A Plan B involves creating bespoke software for companies. I sometimes get asked early on "roughly what does this cost" and find it hard to give them an answer because the numbers are so big I think they'll laugh in my face!
Some people here must know about this stuff; my background is as a developer so I am reliant on doing the arithmetic without past experience.
I know in the UK, a decent developer can get £400/day on contract work so clearly a business is not losing money on that - they typically pay permies less but let's say including all overheads and the agent's cut, a developer costs £500/day all-in. So I will even neglect trying to put a mark-up on that and simply say I charge people out at £500/man-day.
Now a small team big enough to get something useful done - 3 people full-time seems about right. 20 days a month, so we're looking at £30k/month. A medium sized project could easily run to a year.
So with a pretty minimal team, we're talking £350k a year. Add a 4th person or factor in profit on top, and we're at half a million quid!
And the issue is, I know some competitors are using cheap resources from around the world, working remotely for $20/hr. I could hire those people too, but that's a new-ish trend and many companies don't, and stay in business.
I put this in General so we can muck about, but serious responses would be welcome. Do I just stop thinking how big the number is and quote it? I've noticed since I started contracting how sums of money seem less - £1000 is hardly anything - does the same effect happen when doing real business? Little me asking for getting on for a million dollars is rather startling!!
Some people here must know about this stuff; my background is as a developer so I am reliant on doing the arithmetic without past experience.
I know in the UK, a decent developer can get £400/day on contract work so clearly a business is not losing money on that - they typically pay permies less but let's say including all overheads and the agent's cut, a developer costs £500/day all-in. So I will even neglect trying to put a mark-up on that and simply say I charge people out at £500/man-day.
Now a small team big enough to get something useful done - 3 people full-time seems about right. 20 days a month, so we're looking at £30k/month. A medium sized project could easily run to a year.
So with a pretty minimal team, we're talking £350k a year. Add a 4th person or factor in profit on top, and we're at half a million quid!
And the issue is, I know some competitors are using cheap resources from around the world, working remotely for $20/hr. I could hire those people too, but that's a new-ish trend and many companies don't, and stay in business.
I put this in General so we can muck about, but serious responses would be welcome. Do I just stop thinking how big the number is and quote it? I've noticed since I started contracting how sums of money seem less - £1000 is hardly anything - does the same effect happen when doing real business? Little me asking for getting on for a million dollars is rather startling!!
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