How do you ask for a renewal raise, if working direct?

[cannon999]

That makes sense but that's very different to asking a client to up the rate they are paying for you. It's much more on added value in the supplier world than in the perm world. In perm you want a raise because that's market value and they need to keep you, in supplier it's about how much extra value you've added to support the raise Yes it both comes down to 'or else I'll leave' but a supplier needs a lot more justification than basic blackmail. You have to explain why you think you are worth more money and then you throw the bit about cancelling if you don't get it. A straight strong arm isn't the best approach.

What better explanation is there than someone else willing to pay you more for your skills?

As I said I have done this both in terms of salary and rate negotiations.

[courtg9000]

Whats your relationship like with your "paymaster" at the client?
This should really dictate how you play it.
Would it be worth for example, taking him for coffee/beer/pizza/curry and gently mentioning it that way?
At the end of the day yes you would like more money but you really want to keep the client. So think along those lines as well.

[TheDude]

Over brandies and cigars down at the lodge or 19th hole of the golf club.

Then again we do things differently in the five a day and diversity awareness game.

[malvolio]

Yeah my manager back in the day tried to tell me there was no money in the budget for a salary increase once. Amazingly after I put the notice in they found 12k straight away and countered. Nobody likes being threatened but nobody is going to let go of talent because of it. I have always been paid top money for my skills because I know what they are worth.

if you think you deserve more money you have to prove that to yourself first by finding someone who will pay you what you are asking.

You can't have it both ways. "Give me more money or I leave" might work for a permie in a key position, not least because it costs a lot more to replace a permie than it does a contractor.. It won't work for a contractor 95% of the time; ask the people who have been shown the door the minute they said it.

And all you've proved is that someone in the chain has gone to someone with the money and justified why they need extra. That's down to their negotiating skills, not yours.

[Fraidycat]

Just ask. Helps if you have another offer but not alway necessary if you know the client really needs you.

Biggest rate increase rise i ever got was 36%. But have known contractors to get even more.

I was on £55per hour back in year 2000 dot com mania days as a plain old Java Developer.
I had been offered £80 per hour (without even an interview!) for a specialised ATG Dynamo developer role.

I used this other offer as leverage:

Me: I have an offer for £80ph but would like to renew here instead, can you do £75ph (ie £20 more than i was on a the time).
Client: We were thinking more like £70.
Me: How about £72.5?
Client: F-it, you can have £75!

The client was used to paying £2000 a day each for a huge team of useless consultants from CSC (anyone remember them?), so my request for £75ph was relatively peanuts.

[d000hg]

Thanks all. In this case I'm not trying to get a big increase - we're just talking a couple of quid on the hourly and realistically that's cost-of-living not increased-value-to-client. I almost didn't bother but then if I extend again, suddenly I need to ask for quite a big bump to catch up the one I didn't request this time.

As someone said, a bit like having a rate-card with an annual update.

[cannon999]

You can't have it both ways. "Give me more money or I leave" might work for a permie in a key position, not least because it costs a lot more to replace a permie than it does a contractor.. It won't work for a contractor 95% of the time; ask the people who have been shown the door the minute they said it.

And all you've proved is that someone in the chain has gone to someone with the money and justified why they need extra. That's down to their negotiating skills, not yours.

You think replacing good contractor is easy? You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Like none.. zilch. Zero. Deluded. But maybe you are not in my industry or maybe you aren't as skilled as I am. As a contractor your skills are priced by the market. If you client has no money in the budget and you want more money - you need to move on to someone who has the money in the budget. In IT with certain skills you can leave today and start a new gig tomorrow. When you have jobs lining up like that - there is no excuse to not get paid the top rate.

It takes time to get people upto speed on projects. Also some people deliver x10 times more than other people. And this is not an exaggeration. If you think that swapping out a good contractor with another one is as easy as you describe - see what I said above. Clueless!

[malvolio]

You think replacing good contractor is easy? You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Like none.. zilch. Zero. Deluded. But maybe you are not in my industry or maybe you aren't as skilled as I am. As a contractor your skills are priced by the market. If you client has no money in the budget and you want more money - you need to move on to someone who has the money in the budget. In IT with certain skills you can leave today and start a new gig tomorrow. When you have jobs lining up like that - there is no excuse to not get paid the top rate.

It takes time to get people upto speed on projects. Also some people deliver x10 times more than other people. And this is not an exaggeration. If you think that swapping out a good contractor with another one is as easy as you describe - see what I said above. Clueless!

I'm a retired interim manager of multi-million pound projects with a sideline in service architecture consultancy and 30 years as a contractor. So I know nothing. I am in awe of your vastly superior knowledge.

Thank you for your considered input.

[cannon999]

I'm a retired interim manager of multi-million pound projects with a sideline in service architecture consultancy and 30 years as a contractor. So I know nothing. I am in awe of your vastly superior knowledge.

Thank you for your considered input.

Ah, project manager. My initial assessment was on point.

[CheeseSlice]

How long have you been with the client?

In my earlier contracting years my experiences with asking the agent for more cash at renewal were that they'd offer something like £5 per day from their commission, i.e. the amount they're willing to lose without begging the client for more. From then on I decided it was easier to simply move to another gig paying more than ask for an increase.

For longer term 2+ year you could write to the agent stating that your costs have increased and ask for x% as this still represents good value in the current market. Compare to current inflation if you're going for that sort of increase, that is understandable for a longer contract. I succeeded at this once, but that was the only time. I wrote quite an official letter stating in no uncertain terms that my rate to them was being increased, similar to utility bill raising prices.
If its only 6 month to 1 year you may struggle. Your cost to them is baked into the project costs and isn't expected to change.