Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Added for You - Setting Your Prices - Have You Got Your Rates Right?
The economy is picking up, budgets are new, positions are open and companies are hiring. Now is the time to rev up your job search efforts. Use these tips to dramatically improve your results.Get on the job boards and make sure you setup search agents so you get a daily e-mail whenever a new job is posted that meets your criteria. Look for niche boards that focus on your profession.Make sure your resume is great. If your resume has been posted for a while and you have not been getting calls, then run, don’t walk, to a professional resume writing service. This is one of the best hiring times of the year and an investment of a couple of hundred dollars to have a resume that gets you noticed is well worth it.Identify companies that you like and focus o
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
<Have you ever brain stormed about what type of business you should start? Many are fed up with corporate life, worried about being laid off or have come to the conclusion that they are under appreciated and under paid. Those who are already unemployed or are looking are wondering; What kind of Business should “I” start?To answer this question you need to know a thing or two about the human endeavor and thought process of buying behavior. You need to understand human nature, find something people desire, find a way to deliver it for a profit and then deliver it. Deliver it more efficiently than anyone else, continually monitor the changes and then be primed to deliver a lot of those widgets or be ready to do a lot of those types of services. This is how you win in
Give the matter a bit more thought, after all, this is to be your livelihood and it's essential that you're paid a proper and decent amount for your time and expertise with the proviso that both you and your customers feel you are giving value for money.
The following step-by-step method may not be the simplest in the world, but it is probably the most accurate. Use these guidelines to establish what your true worth is for the service you are offering.
Step 1. What would an employer pay for your time? Firstly, research what you would earn if you were working for a local employer in a similar field. For example, if you're a freelance bookkeeper check out large companies with their own accounts departments, if you're a vehicle mechanic, check out local vehicle repair companies and if you're a private tutor, check out schools and colleges or adult education centers and training companies.
Spend some time looking at job vacancies online and in the local newspapers and get a good idea for the average annual salary for your line of work in your area.
I work as a Personal Computer Tutor for adults and in my local area the current annual earnings for full-time college tutors and private IT training companies is around $51,000. I'll use this figure as an example by calculating how much I should be charging for my services.
Important Note! As most full-time employees get 4 weeks' paid holiday per year, in effect they are only working for 48 weeks out of 52 - and you'll need a break too. This is taken into consideration in the calculations below.
Step 2. How much is this per week? $51,000 divided by 48 weeks is $1062.50 per week.
Step 3. Business running costs Unlike an employee, you will have to cover your business running costs. You will have to establish a figure for your own business expenses according to the service you are offering. Fortunately in my business these are not too high as I don't need premises or expensive equipment. My biggest cost is my car. Your business may be different so make sure you take everything into account here, right down to envelopes and paperclips. (At this stage don't include purchases for specific jobs such as replacement parts for a vehicle as these would be charged to the individual customer on top of the charge for your time).
General business running costs may include:
- Gasoline / vehicle expenses (not including any proportion for your private use)
- Advertising and promotional activities
- Office supplies and stationery
- Computer (hardware, peripherals, software, consumables)
- Training costs if you need to keep your skills up to date
- Telephone, cell phone and internet charges
- Insurances - including business insurances and personal health insurance
- Professional membership subscriptions and trade magazines
- Miscellaneous (parking costs, postage etc)
- Tools of your trade
- Premises costs, rent, etc
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
Generally speaking, the IT industry is young compared to other disciplines such as medicine and law. Employers are often more concerned with work experience, enthusiasm, achievement, extra-curricular activities, and of course reliability rather than degree content. Aline Cumming, a consultant in IT and Education suggests that career changers need not worry about having a first degree in IT or Computer Science, citing that many employers provide training for new recruits in the specific technologies used within the work place and provide additional personnel tooling as newer technologies come on board. But there are also many ways in which you can ease your entry into the IT field while increasing your prospects to be successful at a career change. If you are s
Spend some time looking at job vacancies online and in the local newspapers and get a good idea for the average annual salary for your line of work in your area.
I work as a Personal Computer Tutor for adults and in my local area the current annual earnings for full-time college tutors and private IT training companies is around $51,000. I'll use this figure as an example by calculating how much I should be charging for my services.
Important Note! As most full-time employees get 4 weeks' paid holiday per year, in effect they are only working for 48 weeks out of 52 - and you'll need a break too. This is taken into consideration in the calculations below.
Step 2. How much is this per week? $51,000 divided by 48 weeks is $1062.50 per week.
Step 3. Business running costs Unlike an employee, you will have to cover your business running costs. You will have to establish a figure for your own business expenses according to the service you are offering. Fortunately in my business these are not too high as I don't need premises or expensive equipment. My biggest cost is my car. Your business may be different so make sure you take everything into account here, right down to envelopes and paperclips. (At this stage don't include purchases for specific jobs such as replacement parts for a vehicle as these would be charged to the individual customer on top of the charge for your time).
General business running costs may include:
- Gasoline / vehicle expenses (not including any proportion for your private use)
- Advertising and promotional activities
- Office supplies and stationery
- Computer (hardware, peripherals, software, consumables)
- Training costs if you need to keep your skills up to date
- Telephone, cell phone and internet charges
- Insurances - including business insurances and personal health insurance
- Professional membership subscriptions and trade magazines
- Miscellaneous (parking costs, postage etc)
- Tools of your trade
- Premises costs, rent, etc
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
<Part time jobs are available in various places. Look around your neighborhood; check out the school, university or club bulletin boards, the local paper and even the web for job postings. Many large supermarkets and factories also post their vacancies on boards as do local shops. Many employment agencies also offer part time and temporary jobs.Here are some tips to make a good impression:* Always have a resume ready. Even if you don't have much experience, it will show the employer that you are a serious job seeker. The resume should contain your job experience, skills and hobbies.* When meeting an employer, dress appropriately and be clean and presentable. Whilst a suit might not always be presentable, dress well and appropriately to the job you se
Important Note! As most full-time employees get 4 weeks' paid holiday per year, in effect they are only working for 48 weeks out of 52 - and you'll need a break too. This is taken into consideration in the calculations below.
