Think of what it would be like if the more you charged, the more people would respect you as an expert in your field.
I got annoyed reading an article a few months ago by a management consultant writing for another industry magazine.
He was discussing contractor compensation and stated as a guideline that most small shop owners withdraw about 10
percent of revenues as their own compensation. He used the example of a $500,000 company resulting in $50,000
"withdrawal" by the owner, and explicitly defined withdrawal to include not only base salary, but insurance premiums,
vehicle expenses and all other perks and bonuses. By the time you take out all those expenses, the owner's income
probably wouldn't be much more than $30,000.
By this reasoning, smaller contractors that only generate $300,000 or $400,000 in sales would be limited to merely
$30,000 or $40,000 a year in total compensation. Smaller than that and you're better off going on welfare.