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It is my experience that you should always charge more for offsite work,
especially if you are a freelancer/contractor. There are some important
reasons for this:
- Real costs: you always have out-of-pocket expenses working at home,
including computer equipment and software, electricity, insurance, sales
tax, ink cartridges for printer, general office equipment like stick-ems and
staples, plus on-line charges from your internet service provider. Some of
these expenses can be recovered when you file your taxes, but a certain
percentage will always come out of your bank account.
- Impression: you may appear less confident, less experienced or less
qualified if you approach employers with low offsite rates.
If you are a permanent employee and you are telecommuting, you should also
be paid for any expenses incurred with running your home office.
You might want to check the archives for discussions relating to how
contractors set daily/hourly rates, because what you charge should cover
office overhead, as described above. How you calculate that and work it
into your rates varies with each contractor, from my experience.
- Rowena
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Rowena Hart
Technical Writer
Intrinsyc Software, Inc. http://www.intrinsyc.com
