The hourly rate sadly includes all the stuff you can't bill out. You have to make phone calls, take time stroking clients before and after, not just during a paid job. You have to keep the lights on between jobs, you have to pay the technicians, the lawyer, the accountant, the power company, the phone company, and, of course, there's work you have to do in order to stay reasonably current. Then there's lost of time used in making and fixing mistakes. Somebody's got to pay for that without penalizing the customer. We try to do that on our own, i.e. on the overhead.

The 35-year-old associate bills out at $150 too, because he just has to ask a question to bring my 40 years' experience and that of the others who are available to bear. Perhaps I should say, to start an argument ...

Presently, I don't know anyone working in electronics engineering whose salary doesn't exceed $100K per year, plus benefits. I know that if you multply out that $150 by the typical 2000 man-hours per year that "they" talk about, you get $300,000, but the way I figure it, paying my own expenses and benefits, and support staff, I earn less than those guys who "work for the man."

Of course, I do much of my work sitting at my work station in my underwear at 4:00 in the morning with my hair uncombed and not having shaved for three days, and I don't answer the phone unless I want to talk. Those are the benefits of self-employment, doncha know!

RE