Comments on: What’s an intellectual worker’s real overhead?

By: Accident Claims

Accident Claims — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:01:42 +0000

I think you should point out the another side of the topic too… Hats Off to the discussion.

By: WealthiHer Blog Network » Blog Archive » Carnival of Personal Finance at BankerGirl

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:28:07 +0000

[...] About Money – What’s an Intellectual Worker’s Real Overhead?Do you include your education in your overhead [...]

By: Daniel Berch

Daniel Berch — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:27:25 +0000

Cost of education is astronomical – when Obama/McCain say education is the answer – have they taken into account the salaries needed to compensate lost time, etc?

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By: funnyaboutmoney1

funnyaboutmoney1 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:29:50 +0000

The Great Desert University pays me about $32 an hour plus some fairly decent benefits/ TM earns a tiny fraction of that — $240/month less than she was earning as a research assistant! And as an RA, she got a tuition waiver, which about doubled her de facto pay.

For both of us, this enterprise is a side job, so it’s not taking us away from the hours in which we would earn those amounts. For TM, a $35/hour rate represents a significant improvement on what Our Beloved Employer pays her. For me, $1,800 a month would increase my income from “just OK” to “pretty good.”

In Arizona, very little editorial work is available elsewhere, all of it is exceptionally ill-paid (this is a right-to-work state), and none of it is so unstrenuous as to leave us time to run a business on the side. I earn more than I could make anywhere else; she earns about the same as what a real-world employer would pay.

By: jerry

jerry — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:56:15 +0000

You might want to also think about the time you are spending on the company. Usually you need to figure how much you are worth elsewhere as well and how much that cost would be.

By: Katharine

Katharine — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:51:05 +0000

To pull in new clients over the long run, you'll also need a business web site (site-hosting costs, plus site-design costs if you want it looking professional). You'll also want to pay annual membership dues to a profession-related society, such as the Editorial Freelancers Association, for networking purposes and so that you can be listed in its online membership directory for potential clients to find you. If you're highly specialized—for example, you're a medical copyeditor—you'll need to pay for some occasional continuing-education courses and conferences to keep up with your field. And you may sometimes want to advertise in publications that potential clients read and on web sites that they frequent.