Rate for very short contracts

[Viktor]

Just ended a short piece of work (3 days), about 180 miles away from home. Now I'm thinking if the rate was OK, I haven't done such short contracts in the past and the job seemed straightforward.
So what are the typical rates for short contracts? I've quoted almost double my usual daily rate for a 3 months contract, and expenses were around £100 (2 nights B&B and petrol).

[Peter Loew]

Just ended a short piece of work (3 days), about 180 miles away from home. Now I'm thinking if the rate was OK, I haven't done such short contracts in the past and the job seemed straightforward.
So what are the typical rates for short contracts? I've quoted almost double my usual daily rate for a 3 months contract, and expenses were around £100 (2 nights B&B and petrol).

Depends what it is you do and how experienced / specialised you are. Not all rates are the same.

I friend of mine demands no less than 1k per day, and that is for a typical three month stint.

P

[Crossroads]

I think what the OP is trying to establish is what people charge compared to a typical day rate for a 3 month gig...

It does depend upon circumstances, but for ad-hoc work I tend to look for 50% more than I would for a 3 monther, also I usually make it hourly rather than daily, as short term/ ad-hoc work often ends up being parts of days and / or long days in my experience.

I would go for more than 50%, but I would then be competing directly against some of the big boys.

[xoggoth]

I have done three day jobs and I got getting on for twice the normal rate for that sort of job. The shorter the contract, the less the total amount and less likely they are to quibble.

Depends on circumstances too. I knew next to absolutely f* all about what I was doing but that didn't matter because I looked like THE expert on paper and the client's client, the government naturally, would not have known that my report was largely bollox. The client got lots of dosh for what I did anyway so everyone was happy. (Apart from the taxpayer)

[XLMonkey]

For very short term contracts I tend to dodge the whole daily rate question by quoting a flat rate for the job, including any prep, doing the work and then support/handholding after the work is done.

The flat rate then includes my daily rate plus 50-200% depending on the nature of the work.