No wonder I’m broke
I just looked at my credit card bills and what did I see? New tires, which I broke in on my trip to Merida, they are rock solid up to 115 mph so I guess they were worth it. And my hotel bill for Merida…and more hotel bills for my upcoming Florida trip (stay posted, it’s next week). And, oh yes, PEARL JAM TICKETS, they cost gobs, but hell Eddie Vedder will be sweating all over us (we’ll be up front), that’s got to be worth money right? And a plane ticket to get to Portland to see my friend who is graciously accompanying me to get sweated on by Mr. Holy Sweat himself. And then there are some clothes I bought, to replace the rags I’m normally seen in. And then there’s some web hosting and a voip phone bill and a booze (and grocery) run to Costco and…some nerdy books about designing web sites…
Well, hell the real problem is this. I’M NOT CHARGING ENOUGH! I refuse to feel like I’m spending too much. I’m not. The problem is that I figure out how long it’s going to take to do that thing my client wants and I DON’T DOUBLE IT! I always figure things will go perfectly and it really will only take that long. I never take into account that clients never email you back when you need them to. And I never take into account that I always try to write nice neat valid “girl code” which takes longer to write than messy invalid “boy code”. And I never take into account that things don’t go according to plan.
I just raised my rates quite a bit 3 months ago. But now I’m seriously considering doubling them. If I can’t get smart enough to double my time estimates then maybe I need to double my hourly rate…
