Too Much For Small Business

[Anonymous]

I am a semi retired consultant who works part time and as a one man band I juggle retirement and supplemental income throughout the year. Sometimes a month or two between projects. I upgrade Software and Hardware when financially prudent and demand requires. I might be doing work only as business investment for future work at times. With this new plan I am not sure how I can afford to do that. Will I have to pay a fee just to do a concept for an old customer? Or worse, paying fees to finish as built drawings for a customer that I already lost money on? Is the new fee system based on hours of use or real time? Will I be against the clock to finish work or face more charges? This entire change may affect my entire way of life and the way I earn a living.

[dgorsman]

If you don't work for several months at a time, then the rental-model license would seem to be ideal for you.  The smallest increment is one month, which is reasonable.  Short of cloud-hosted software I doubt you'll find hourly charge-out rates for licensed software.  If you have about a month of work then you get the one month license; if you land something significant then a quarterly license may be more appropriate.  With a fixed term available you can cast around for other work that can be fit into that timeframe.  With intermittent work the rental model costs are in-line (or better, if less work is involved) with the return on a perpetual license with a much higher initial cost.

As for work thats measured in the hours (as opposed to weeks) you would probably be better off with one of the free non-AutoDesk clones.  If you are tied to AutoDesk products ie a vertical such as ACA or a third-party utility, then your client charge-back will need to be adjusted to reflect current expenses - just like the rest of us.