I am a sofware engineer working at an hourly rate, I never work fixed price. - Clients usually dont know exactly what they want, they have a "sortof idea" in their heads, on paper if youre lucky, so they keep sending you back to redo things. - An open contract with an hourly rate is commercially more profitable. No need to get new contracts for extra work, just plan more hours in your current contract. With seasonal changes you can safely change your hourly rate. Of course the contract needs to have clauses for that. - Pressure release, for a fixed price you MUST have done a job in the hours caculated, otherwise you would be loosing money. - The clients have the most risk. But hey, look at the great products they are getting for the price paid! - A) Add all costs you have in a month (insurance, car, food, mortgage, etc.) to the amount of money you minimally need for yourself - B) Determine the number of hours youre willing to work in a week. - A divided by (B * number of weeks in a month) = a rough hourly rate. Now consider the quality of your work and adjust your rate accordingly, just remember, going lower than the rough rate may result in not being able to make ends meet in a month... Hope this helps you further, good luck!! Maxx