I have a question for other independent contractors, what is the best approach in dealing with businesses that attempt to low-ball you? Occasionally, I will meet a potential client that attempts to argue that my over-head does not exist. Other than not having an employee, and working from a home office, I would consider software, equipment, training, business travel, utilities, and even child-care expenses overhead.

Dealing with Staffing firms http://www.tech-writer.net/staffingconsultingfirms.html

Calculating a Consulting Ratehttp://chanson.livejournal.com/82200.html

Although I have seen some Pro-E consulting rates advertised as low as $40/hr through a staffing firm (staffing firm is paid a higher rate by client business), I consider this offer too low for an independent contractor. Low-Balling seems to be more of an issue with companies that use SolidWorks than Pro-E. Thankfully, the majority of my potential clients do not use this approach and understand CAD/CAE requires education, skill (especially surface modeling), and experience. Unlike the Pro-E exploder, I believe you are required to have a license of SW to read these posts. This should filter out most of the staffing firms that otherwise read the PTCUser form where I could have posted a similar message.

I would be interested in hearing others thoughts about this. If I were to agree to a short term project (2 weeks), how does one bill for the full hourly rate and record a loss if the client pays 80%. I would like to know how to write this off on taxes, and I find many accountants do not understand the CAD consutling business. I use Quickbooks Pro for bookkeeping.