That 35-65 hour looks good on paper and if you were able to bill AND collect and KEEP 40 hours worth a week, you would be golden. Based on a 2000 hour work year your 50k works out to $25/hour. And that's net pre tax in your pocket. I don't know what it is in gunsmithing, but based on my experience, a $45/hour rate will historically net abound $25-$30 pre tax to you after overhaed and expenses and that is assuming you can bill and collect 40 hoours a week. Further experience indicates that you will be able to actually bill 1 hour for every 1.5 hrs actually spent at work-if you are honest.
My experience is that with all the interuptions and non revenue producing tasks that I do, I average around 5-6 billable hours for an 8 hour day. Some lawyers claim to bill 2000+ hours a year but those guys have the institutional clients and are quite adept at a thing called double billing. They also work normal 60-80 hour weeks.
Calculate tha amount you are costing your employer in addition to your salary. If you are making $50k a year you are probably costing your employer in the neighborhood of $65k when you calculate the co pay on the insurance the FICA and other fringe benefits. In other words, if you are working for yourself, you are going to have to clear at least that amount pre tax before you even break even.
And we're not even getting into the capital expense of setting up the tools and equipment you will need to be able to produce 40 hours of work each week-assuming you can get the clients.
Not meaning to poop on your parade, but ya need to think these things through CAREFULLY.
