Skilled self-employed job in London- how much should I charge?

[stubbornstains]

I've just been offered a couple of days' work in London in my field. It's a skilled artisan job, which I'm self-taught in. I'd be working for someone else, far more expert in his field than me. He's just asked me to name my day rate. I don't know what to say. Down here in the impoverished South West I charge £10 p/h, but know that's undercharging even for this area.

Any ideas? TIA.

what about £25/30 per hour, not over the top for these here parts. You must be good and they must rate your work if they are asking what you charge instead of telling you what they pay, iyswim
Are you sorting out your own accommodation for this work? That will cost too, nought cheap in this town

Parents live about 30 miles away. So I'll just have to pay train/ congestion charge. Wow, £25/30 p/h? That's amazing! I really need to shake myself out of my poverty mindset. Although possibly he asked me to state my price suspecting that I'd undercharge.....

700 a day + transport + hotel. Minimum.

You can negotiate down from that, but if you say 24 an hour they'll laugh at you. 24 an hour? You say you've got specialist artisan skills and they want you to travel in all the way from the west country - so why are you selling your time for just a tenner more than a good London cleaner?

Wow.

What dolomitesdonkey said.
Plumbers cost £100 an hour in London!

London day rates START at £500 plus expenses
bear in mind they would NOT have contacted you if they could get the work done locally and cheaply ....

My husband and I are definitely in the wrong job then. His day rate is £300 - £350 a day, mine is £150 - not artisan work but media, so I suppose you'd put it in the creative field rather than corporate iyswim. I think you probably need to do some research on the going rate for your field. Anything creative is always hard to call, and quoting £500 or £700 a day might put you out of a job. Sorry to burst the bubble.

mummy
the trick is to be in a field that either has high barriers to entry (accountants, lawyers etc) or where individuality is king - which is where the OP being called from miles away can play the game

also, media has been rather nadgered by too many cheap graduates and interns...

These are some very interesting replies....Thank you everybody.

I ended up asking for £150 per day, which he accepted . But then again, in some ways I'm not fully trained, as he's asking me to bring equipment for techniques I've never done before - I'm crossing fingers and toes and hoping I can wing it!

It's very difficult to know what to charge, as our occupation is so rare nowadays. In fact, one of the reasons I'm looking forward to this is that he's pulling a few of us together from all over, so it'll be a good opportunity for professional networking and career development and all that- hopefully over a few beers at the end of the day!

stubborn
DH has just done a day where when he left the house at 5am today he was well peed that he'd underquoted by £200
BUT
it turned out to be such a fab networking day he's buzzing now.
GO FOR IT