Engineering Service Charges
Q: Our company is a small design and manufacturing firm whose clients are split about evenly between commerical and government work. We have heard from the gov clients that our service charges are low-to-moderate, while several of our com clients have remarked that it's outrageously high. Based on my prior work for a government contractor, I think it's reasonable, but I have had limited experience with the charging/billing end of things...So a question for the group. What is your education, experience, and a rough idea of what you, or your company, charge(s) for your time?
A: -As an individual consultant I used to charge $50 an hour - it would now be 50 euro an hour. Some time ago (Sep 22 1998, 3:00 am ) I claimed that Winfield Hill discouraged clients by charging $75 per hour. Spehro Pefhany and John Woodgate both claimed that this was on the low side, which t would be if you had an office and some tens of thousands of dollars of test equipment and CAE programs to support. -Here engineering exists to help manufacturing customers, its pretty much a break-even operation at best. $55/hr we charge helps cover the cost of the engineer. So basically, any less than that and you'd be losing money.