are not only paying for someone to do a handover, but also give expert advice on the system already in place. So £50 looks excellent value for the school (and maybe a bit cheap for you:p - considering it's out of hours service.)

[dhicks]

I was thinking something along the lines of an hourly fee, with use of the swimming pool when I want it! (And dinner thrown in, too! - It's a boarding school and the meals aren't too bad!)

 

£50 an hour sounds reasonable. Any arguments, simply compare with Capita - £1,000 per day + travel expenses + VAT. I'd miss out the bit where they throw your dinner in the swimming pool, though.

 

--

David Hicks

[LeonieCol]

Maybe what I'll do is aim a bit higher - if they reject it I can always bring it down to £50.

And I woudl charge travel expenses most deinitely.

[Andrew_C]

Charge them £100 per hour with a 50% discount "just for them" on the understanding you get paid within 7 days. Massage figures to suit your mood!

[ICT_GUY]

Its not worth turning up for less than £50, My call out fee for any job at the moment is £30 + £20 per hour. That's me being very cheap, normal price is £50 to turn up.

 

for you I would go with £60 first hour £30 - 40 for every hour after that. This way they will likely get you in and keep you as long as possible, this means more money for you.

[pete]

Given that you (presumably) have an intimate knowledge of their IT systems that anyone else would find hard to match without a few months exposure (even with good documentation), as a consultant you're unique.

 

So £54/hr is cheap.

 

Factor in cost of going there, higher initial workload at $new_job (reading network docs/familarising yourself) to contend with, and the opportunity cost - what else could you be earning / doing in that time.

 

Or rather - think of something you could do instead that you really enjoy*, now ask yourself how much someone would have to pay you to faff around with computers after (I assume) faffing around with computers all day at $new_job.

 

*that isn't computer-related.

[matt40k]

I think our LEA charges from £40 per hour which is cheap compared with others. That is for a basic person however. So if you want someone to do more then changing toner, £60 per hour.

 

Personally free tea + dinner etc = rounding down of hours

 

£54 sounds a nice amount. Just hope the tax man doesn't take too much

[witch]

Charge them £100 per hour with a 50% discount "just for them" on the understanding you get paid within 7 days. Massage figures to suit your mood!

 

I think this is the best idea - especially if you also quote them Capita-type fees as a comparison.

 

The meal and swimming pool is the least they can do

[elsiegee40]

Make sure that whatever you charge for your hourly rate isn't cancelled out by the cost of you getting there... petrol may be going down in price, but it's still expensive...

 

Unless you charge for call-out/travel separately, you need to factor travel into your hourly rate.

[laserblazer]

Charge them £100 per hour with a 50% discount "just for them" on the understanding you get paid within 7 days. Massage figures to suit your mood!

 

Good thinking. I'd possibly start at 25% discount and then if they baulk at that say "OK 50% but I really must be paid within 7days".

 

Our LEA charge £500 per day for a technician.

[Vegas]

Bin the swimming pool and meal idea, doesn't sound very professional.

[localzuk]

If it were me, and I was doing a full-time job already, I'd be asking £100 an hour.