atw: Re: First Gig Coming Up

and don't forget Shane (H): "Plus GST".

Also, if the gig is very short term (a few weeks) charge a bit more and
quote an hourly rate.

The more long term it will be or gets, you might want to lean towards
charging a day rate, based on 8 hours of work at your hourly rate.

That might not necessarily reduce your rate but just gives the client an
easy way to estimate their on-costs.

Into your rate, you also need to factor in your operating costs (providing
the tools of your trade: such as a laptop or reference material, even
pens and paper; work cover insurance and the like).

Costing yourself out as a contractor is not like costing yourself out as
an employee.  Make allowance for the fact that, if this is to be long
term (say up to or more than a year) you will be unable to satisfy the
ATO 80/20 rule to prove that you are a contractor.  Working 100% of the
time for a single client effectively makes you an "employee" and subject
to a different tax scale than a contractor who works for several clients
over a financial year.

See: the ATO "PAYG withholding guide no 2 - How to determine if
workers are employees or independent contractors" at
<http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/content.asp?doc=/content/4540.htm>
for more.

This is why some IT / tech writing contractors go through contractor
management companies (enables them to meet those rules as if they
are part of a bigger company - but at a percentage cost of your income)
such as CXC <http://au.cxcglobal.com/> and Freelance
<http://www.freelance.com.au/>, which are two of the better known
such firms.

Check with your accountant or the ATO first.

Cheers,

Michael Granat
Write Ideas
www.writeideas.com.au

At 10:39 31/01/2006, you wrote: 
Thank you both Rhonda and Michelle.  The Minister of War and Finance (my
lovely wife) thought I was a bit cheap. I'll take the info on board and see
what the client's prepared to offer.

Cheers
Shane


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