[landon32]

re: contract work, the reason why they would hire you instead of put an employee on it is that you will be able to get it done faster and will probably do a better job.

Sure, they could have one of their employees do it, but that would take that employee's time (and therefore the company's money). They don't necessarily save money by having an employee do it. Imagine that finishing this software on a contractor basis would take you 200 hours. It would take the employee 400 hours because the employee needs to familiarize herself with the idea, and maybe pick up a new technology or something. It's probably cheaper for the company to have you do it in half the time, even if your hourly rate is higher than their employee's.