![]() It is interesting that the same range-one order of magnitude-describes the variation in both billing rates and effectiveness of consulting labor, but I think that's a bit of a red herring.There's not a real strong correlation between talent and billing rate, as far as I can tell.There is definitely a correlation between marketing capabilities and billing rates.Įnough said about that.Before we get to the responses from GISList, however, let's review the premises of hourly billing rate calculations.Ĭonsultants usually bill their time as a "multiplier" of salary.There are many variations on this formula, but they all work roughly like this.Take your annual income in thousands and divide by two.That, more or less, is your hourly salary cost.The billing rate is the multiplier times the salary cost.įor long-term, low-margin government construction projects, the multiplier will be from 1.9 to 2.1.For example, a $30,000 a year person will cost about $30/2 = $15 an hour and therefore bill at about 1.9 * $15 = $29.This is the very low end.You can't make money with consistently smaller multipliers, because you have to pay various taxes, insurance, overhead, vacations, sick leave, and so on. My experience in a career of consulting for companies of all sizes is that in information technologies, two people with identical qualifications can vary dramatically in efficiency and effectiveness.Some talented people are three times better than you expect, others mystifyingly are three times worse: a factor of nine difference.And these are the people you keep.(I have also seen this factor of three in print, but cannot recollect where.) "Any guidance you could offer me on this topic would be greatly appreciated."Īlthough I have owned and run several consulting businesses, the special nature of working as a non-profit for other non-profits is outside my experience.So I turned to the best resource I could think of: the Internet GIS community.After getting permission from my colleague to forward this request, I posted it on GISList, founded by the energetic Glenn Letham, editor of Spatial News ( obtain valid responses, I promised anonymity.Īnswers soon came back from all over the world.They tended to focus on hourly billing rates.These covered a full order of magnitude: $25 to $250 per hour.However, I never supposed that mere numbers would answer the question, because there is so much involved in billing one's work: who you are, who the client is, what kind of work you perform, your evident (or claimed) skill, your experience, local costs of living, what kind of competition you have, and many more things pointed out below. "Our GIS program has grown and we are exploring the feasibility of doing GIS-for-hire for partner conservation organizations.While we are pretty clear about what services would likely be needed, and what our workload capabilities are, we know absolutely nothing about how to price GIS services. ![]() ![]() ![]() A colleague who manages a small GIS group for a national non-profit organization wrote me recently with an intriguing request. ![]()
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