Northwest Data ConsultingPerhaps the biggest reservation most companies have when engaging a consultant is expense. The services of an experienced consultant come at a cost. My value proposition to you, as a business owner, manager, or executive, is that a skilled consultant can give you a significant return on investment. Not taking advantage of your data, in today’s business environment, can threaten the success of your business. Making decisions based on limited or non-existent analytics is like flying blind. But the right investment in your company’s data culture can transform your business, helping it to operate more smoothly and at a higher level of profit.
Consulting services can be valuable to smaller organizations that can not afford a full time data team. I can help you leverage your existing tools and teams so that you do not have to hire more full-time employees. A few days or weeks of consulting services is much less expensive than hiring another analyst, scientist, or engineer. And those services can be valuable to larger organizations that have data teams in place, but which are incurring significant extra costs because their data operations are not optimized.
A particular source of concern is what happens if the scope and expectations of the project are not well-defined, and costs balloon out of control. That’s why communication and expectations are among my highest priorities.
It is my goal to have a simple and straightforward fee structure with no landmines or hidden costs. If you engage me on a project, we will carefully discuss the goals and the budget, and have a mutual understanding of what will happen if the scope of the project changes or we encounter unexpected difficulties.
Rates:
| Billing unit | Remote | On-site |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $150 | $200 |
| Daily | $1000 | $1200 (+travel) |
| Weekly | $4500 | $5000 (+travel) |
Explanation of rates
It is not uncommon for potential clients to ask themselves whether these rates are justified, and that is a totally fair question. In fact you would be remiss, as a business owner, if you did not carefully consider the value proposition before engaging me or any consultant. These rates represent over twenty years of accumulated experiences as an application and database developer, data analyst, data scientist, data engineer and consultant. I will never bill frivolously - if I encounter an unexpectedly difficult problem that requires some extra research, I won’t bill you for all of that time. At any time on a project, I will be happy to provide you a detailed and up-to-date statement of time and cost breakdown.
This post from the Technology and Services Industry Association (TSIA) explains that the 25th and 75th percentile of professional service rates in the US are roughly $150 and $250, respectively. Since most of my work can be done remotely, that puts my average rates well under the median.
It is helpful to think of these costs in relation to equivalent salaries. It is rare, because of scheduling considerations, to be able to stay fully booked all the time. And given the overhead of running a business and other considerations, not every hour is billable. Billing 40 hours in a week typically requires 60-70 (or more) hours of work. As an independent contractor, I also have to pay for my own business and health insurance, and do not have 401(k) matching, stock options, or other benefits that often come with corporate compensation packages.
Typical data engineer salaries are $120-200k/year when considering total compensation and depending on seniority level. The rates stated above put my total compensation closely in line with the lower to middle end of that range, when adjusting for my bottom-line compensation.
Pricing considerations
The price differential between on-site and remote work represents the realistic difference in work overhead for me. Sometimes on-site work is indispensible, but the time overhead of commuting and scheduling that work is non-trivial, especially in the hourly case. An hour of onsite work might, in the worst case, require two or three hours of my time, depending particularly on location details. For work outside the Portland area, on-site hourly work is unfortunately not feasible for me.
Daily and weekly prices do not include any significant travel expenses (air fare and hotel). They also do not include any other necessary expenses (usually hardware and/or software). Again, because most of my work can be done remotely, it is rare that air travel and hotel are involved.
For continuous full-time engagements longer than a week, which are sometimes required for larger projects, we can negotiate a longer-term rate depending on specifics.
While on-site work is sometimes indispensible (and some organizations prefer it), I have rarely encountered a situation where I cannot perform all of my necessary functions without going on-site, at least for the bulk of the project. A typical one-week engagement, for example, might involve a few hours of onsite work over a couple of sessions, and the rest can be done remotely.
While I do prefer remote work, my highest priority is to meet your needs and make you feel comfortable that you’re getting your money’s worth. If I need to come on-site I’m happy to do it; just understand that this will require some additional cost and scheduling considerations.
Also, I want to stress that my goal is to provide accessible services. I prefer working with smaller organizations, which usually provides a friendlier experience (and often the impact of my services, and thus my job satisfaction, is highest with smaller companies). The above rates are not etched in stone - particularly for non-profit organizations, rates are somewhat negotiable.
If you think you might have need of my services but are worried about sticker shock, don’t hesitate to reach out to me with questions. The initial consultation (one or more hours, depending on project scope) is always free. There’s more to life than money, and I’m always excited to work with companies that are doing something interesting and important but might not have as many financial resources.
Payment arrangements
When we begin working together, I will assess the project requirements and put together a brief prospectus that will help us agree upon an expected length of engagement and overall cost. The typical payment arrangement is half up front and half upon completion of the project. This arrangement is also somewhat negotiable depending on your situation, although some significant portion of project cost as an up-front payment is almost always required.
For projects with a larger scope, we can discuss a run rate or some other mutually agreeable arrangement that will help you manage your ongoing costs.
I bill using Square invoices, which makes billing easy and flexible. Square invoices can be paid with multiple methods, including credit/debit cards, Google or Apple Pay, and ACH transfer.