My experience with shorter versus longer jobs, in the tech industry, consulting a few years back:
- 30-60 minute consultations, I need to charge $600/hour minimum to make ends meet
- 1-2 week gigs, I need to charge $300/hour minimum to make ends meet
- 6-36 month gigs, I need to charge $100/hour minimum to make ends meet
Making ends meet means covering mortgage, health care, etc., not having a decent lifestyle. There is overhead to:
- Finding clients
- Billing
- Cancellations
- Marketing
- Commuting
- Networking
- Contracts / legal
Etc. All of that overhead goes down with longer jobs. I don't feel that "longer jobs" are the root culprit here. If I were to guess, the root problem is that anyone can do carpentry (poorly). That sets low expectations on prices. That keeps better tradespeople out, since you can make so much more in any of the other trades.
- 30-60 minute consultations, I need to charge $600/hour minimum to make ends meet
- 1-2 week gigs, I need to charge $300/hour minimum to make ends meet
- 6-36 month gigs, I need to charge $100/hour minimum to make ends meet
Making ends meet means covering mortgage, health care, etc., not having a decent lifestyle. There is overhead to:
- Finding clients
- Billing
- Cancellations
- Marketing
- Commuting
- Networking
- Contracts / legal
Etc. All of that overhead goes down with longer jobs. I don't feel that "longer jobs" are the root culprit here. If I were to guess, the root problem is that anyone can do carpentry (poorly). That sets low expectations on prices. That keeps better tradespeople out, since you can make so much more in any of the other trades.