[joshuaellinger]

Reading the comments, I noticed that my advice is very US-centric. The core still applies but you want to approach pricing differently.

I would set your pricing around a proposed move to the US so you can ask for money at US labor prices. If the move doesn't work out, you've got the contract priced right at least. Or I would inflate the number of heads you think you need to get to the same place.

Make it low-risk for you. Make it worth your time even if the contact disappeared overnight because your sponsor gets fired. The easiest way to do that is charge enough that you always have a year of expenses in the bank.

The key point is to justify your costs against their costs to replicate and then get a contract that doesn't pay you for your time.

[singleauroa]

Thank you so much Joshua for taking the time to write this! This is amazing advice! I will take some time to digest it and get back with questions once they come up.

Not sure if it's the language barrier but could explain again what you mean with "I would set your pricing around a proposed move to the US so you can ask for money at US labor prices" ?

[joshuaellinger]

It might not work but.. I was suggesting that you try to do the reverse of what they are doing.

Large US companies look to other parts of the world to reduce their labor costs. If you try to justify the cost of the contract with them on your costs, then it would benefit you to use the higher US developer costs rather than the lower rest-of-the-world costs.

But, to have that work, you have to have come up with a reason that you need to be in the US.

It is probably easier to just sell them on hiring extra people in the place you are but you might get them to pay for you to move your business to the US.