Independent Consultants

[BruceG]

Do we have any independent consultants out there? If so, and you wouldn't mind sharing, I've got some questions:

(1) What is the "going rate" for VB consulting work?
(2) What type of projects are you doing for clients?
(3) How many years of professional experience do you have?

Thanks, I appreciate your input.

[NeilAvent]

Bruce,

I have been an independant consultant for just over 2 years. VB is what I primary develop/advise on with GIS systems a close second.

I am not sure if there is a going rate, I am in the Gloucestershire area and earn about half of what I would do in Central London. I have also done work in the USA and the pay there is less than what I currently get but provides a better standard of living out there than what I get here.

I have done a range of projects from Insurance quotation systems right through to interactive marketing brochures.

All this and I have only 3 yrs experience, I am 22yrs old.

[RealisticGraphics]

I've been programming for about 3 years now as well. We are just now starting up our company and have recently developed a membership management sytem for a local gym. And when I first started I built a fairly crude Scholarship Registration system for my high school while I was a senior and made about $200 for roughly 30 hours of work. A going rate all depends on the demands in your area. I live in North West Arkansas (USA) and around here there is a lot of business oppertunity if you know who to talk to and how to advertise... That's your biggest thing, advertising. If you can afford ads in local papers, that's great, but if you can afford a magazine ad or banners on a major internet site, that's when you can start making money.

My projects have included: Member systems, Registration systems, web design, scripting, etc...

[BruceG]

Thanks for your responses, guys. I realize that a "going rate" is going to be dependent on geographical region (I am in the northeastern U.S. (New Jersey)), as well as other factors.

Compared to you, Neil (and probably you too, R.G.), I am an "old-timer" (at the ripe old age of 39), and have been programming professionally since 1985. I started off doing the COBOL-mainframe thing, then some DOS-based systems, and finally moving on to VB-database apps, which I've been doing for the last 3-4 years.

I've been thinking about going independent (at least part-time to start), and I have a good idea of what I should charge, but I want my rate to be competitive (not too high, not too low).

I guess a follow-up question to my original post would be, do any of you folks out there know of a website that lists average consulting rates for various types of business services (including programming of course) by region?

Thanks again for the info, Neil and R.G.

[tumblingdown]

Central London for a Merchant Bank will get you anywhere between £350 to £600 per day.

[RealisticGraphics]

Although I've not looked myself at the website, I have a subscription to VBPJ (Visual Basic Programmer's Journal) and once or twice a year they post that sort of information and they may have it on their site as well. Try looking at:
http://www.vbpj.com/

Considering I'm 20... I guess you're right. I have no educational background in the way of college. I started programming in BASIC and a little C when I was 16 or 17 and then moved on to VB and scripting (VBS, JS, some Perl). I tought my high school's advanced programming class (VB5). I've done a lot of web design and scripting and everything I know is self taught. I even had the local community college tell me that unless I just wanted the degree that there was no reason to take their course because I could probably teach their courses. I took that as a compliment and they through "word of mouth" I got on with a major retailer and I'm very happy being a webmaster/Office97(soon 2000) VBA & VBS scripter/and computer tech support.

Anyway, good luck to you and remember... Even though your creating database apps in VB, know that VB is a very powerful application development tool as well. I've created several fully functional apps in VB that had absolutely nothing to do with databases, I've found that if C++ can do it so can VB in some shape or form.

[BruceG]

Thanks for the follow-up, R.G. I know that there is a lot of talent out there among the younger folks (I'm trying to get my 12-year old son into it), and some of the best programmers out there are self-taught. You seem to be doing quite well for yourself and I wish you the best.

As far as the VBPJ survey, I am familiar with it. They show their data in terms of annual income, so I suppose I could impute an hourly or daily rate from that info. I hadn't thought of using that survey for this, so I appreciate you reminding me of it.

BTW, I know that VB is not limited to database apps, but with my background, it would make the most sense for me to pursue that path.