DDD SYSTEMS & Dr

DDD SYSTEMS & Dr. Dan Diaper. DDD SYSTEMS encourages potential clients to suggest their own price for consultancy and other work carried out by Dr. Diaper.

DDD SYSTEMS logo. Head and shoulders photograph of Dr. Dan Diaper.

PRICING POLICY PAGE

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“Make me an offer I can’t refuse.”

A couple of decades of experience with commercial companies has led Dr. Diaper to the conclusion that cheap expertise is not valued. One reason, simply adapted from nearly half a century of research in experimental social psychology, is that:

IF something has cost a lot;

THEN it must be valuable; and

THEREFORE I will cherish it, defend it and its cost, and so forth.

The DDD SYSTEMS primary policy on the pricing of consultancy and other work, however, adds to the above psychological algorithm the following:

LET the client suggest the price;

EVALUATE the price; and

THEN accept or reject the work.

Between these two algorithms, however, are the negotiations between the client and DDD SYSTEMS about the nature of the work: what the client needs (which might not be what the client initially thinks they want); what the work will involve; and what will be the nature of the work’s output to the client, and when it is required.

Every case will be different, but calculating costs it isn’t difficult.

Calculating Consultancy and Other Work Costs

The basic equation is simple:

(Days_of_work x £_per_day) + £_expenses

Days_of_work (or hours if more appropriate) will always have to be negotiated and £_expenses are for things like travel, not for DDD SYSTEMS overheads. So, that just leaves the value of £_per_day:

Assuming an eight hour day, then the minimum wage in the U.K. is, very approximately, £50 per day (£250 per week, or £13K per annum). £100 per day is close to the national average salary (£500 p.w., £25K p.a.). £200 per day is the salary of a university professor (£1K p.w., £50K p.a.) and overhead costs basically double this to a full cost of £400 per day. Consultants who have to earn their living from their consultancy often, and reasonably, charge more than £400 per day because they do not have the guaranteed salary of a full-time, permanent job.

Having retired as a full time academic, Dr. Diaper is less concerned with income than whether the work is interesting, for a good cause, etc. – inspect the consultancy services offered and his background in science and engineering, then contact him – make him an offer.

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