How much should I charge 1

[EITZM]

Dear all,
I was hoping to get some guidance on how to charge for civil engineering services, I am about to start my own business in the state of GA. I know a couple of clients that can keep me busy till I establish myself and advertise my business more. I do not want to price myself out of projects or price myself too low. I am hearing that for subdivisions/commercial some engineers price the full set of plans on a per lot basis and others on a per acre basis. Are there any resources that could provide me with a guide to how I can charge. Also since I am a one man show, if I am doing the full job, for the drafting portion of the job, do I charge a drafting price or a PE price? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ashtree]

Maybe if you are asking this type of question you are not ready to go it alone.

You should be thinking about what it will cost you to be your own boss in terms of overheads, what sort of salary is acceptable, what return on investments in equipment etc and consider how many hours you will work.
This might give you a starting point for an hourly rate. If you are way less or way more than everyone else you have some choices to make, and maybe your expectations need to be adjusted.

Regards
Ashtree
"Any water can be made potable if you filter it through enough money"

 

[oldestguy]

What does your employer now charge? Gives a starting point. Of course your overhead likely is lower. However, what is your insurance cost going to be, especially professional liability? That may price you out of competing with the firms. You might not even be able to get it with your level of experience. Going it "bare?". If so, all your assets should not be in your name. All your work should be by written contract which has some form of "weasel" clause on every one and on invoices (maybe on the back side)saying your wife will not be included in any claim, etc. I did this even when I had insurance back then. Getting an attorney on this may be helpful.

 

[darthsoilsguy2]

sometimes, there are questions on this forum that make me sit back and think about how different my market is verses what other people see in the industry in other markets. My costs are always based on what tasks i'm proposing to do after interviewing the client to get a sense of how they want the design process to play out and what they envision the project to be. i can divide it by the acre afterwards... but cost/acre is always an output for me, not an input. i'm not sure how commercial site development could get priced per lot or acre basis since commercial development is very much customized to the business needs and not so much to maximizing land yield.

 

[beej67]

Take all the proposals from your past employer. Rank them by job profitability. Divide them along profitability into thirds.

Throw the bottom third out, since those jobs were bid wrong.

Divide the lump sum of each job by the number of sheets in each job's drawing set. This gives you a price per sheet number.

Average the price per sheet for the middle and upper third of the projects in your sample set, and round up to the nearest $250. Your result will probably be in the $1000 to $1500 range for GA jobs.

When you bid a new project, build a conceptualized table of contents for the cover sheet on the job, add the pages up, multiply by your price per sheet. It is the absolute simplest way to bid work and will usually land you at right around the number you need to be, without having to spend a huge amount of time estimating the job.





Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[bimr]

Your question is the reason that engineers should attend business school and obtain an MBA.

As a minimum, charge 2.5 to 3.0 times your base salary plus expenses.