The starting point for your contract rate should be the thousands number of your salary multiplied by 1.5
i.e., if you make $50k a year, charge $75/hr. If you make $100k/year, charge $150. How much do you think an associate attorney at a law firm that makes $150k per year is billed out at? CPA? Management consultant? All of these professionals are generally billed out at a median rate of nearly $200/hr. And the top end is astronomical, like $800/hr or more.
The hardest part about software consulting/contracting is learning to say a polite "fuck off" to the people not willing to pay your price. Everything else is easy. Making some money is the easy part. Earning respect is the difficult part.
"No less than 5 offers" - CHARGE MORE MONEY. As an engineer it is your responsibility to the craft to increase the prestige and respect of the job.
First and foremost, I named my price on this contract, which will be 27 hours per week average for the first 3 months, then option to renew for another 3 months. By your metric I should have asked almost 3x as much. But I'm not charging for a principal .NET guy, I'm charging for a jr. Rails dev. Put it another way, I'm probably at 1/3 the speed of a sr. Rails dev. There will be a day... so in a way, perhaps by this scale I took a huge pay cut against the risk. More than the $$, I get tremendous amount of value from this experience. It's my first paid 1099 (well not quite, but in this space it is). I get to work with a top-notch client and design firm, and I have a very sr. guy on retainer the client pays for for my use to help out on areas I get stuck and review all my code (FWIW, he is actually the one who introduced me to this client, we worked together on the prior project as well).
I also have another client who wants me to bid shorter term work (they did offer at a rate that's 40% higher) but I told them to hold off for now because I want to get used to the new contract first and make sure I'm comfortable with the cadence.
Key point - I will consistently be raising my rate, but for now I'm making almost as much as my day job and working much less hours, and I need to get out there network, get good, etc... and the rest will come. I'm approaching this in a way that aligns with my own principles. I'm not trying to be a bottom feeder in this market. I just am getting my feet wet with a minimal portfolio and simply happy to be in a position that I can make the transition into something I'd much rather be doing.
According to this rule I should be charging around $200 / hour. I would love to be able to do that, but I think your logic is flawed. I've found that multiplying by 1 or even less actually nets you more overall income after expenses (considering you get to expense some toys like that brand new macbook pro / air, ipad, etc.) for the year.
This is in Canada though, so I'm not taking the requirement to pay for your own medical insurance into consideration.
i.e., if you make $50k a year, charge $75/hr. If you make $100k/year, charge $150. How much do you think an associate attorney at a law firm that makes $150k per year is billed out at? CPA? Management consultant? All of these professionals are generally billed out at a median rate of nearly $200/hr. And the top end is astronomical, like $800/hr or more.
The hardest part about software consulting/contracting is learning to say a polite "fuck off" to the people not willing to pay your price. Everything else is easy. Making some money is the easy part. Earning respect is the difficult part.
"No less than 5 offers" - CHARGE MORE MONEY. As an engineer it is your responsibility to the craft to increase the prestige and respect of the job.