Out of hours work - rates and setting up

Sean^DCT4

Hi all,

I am currently working full-time as a software developer.

I have been contacted by a potential client to do some work out of hours. Maybe ~10-15 hours a week for at least a year. I presume that I will need to set up as a sole-trader and submit end of year tax returns etc.

Q1: Does anyone have any experience or advice in doing this?

Also, I have 5 years commercial development experience in:

• ASP.net web-forms/MVC
• C#
• MS SQL
• Javascript, jQuery, AJAX, Bootstrap
• ORM's - Entity Framework and NHibernate

Q2: Any suggestions as to my going rate for out of hours contracting work. I was thinking €350 per day (day = 7.5 hours).


Thanks in advance.

GreeBo

Check your current contract, you might not be permitted to work for others at the same time.

Sean^DCT4

GreeBo wrote: »

Check your current contract, you might not be permitted to work for others at the same time.

Yeah I did previously. I'm clear to work as there is nothing in the current one about working on other projects/jobs out of hours.

John_Mc

Depends on what the role has you doing. €350 is somewhere in the middle of the going rate for contractors with your skills. I'd be charging €400 myself, if it was both front and back end, and I could deliver a high quality product.

moycullen14

Sean^DCT4 wrote: »

Hi all,

I am currently working full-time as a software developer.

I have been contacted by a potential client to do some work out of hours. Maybe ~10-15 hours a week for at least a year. I presume that I will need to set up as a sole-trader and submit end of year tax returns etc.

Q1: Does anyone have any experience or advice in doing this?

Also, I have 5 years commercial development experience in:

• ASP.net web-forms/MVC
• C#
• MS SQL
• Javascript, jQuery, AJAX, Bootstrap
• ORM's - Entity Framework and NHibernate

Q2: Any suggestions as to my going rate for out of hours contracting work. I was thinking €350 per day (day = 7.5 hours).


Thanks in advance.

Not what you asked but I'd be a little wary of this.

First off, if you were working for me, I don't think I'd be too happy with you committing to 10-15 hours a week developing for someone else. The problem is one of context switching and exhaustion. If you intend to do this in the evening, after a full day developing different systems then, IMHO, the quality of one or the other will suffer.

Better, if you can manage it, to do the work in longer stretches. Could you work for your current employer 4 days a week?

Anyway, good luck with it. Just don't over commit.

juan.kerr

moycullen14 wrote: »

Not what you asked but I'd be a little wary of this.

First off, if you were working for me, I don't think I'd be too happy with you committing to 10-15 hours a week developing for someone else. The problem is one of context switching and exhaustion. If you intend to do this in the evening, after a full day developing different systems then, IMHO, the quality of one or the other will suffer.

Sean^DCT4, as your manager I would also be concerned about your ability to meet deadlines if you are committed to something else.

I don't expect developers to work beyond 5:30 but if there is a deadline approaching and they are behind (for reasons within their control) then they understand that they need to play catchup.

MagicRon

What Sean^DCT4 does in his own time, as per his terms of employment is his own business. If his employer doesn't want him trying to earn more money outside of employment, then his employer should negotiate better contract terms in return for better pay for Sean.
Good luck with the project Sean!

The Corinthian

MagicRon wrote: »

What Sean^DCT4 does in his own time, as per his terms of employment is his own business. If his employer doesn't want him trying to earn more money outside of employment, then his employer should negotiate better contract terms in return for better pay for Sean.

I agree, and if not covered by the employment contract, then he should keep it to himself - it's none of their business and if he tells them, they'll not like it and likely begin to pressurize him to give it up. Additionally, he should consider the possibility that he's breaching any non-compete clause in his employment contract, especially if the new client is an existing or past client of his employer.

However there is also a valid reason why his employer may not like it, and why he may ultimately not like it either.

Ten to fifteen hours per week essentially means that he will not have any free time for the next year or more - at the very least, his weekends are gone unless he can manage two to three hours extra work every single working day. Additionally, as someone mentioned, in IT sometimes you have to do overtime to hit deadlines (it's covered in every contract) and there you'll have problems as to which you need to prioritize and/or find himself working even more overtime to catch up on the contract.

This is going to have its toll on him. It may be minor, or it could end up leaving him burnt out - either way it will have an impact on the day job, possibly to the point where his full-time employment may be threatened.

I'm not suggesting that he should not take up the extra contract, but he should be careful, especially when reading the small print; what response time will be stipulated? What milestones, if any, are described and how? Hours per week - how is this described? Because unless otherwise stipulated, this means 52 weeks per year - public or personal holidays don't come into it.

As to tax and red tape; he can act as a sole trader under his own name, which requires no registration. I would though look at professional liability insurance, which will likely cost a few hundred. The only other issue is VAT, but at the rate quoted, he won't hit the €37,500 threshold.

One other thing; charge per hour, not per day.

juan.kerr

OP, can you clarify what you mean by 'a potential client'. Do you mean a potential client of your own or of your current employer?

juan.kerr

MagicRon wrote: »

What Sean^DCT4 does in his own time, as per his terms of employment is his own business.

Not if he comes in tired or can't get his work done to schedule because he has other commitments.

Common sense applies here. An employer can't stop an employee getting drunk on a Sunday night, but they can do something about it if he's not fit for work on a Monday morning because of it.