Step 2. How much is this per week? $51,000 divided by 48 weeks is $1062.50 per week.
Step 3. Business running costs Unlike an employee, you will have to cover your business running costs. You will have to establish a figure for your own business expenses according to the service you are offering. Fortunately in my business these are not too high as I don't need premises or expensive equipment. My biggest cost is my car. Your business may be different so make sure you take everything into account here, right down to envelopes and paperclips. (At this stage don't include purchases for specific jobs such as replacement parts for a vehicle as these would be charged to the individual customer on top of the charge for your time).
General business running costs may include:
- Gasoline / vehicle expenses (not including any proportion for your private use)
- Advertising and promotional activities
- Office supplies and stationery
- Computer (hardware, peripherals, software, consumables)
- Training costs if you need to keep your skills up to date
- Telephone, cell phone and internet charges
- Insurances - including business insurances and personal health insurance
- Professional membership subscriptions and trade magazines
- Miscellaneous (parking costs, postage etc)
- Tools of your trade
- Premises costs, rent, etc
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
<One idea a lot of marketers have never tried is writing articles for trade publications.If your business serves a particular industry group, chances are that industry has at least one trade magazine that needs good articles to publish.This is one more reason to target a niche in your marketing efforts. Everything seems to go so much more smoothly when you zero in on a group of potential clients who all have similar needs.The easiest way to find these trade publications is to go to your local library and look through the Handbook of Associations. Under almost all of these associations is a trade publication and a description of this magazine’s focus and mission.Next, subscribe to the publication and join the association. If you are s
General business running costs may include:
- Gasoline / vehicle expenses (not including any proportion for your private use)
- Advertising and promotional activities
- Office supplies and stationery
- Computer (hardware, peripherals, software, consumables)
- Training costs if you need to keep your skills up to date
- Telephone, cell phone and internet charges
- Insurances - including business insurances and personal health insurance
- Professional membership subscriptions and trade magazines
- Miscellaneous (parking costs, postage etc)
- Tools of your trade
- Premises costs, rent, etc
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
<The greatest asset to your business is your Customer, specifically, your Customer Lifetime Value.In my many years in Sales and Marketing, I've met many CEOs and business owners who don't have much clue as to what Customer Lifetime Value is, much less its importance and the impact it has on their bottomline. To most of them, what matters most is to increase revenue by continuously acquiring new one-shot customers.This is one of the fatal mistakes that many business owners make; it's a sad scenario, but it's also the reality. Let me tell you something: it'll cost you 5 times more to attract a new customer than it is to bring one of your past customers back to you.I don't know you personally, but if you're a smart business owner, yo
Although it may be difficult to be precise when your business is just starting, try to estimate as accurately as possible how much your overheads will come to each year, then divide this figure by the 48 weeks you will be working.
My own business expenses come to about $15,300 per year, so continuing with our example:
$15,300 expenses divided by 48 working weeks is $318.75 per week business running costs
Add this to my weekly earnings target:
$1062.50 plus $318.75 is $1,381.25 weekly income target
Step 4. How much to charge per hour? Whether you're going to be working part-time or full-time, assume at this stage that you have 40 hours available to work each week - this is in line with most full-time employees. Consider how many hours out of these 40 you will need to spend on non-earning activities such as traveling between appointments, carrying out administration or promotional activities. Let's assume, for the sake of our example, this is 10 hours per week (25% of working hours). Subtract this number from your total working hours to reach a figure of 30 chargeable hours.
Now, divide your weekly earnings target above by the number of hours you can charge your customers for your time (in other words the actual number of hours you will be directly working for your customers). Continuing with the example above my hourly rate would be:
$1381.25 divided by 30 chargeable hours = $46.04 per hour (round down to $46.00 per hour)
To summarize then:
1.Local average full-time annual salary divided by 48 weeks.
2.Expected general business overheads per year divided by 48 weeks.
3.Add the above two figures together to reach a weekly income target.
4.Work out how many hours you will be directly charging customers for after subtracting non-earning hours (such as administration and traveling).
5.Divide your weekly earnings target by this number of chargeable hours.
6.The resulting figure is your hourly rate.
Important Note! Using this method, it doesn't matter if you're working on your business full-time, part-time or for a bit of extra income - your hourly rate should remain the same. It's based on a method which enables you to cover all your costs, (including 4 weeks annual paid holiday) and still earn the "going rate" for someone in your line of work.
With the figures from your initial research, use the same method to calculate how much your time and expertise is worth in your own local area.
The most valuable thing we all have is TIME - Do not undersell yourself!
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.added4u.com/article/41531/added4u-Setting-Your-Prices--Have-You-Got-Your-Rates-Right.html">Setting Your Prices - Have You Got Your Rates Right?</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.added4u.com/article/41531/added4u-Setting-Your-Prices--Have-You-Got-Your-Rates-Right.html]Setting Your Prices - Have You Got Your Rates Right?[/url]
Related Articles:
Are Your Retailers Your Worst Competitors
Call Center Software Manufacturers
Ingredients of Small Business Marketing
Bookmark it:
|