Posted by Merlin on Tue Jan 31, 2006 5:20 pm.
Alright then. (alright isn't a word in English. I'm ok with that).
Today was my last day at the 9-5 job, and the malaise that affected that company is now behind me (even if it's still close and in the rearview mirror).
What this means is that I'm officially a free agent. Right now I've dedicated time to CivicSpace and I have one other proposal that I have sitting in my mailbox and I will read through tonight and see if it is something I want to work on. I'll happily entertain other offers, and I would also happily entertain advice from other folks who've been doing this for awhile.
I'm actually doing this in a manner that is almost certainly the wrong way. In short, I have put on my diving cap, held my nose, and jumped right into the deep end of the pool without first ensuring that I know how to swim. This probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but everything I’ve seen indicates I’ll probably splash around for awhile and do reasonably well.
So that said, I would love advice from people in the community. I would like to know such interesting information as:
- What kind of rates do people charge for Drupal services? How do you generally bill and how and when do you accept payment?
- What kind of graphic/artistic types are out there who’d be willing to partner up if the situation warrants it? (I have nothing of that nature right now, but it’s easier if I know some people I can contact for such things).
- How do you organize and bill for your time?
- Any tips or tricks about taxes? (Only applies to the U.S. knowledgeable folks, probably).
I’m sure there are other things I need to know. I’ll find them out, I’m sure!
Kind of graphic/artist
Hi,
I'm working with drupal since 2 years and I'm willing to help you.
contact me be mail
Consulting List
If you haven't seen it already, there is a mailing list dedicated to this sort of thing over at the Drupal Consulting Mailman Page. Some of the discussions had great questions and limited answers. It would be nice to have another voice.
If you have seen it and are on it - great, you've seen the (limited) discussion of these points.
Personally, my last day at my 8-5 will be Valentine's Day after which I'll be a full time Drupal free agent.
I'm still figuring out billing. My niche doesn't have big sums to pay, but I can do hosting for them and charge a relatively high hosting fee as a means to spread the initial fixed cost out over time. For billing, I'm just going to ask for checks.
Organize my time - I don't yet! I have had the advice to spend 30% of my time finding/arranging new work to keep my pipeline full. I'm not sure how that will go.
I'm in the same boat as you on graphics, though my understanding is that there are lots of "graphics" people out there, but that "theming" Drupal can be time/money intensive. You seem to have no problem with that based upon this site.
In terms of taxes - I'm forming an LLC using the Nolo press incorporation kit. Nolo has the goal of providing valuable legal advice to the masses without charging as much as a normal lawyer. LLC has the benefit of providing legal protection to you without heading you towards double taxation.
Best of luck to you!
--
Knaddison Tech/Policy Blog
Drupal-exclusive Theme and Graphic designer
We're starting a company that offers Drupal services, with a focus on theme development for Drupal sites. If you're interested please contact me through email, or the Drupal contact form on my user account and I'd be happy to see what we can do.
We use Basecamp to manage our projects and it's working out pretty well, some people have adapted well, other still email us all of their work, but it's getting better. Basecamp also has a time tracking feature, but I haven't used it yet as it's only available on some accounts.
We're still in our first year of operation, so we're also sussing out taxes.
The "form an LLC" part
The "form an LLC" part catches my interest, i am documenting about this and i know it's never easy. I found your idea very interesting, it looks like you really know what you want and this is most important.
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