Deciding what to charge can be hard, especially when you\u2019re starting out. This is a little reflection on my journey, as well as capturing my process now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My starting point is always time \u2013 how long will this take me? Now with events there are two categories of time, the public and the behind-the-scenes, and its easy to fall into the trap of only looking at the public time. Let\u2019s say the event is 10am \u2013 2pm. It\u2019s four hours so you could be tempted to think it\u2019s a half day\u2019s worth of your time. BUT, consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One I\u2019m incorporating more and more as I widen my reach to new clients, industries and sectors. Whether a sliding price scale depending on the client \u2013 for instance would you charge the same day rate to a small non-profit as you would to a large for-profit multi-national?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s essential to be clear who has responsibility for supplying what equipment \u2013 do you need pens, flipcharts, post-its, stickers, name labels? Does it require specialist supplies you need to buy in? Ordinarily I find this is wrapped up in my day rate but occasionally I need to consider a significant extra expense (such as scaling up my stocks for my LEGO\u00ae Serious Play\u00ae work with bigger audiences)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, when you\u2019re quoting, be clear what\u2019s included and what isn\u2019t. Local travel all the way through to London is usually included in my day rate but further afield I would be clear is at an additional cost. Also travel to London can vary in cost by as much as \u00a3100 so keeping an eye on travel times and advance bookings is key. Alongside this comes any overnight stays needed and food\/drink while you\u2019re away from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This used to be a big one for me, because if our daughter needed to do an extra day at nursery, you\u2019re looking at an extra cost of nearly \u00a380 a day. These days afterschool club is a lot more affordable, but still an extra cost you might incur. So check whether you feel your day rate includes that or you need to lift your price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a few reasons I\u2019ve quoted discounted rates so far \u2013 new clients because I\u2019m keen to build new relationships, undercutting where I\u2019m aware there\u2019s other interest and I\u2019m being strategic in going a bit lower in the hope of being extra-competitive, and occasional passion\/favour projects with heavy discounts or pro bono work. With each of these though, I carefully consider what I want to get out of it, what the opportunity costs are, and finally I make the discount clear so that the expectations are set on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This also works the other way, and occasionally I add a premium, such as for inconvenience. It may sound odd, but it\u2019s come up every now and then \u2013 work is needed on a really tight turn around and it means shifting other commitments or working over a weekend. It\u2019s always on a case by case basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Event prices are the result of mixing important facts with some instinctual flex regarding the client and context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Nathana Rebou\u00e7as<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deciding what to charge can be hard, especially when you\u2019re starting out. This is a little reflection on my journey, as well as capturing my process now. Baseline: Time My starting point is always time \u2013 how long will this take me? Now with events there are two categories of time, the public…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[11,12,25,10],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pricing","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t