Income and Billing
Now that you have made the decision to open your consulting business, you need to get serious about how much money you will charge your clients. If you charge too little, you won't succeed in business. If you charge too much, you won't get any clients. So how do you find that middle ground that seems fair to everyone involved? One way to help you decide how much to charge is to find out what the competition's rates are. A simple telephone call, asking for their brochure and rates, should do the trick. Then set your rates so that you are competitive with everyone else in the community.
Before setting your fees, make sure you have listed all of your expenses. There is nothing worse than setting your rates, having your client pay you on time and then finding out you failed to include several expenses that materialized. This brings up an important point to remember in every job you take from a client: Include a "miscellaneous" line item in your fee proposal. But don't pad the miscellaneous figure to make additional income.
Most clients will understand that in every project, there will no doubt be additional expenses. Just be sure everyone knows upfront an approximate figure for those expenses.
Before you set your rates, find out what other consultants in your community are charging for their services. Sometimes a simple telephone call to another consultant's office asking what their fees are will give you the answers you need. Or you may have to have a friend call and ask for their brochure, or any additional information they can collect regarding fees and pricing. If you live in a small town and there are no other consultants in your field, then rejoice and be glad, but set your fees at a reasonable level!
When setting your rates, you have several options, including hourly rates, project fees and working on a retainer basis. Let's examine each one closely.
No comments:
Post a Comment