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

Dealingwith Staffing firmshttp://www.tech-writer.net/staffingconsultingfirms.html

Calculating aConsulting Ratehttp://chanson.livejournal.com/82200.html

Although I have seen some Pro-E consulting rates advertised as lowas \$40/hr through a staffing firm (staffing firm is paid a higherrate by client business), I consider this offer too low for anindependent contractor. Low-Balling seems to be more of an issuewith companies that use SolidWorks than Pro-E. Thankfully, themajority of my potential clients do not use this approach andunderstand CAD/CAE requires education, skill (especially surfacemodeling), and experience. Unlike the Pro-E exploder, I believe youare required to have a license of SW to read these posts. Thisshould filter out most of the staffing firms that otherwise readthe PTCUser form where I could have posted a similar message.

I would be interested in hearing others thoughts about this. If Iwere to agree to a short term project (2 weeks), how does one billfor 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 findmany accountants do not understand the CAD consutling business. Iuse Quickbooks Pro for bookkeeping.SolidworksGeneral