How long do you think this is going to take you to do? If you use an hourly worth of $50 at $500 that is only 10 hours of billable work. Based on what you need to do, this could be one day's worth of work or 10 one hour days. If you've already spent an hour working on this to develop a contract, you're already $50 in the hole (using the $50 hourly worth) and as Bob said, don't forget about equipment, time on-site, travel, vehicle expenses, insurance, advertising, call backs, etc. (This is why most people will have an hourly worth between $75 and $125 per hour).
It is simple to figure out ball park figures once you know your hourly worth as all you need to do is estimate the amount of time required. So a 30 day gopher contract at $50/hr would be something like this:
Site Inspection - 30 min travel + 1 hr x 1 day x $50 = $75
Contract Prep/Submission/Q&A - 3 hrs x $50 = $150
Prep Labor - (1 hr x 1 day) x $50 = $50
Travel - (30 min [15 min each way] x 30 days / 60 min) x $50 = $750
Setup Labor - (2 hrs x 1) x $50 = $100
Labor - (30 min x 29 days / 60 min) x $50 = $725
Total Estimated Project Rate for 30 day project = $1,850
If you're looking at a 7 day project instead just adjust the travel and labor charges so it would look like this:
Site Inspection - 30 min travel + 1 hr x 1 day x $50 = $75
Contract Prep/Submission/Q&A - 3 hrs x $50 = $150
Prep Labor - (1 hr x 1 day) x $50 = $50
Travel - (30 min [15 min each way] x 7 days / 60 min) x $50 = $175
Setup Labor - (2 hrs x 1) x $50 = $100
Labor - (30 min x 6 days / 60 min) x $50 = $150
Total Estimated Project Rate for 7 day project = $700
Ok Eric, I took this model and applied it. I know $500 seemed low, I just want the job, but I cant let that eat the profits.
I think I want to run two 10 day sessions.
At and average of an hour a day drive included
1hr x 10 days x 2 sessions x $100/hr=$2000
1 hr inspections x $100=$100 (I have been inspecting this park everytime I go with my daughter anyway, befor they even called me just for fun, but we will include it.)
2 hr paperwork x $100=$200
Total for a 20 day program $2300+fees
There may be a little more, a second inspection etc, but this would be a good ball park and gives me a little wiggle room to drop the price up to 25% and be in my range of hourly+profit.
