Consultant day rates
Discussion
I work through a network of associates, usually niche market people with a particular set of skills which I buy in and sell on to the public sector. They mainly have a legally required qualification, or loads of hands on experience. It is 'swings and roundabouts' in that I will sometimes buy them in and sell them at cost price to secure the work, but then sometimes make a bit of profit on others whose skills are more generic and whose day rate is below what the public sector will tolerate. Anyway, to the point:
I have worked on a day rate of between £450 and £500 a day for most people, even quite senior academics who advise on projects. This last week two of the associates (one old and one new) have quoted me day rates of £600+ and £850 respectively (provided I was prepared to offer at least 5 days work). The CV of the £600 a day is impressive, well qualified, loads of experience and evidence of working on sucessful projects. The CV of the £850 a day lady is good, but not exactly an arm's length of experience, qualifications and proven success. She has a public sector background and jumped ship some years ago, to do a diversity training contract with the Foreign Office. The public sector seem willing to pay her £1000+ a day, which greatly surprised me because I always understood they had an upper ceiling of £500-£600 a day, especially for project work where they were buying 20-50 days at a time. Budgets don't go far when you buy in 30 days at £850.
Got me to thinking I may be underpricing myself and my other associates at £450-£500.
I know it is a difficult question, but what kind of day rates are acceptable when selling to the public sector these days? Is anybody paying £850+ a day
I think £850 a day lady talked her way out of 20-30 days detailed work work and into 2 or 3 days as an adviser, because at her rates we wouldn't get the work done as she would have taken over half the budget!
UpTheIron said:
Doing what though? I've worked on Public Sector IT projects where day rates have been well over £1k/day, even for long term projects. And yes, they have delivered on time and on budget.
HR research work. My experienced interviewers with experience in the sector are paid about £400-£450 a day (telephone or face to face) and my more generic researchers about £250-£300. I have paid up to £1300 a day for a top academic with an international reputation to give specific advice or QA what we are doing, and they live with that for odd days, but not to conduct day-to-day research. When they charge over £500 I tend to use them as advisers rather than foot soldiers.
I think 'diversity' is so sexy that they can demand their own prices, as it is usually a stressful an challenging day, but telpehone interviewing is much more relaxed. I also don't fancy paying £850 a day for someone to arrange their own interviews, because that hurts at £450 a day.
Leftie said:
I work through a network of associates, usually niche market people with a particular set of skills which I buy in and sell on to the public sector. They mainly have a legally required qualification, or loads of hands on experience. It is 'swings and roundabouts' in that I will sometimes buy them in and sell them at cost price to secure the work, but then sometimes make a bit of profit on others whose skills are more generic and whose day rate is below what the public sector will tolerate. Anyway, to the point:
I have worked on a day rate of between £450 and £500 a day for most people, even quite senior academics who advise on projects. This last week two of the associates (one old and one new) have quoted me day rates of £600+ and £850 respectively (provided I was prepared to offer at least 5 days work). The CV of the £600 a day is impressive, well qualified, loads of experience and evidence of working on sucessful projects. The CV of the £850 a day lady is good, but not exactly an arm's length of experience, qualifications and proven success. She has a public sector background and jumped ship some years ago, to do a diversity training contract with the Foreign Office. The public sector seem willing to pay her £1000+ a day, which greatly surprised me because I always understood they had an upper ceiling of £500-£600 a day, especially for project work where they were buying 20-50 days at a time. Budgets don't go far when you buy in 30 days at £850.
Got me to thinking I may be underpricing myself and my other associates at £450-£500.
I know it is a difficult question, but what kind of day rates are acceptable when selling to the public sector these days? Is anybody paying £850+ a day
I think £850 a day lady talked her way out of 20-30 days detailed work work and into 2 or 3 days as an adviser, because at her rates we wouldn't get the work done as she would have taken over half the budget!
Ahh the public sector...
The fact here is that the projects they run are extraordinary in the business world as they dont actually have to make any money - thus instead of the usual diligence where a director will sign off on a project knowing that if the budget or plan is wrong they will be losing out of their own pocket, budgets are set on how much has been given, allocated or how much is left of the annual/monthly/quarterly budget.
Thats a roundabout way of saying that there are really no logical rules!
If you have a pretty small niche then you have a chance to monopolise the market and over time manipulate the prices in your favour as you play with the supply/demand curve.
Day rates for consultants vary between £500 and £1400 in my experience. £1400 is what a consultant from the big 5 (or today's equivalent) might be charged out at. Maximum top rate NOT from the big 5 around £1K - for something really, seriously unobtainable any other way.
Systems consultants (like what we do) probably around the £750 mark. More if the skills are niche, less if they are not.
Hope any of the above helps.
It sounds to me like you could get a better rate...but will it make you more profit?
Systems consultants (like what we do) probably around the £750 mark. More if the skills are niche, less if they are not.
Hope any of the above helps.
It sounds to me like you could get a better rate...but will it make you more profit?
Don said:
Day rates for consultants vary between £500 and £1400 in my experience. £1400 is what a consultant from the big 5 (or today's equivalent) might be charged out at. Maximum top rate NOT from the big 5 around £1K - for something really, seriously unobtainable any other way.
Systems consultants (like what we do) probably around the £750 mark. More if the skills are niche, less if they are not.
Hope any of the above helps.
It sounds to me like you could get a better rate...but will it make you more profit?
Systems consultants (like what we do) probably around the £750 mark. More if the skills are niche, less if they are not.
Hope any of the above helps.
It sounds to me like you could get a better rate...but will it make you more profit?
I keep on thinking that 20 days at £450 is better than none at £850! Also, if I do a project I want to do a project, not half a job and trim the needed work just because somebody wants £850 a day. I have cut her days from 20 to 5 'advisory and review' days on the tender so that am only using her nche skils where I have to, and filled her space with someone I pay £325 a day to, so a bit of profit for me.
TheMarko said:
I think I must be doing the wrong type of contracting...... 
Big difference between a "contractor" and a "consultant", I'm afraid. Despite the fact there could be almost total overlap in the work they can do!
Mostly the difference is one of perception and, importantly, how they are used. A consultant advises for a few short days. They have low occupancy and so must charge high day rates. Contractors DO WORK. They tend to have higher occupancy and market forces currently dictate lower rates.
Don said:
TheMarko said:
I think I must be doing the wrong type of contracting......
Big difference between a "contractor" and a "consultant", I'm afraid. Despite the fact there could be almost total overlap in the work they can do!
Mostly the difference is one of perception and, importantly, how they are used. A consultant advises for a few short days. They have low occupancy and so must charge high day rates. Contractors DO WORK. They tend to have higher occupancy and market forces currently dictate lower rates.
Contractors at HMRC are at between 500 - 950 / day ... Most of the developers are at the lower end, the OPs folks in the middle and a few more specialists at the upper end .. PM's in the middle of that range
arfur said:
Contractors at HMRC are at between 500 - 950 / day ... Most of the developers are at the lower end, the OPs folks in the middle and a few more specialists at the upper end .. PM's in the middle of that range
That sounds about right, one of our guys is at HMRC at the moment & is about in the middle.
When I was working for big4 I was taking between 1100 - 1500 a day from large govt agencies, about 800 a day when working for a systems integration comp.
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