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Dexman1349
:lmao: I think most Americans would tolerate making $100/hr. It's only about 15 times minimum wage...
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Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:
I would think operating a one-man consulting firm from his/her own home would result in little overhead, no? What else is required other than insurance? You would need the clientele, of course.
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FLBuff PE
Multi-disciplinary engineer
Sounds like you got a motivation problem there, partner. Are you really Peter Gibbons?
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
Insurance would be HUGE...both health and liability. Then you would have technology costs to pay for software licenses and the computer capable of running the newest software. You also have to be disciplined about taxing your income since you don't have an employer to do it for you automatically any more. It's just a big, fat pain in the ass.
Good thing my fiance is a school teacher with great benefits :]
My boss has a brother who's a CPA and handles all of his finances. It's sickening how much he pays him. Besides myself, it's easily his biggest overhead.... double the rent. I will happily spend the time to learn Quickin.
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Dexman1349
Saw that coming
It's a lot more than running Quickin, but Quickin is a popular and well established software for a reason.
EM_PS
shining like a lighter...
Bah! Professional liability insurance may be more affordable than you might think - could only run 1.5% +- of your gross (obviously depending on your actual prof services). Health insurance would be a b!tch unless there is a working spouse carrying bennies. Software licenses would be a drop in the bucket - and fwiw, many in civil arena usually already running acad or whatever at home on a computer fit to do so. Asides from that, invest in an accountant. write off the floor space being used as office space in your house, your car / truck as business vehicle, etc.
I think its the best idea going, and I've considered doing this myself, but capital cost of needed surveying equip would be the prohibitive wrench in my plans. A civil I know who does this very thing has talked to me about possibly forming a consortium of home office engineers / surveyors. you don't even have to be in the same town per se. anyways, looks really good on a resume too (that you ran your own company), for when the economy does come back around.
Flyer_PE
Jr. PE / Sr. Company Pilot
Just a word of warning about deducting home space used for business. If you do that, when you sell your house, the IRS is of the opinion that they can look upon that house as if you have been depreciating the value of the whole damn thing as a business asset. You then have a substantial capital gains liability.
My best friend is a tax accountant and advised me against playing with claiming my office space as any kind of tax deduction. It's one of those things that might save you a little now only to cost you a lot later.
My best friend is a tax accountant and advised me against playing with claiming my office space as any kind of tax deduction. It's one of those things that might save you a little now only to cost you a lot later.
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Mutha PE PS
Well-known member
Only problem is getting clients to pay. I have done some moonlighting and thankfully I had a regular 40 hr job to fall back on to feed the family. Still have guys that owe from 3 years back. Will probably never collect on those.
EM_PS
shining like a lighter...
Re: Hart 4515
Nice Av - Yes this is true - a surveyor i worked for actually had the hardest times collecting his invoices from banks of all places, not your run-of-the-mill survey needer or developer
Re: flyer - Great setup!
Nice Av - Yes this is true - a surveyor i worked for actually had the hardest times collecting his invoices from banks of all places, not your run-of-the-mill survey needer or developer
Re: flyer - Great setup!
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rppearso
You can also set up your own buisness and contract out to the very offices you used to work as a direct employee. I run hysys so buying a single user licence of that would not be feasable as it is around 10K a year so I would use client or contractor offices for that and maintain a small office for invoices and taxes etc, the senior PE that I used to work under still does that and he basicly gets to write off lunchs and driving to work thats the way to go. Trying to do it completely independant is probably not the way to go because you lack a project team and very expensive software, this can also be accomplished through job shops.
Mutha PE PS
Well-known member
What I found is the people with the least amount of money always pay. The guys with the multi-million dollar corps. are always trying to figure a way not to pay.
EM_PS
shining like a lighter...
^yeah a company i worked for more or less inherited a landfill & a site condominium based on failure to pay invoices. Of course the principals i think ultimately took some of the units from the site condo as payment - and this was pretty much right on Lake MI, so good $$ / good land
I've been told I'll be getting a whopping $0.50! Amounts to less than 2%. But I can't complain too much. I started in May '05 out of college at $23/hr, and was up to $30 in July '09. We have performance reviews/raises every 6 months, and they have been prettty good so far;
Date Hourly Annual Raise
May-05 $23.00 $47840
Jul-05 $23.00 $47840 $0.00
Jan-06 $24.00 $49920 $1.00
Jul-06 $25.00 $52000 $1.00
Jan-07 $26.00 $54080 $1.00
Jul-07 $26.75 $55640 $0.75
Jan-08 $27.75 $57720 $1.00
Jul-08 $28.75 $59800 $1.00
Jan-09 $29.50 $61360 $0.75
Jul-09 $30.00 $62400 $0.50
I expect them to get a little better now with a P.E. This is for the greater Pittsburgh area where the median household income is ~$45,000.
Date Hourly Annual Raise
May-05 $23.00 $47840
Jul-05 $23.00 $47840 $0.00
Jan-06 $24.00 $49920 $1.00
Jul-06 $25.00 $52000 $1.00
Jan-07 $26.00 $54080 $1.00
Jul-07 $26.75 $55640 $0.75
Jan-08 $27.75 $57720 $1.00
Jul-08 $28.75 $59800 $1.00
Jan-09 $29.50 $61360 $0.75
Jul-09 $30.00 $62400 $0.50
I expect them to get a little better now with a P.E. This is for the greater Pittsburgh area where the median household income is ~$45,000.
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rppearso
I never look at medium house hold I look at actual cost of living.
wilheldp_PE
PE, LEED AP, SPAM KING
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Dexman1349
I wonder if house prices are included (as well as an indicator) for calculating cost of living? hum... [/sarcasm]
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