The initial amount seems high since my calculated consulting rate based on my salary (
I have almost a decade of experience as a software engineer delivering SaaS products both B2C and B2B, so I'm sure I can answer his questions, and I'm not afraid to negotiate but I've never done anything like this before, and I don't want to come off as naive initially - so I'm wondering what other peoples' experiences are.
Has anyone here worked as a consultant in this sort of capacity? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!
If this proceeds to a 1 hour call, you need to decide some boundaries up front. Don't let the other person talk you into revealing sensitive information about current or past employers. Don't make any verbal commitments to deliver something to the client. If it comes to it, always come back to explaining that you can send over a proposal after the call. If the person continues to press for private information and/or verbal commitments, don't hesitate to put your foot down.
Finally, be wary of payment delays. A common tactic is to ask for more and more work while you wait for payment that never arrives. Some companies pay bills on 30, 60, or even 90 day terms, which leaves a huge window of opportunity for scammers to extract a lot of free work from people they never intend to pay out. If this drags on, you can request partial payment up front for continuation work or you can insist that the company pay down some of their balance before they can bill more hours to you.