My favorite Comeback Boys and Girls smooches to you all. Its beginning to look alot like Christmas especially in the world of contract work particularly if you’re on the right side of the contract-you know as the zeros and commas get renegotiated (or not).
Comeback Girl was accidentally forwarded an invoice from a client she works for. Here is she (the subcontractor), her consulting company “Acme”, and the client. Comeback Girl almost had a coronary when she saw the billable rate exceeding $100/hr (forwarded to her in error when client thought she was working independantly billing them direclty). “Acme” had marked Comeback Girl up 30% like a high-tech slave. Comeback Girl filed this in her mental roladex and kept invoice on the QT. Client told Comeback Girl she rocked the house and her six month contract would be renewed. Comeback Girl went to ”Acme” wanting more money (Comeback Girl figured it would be around 15-20% markup). “Acme” said “we have to ask the client”. Comeback Girl thought to herself:
yall know damn well you could skinny the margin a little and still be profitable without going to the client.
Client called Comeback Girl “Acme says you want more money, how much are you making?” I say “x”. Client says “Acme bills us y. You could bill us directly. What is your obligation to Acme?” Comeback Girl says: “Let me call my lawyer”.
So I spent lunch at a lawyer’s office today as he reviewed my contract and told me about all my options. But the more pressing question is why did me seeing “my” invoice spark the inner conversation on how much money am I really worth? What’s the magic number? Most of my working adult life has always been about producing measurable results. Results should be compensated (and if you can successfully quanitfy the result to income proportion). You win. No wait, everybody wins.
1 Comment
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Read Suze Orman’s book about women and money. She talks about how women put themselves literally on sale. Good thing that you got that invoice.