<p>I recently found this comment on one of our posts from a newly self-employed freelancer…..</p>

<p>&quot;Recently i’ve been doing a lot of sales training for a lot of diff companies but Have NO clue on how to charge them. previously, it was my company taking care of all the paper work but the way things worked out…. i am really lost. seems like i’ve been diong a lot without proper pay.&nbsp; Any feedback would be GRATEfully received&quot;</p>

<p>Well, where do I start?</p>

<p>First of all, I have to tell you from long years of experience, the customer never buys or doesn’t buy because of the price.&nbsp; So forget pricing yourself at the bottom end of the market, or undercutting, for a start!</p>

<p>They always buy (or not) because of the perceived value.&nbsp; So your marketing must set a perception of the value, from Day One.&nbsp; We started selling Wealth Creation weekends at £375 (including all food, accommodation and top luxury country house hotels) and it was harder to sell those, than the later weekends, for which we charged £3450, with the client paying their own food and accommodation, in quite a normal hotel near Heathrow.</p>

<p>You do need to get a handle on how much the &quot;going rate&quot; is - not that you are going to set YOUR rates at the &quot;going rate&quot; - oh no! not at all!</p>

<p>Then you are going to look at what you offer, and satisfy yourself that it’s as good if not better than than what the herd are offering.</p>

<p>Next, you need to think about …..</p>

<p>…..all the things that can go wrong, and write a paragraph to cover each eventuality, telling the client what will happen, should that occur.&nbsp; Tell the client what they can expect from you (your promise to them) and what you expect from them (their promise to you).&nbsp; </p>

<p>Then set out very clearly, what you will need from them in order to be able to do your best job for them.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Incorporate that into a simple T&amp;C that you should have on your website, and you will send to the client when they enquire about your services but mention in that simple T&amp;C that it should be read in conjunction with your &quot;Full Terms &amp; Conditions&quot; which they can download from or view on your website.&nbsp; Tell them on both Simple &amp; Full T&amp;C documents, that by hiring you and paying your invoice, they are agreeing to abide by your Terms &amp; Conditions.</p>

<p>You can see a good example of a service orientated business’ Terms - in fact it’s our Terms &amp; Conditions for <a href=”http://www.automatedmarketingmachine.com/”>www.AutomatedMarketingMachine.com</a> here &gt;&gt;&gt;</p>

<p><a href=”http://www.automatedmarketingmachine.com/termsfullservice.htm”>http://www.automatedmarketingmachine.com/termsfullservice.htm</a> </p>

<p>Then you are going to get your &quot;customer journey&quot; absolutely perfect.&nbsp; What will happen to the client or customer from the moment they email or call you, to the moment when you finish working with them.&nbsp; Knowing this step by step procedure will make you feel very confident and make you sound VERY professional.</p>

<p>May I suggest that, as part of this customer journey, you look very carefully at the procedure by which you want to get paid?&nbsp; Forget the norm, what companies normally do, with normal consultants…..we are talking about how YOU want to get paid.&nbsp; Because you are not the norm, are you?&nbsp; You are the best, and you expect to be treated like the best.</p>

<p>Because if a company wants to do business with you (and they will, if you do your marketing properly - see the free info on <a href=”http://www.automatedmarketingmachine.com/”>www.AutomatedMarketingMachine.com</a> for more info on how to do that) then they will have to abide by YOUR terms and conditions of business, won’t they?</p>

<p>And if they won’t follow your Terms &amp; Conditions of business, then they are not your ideal client, are they?&nbsp; So you won’t want to do business with them, will you?</p>

<p>OK, so all that taken into account, we are finally getting to the knotty question of what to charge.&nbsp; Actually it’s easy.&nbsp; But first, a couple of stories……</p>

<p>I have an amazing client called Sally.&nbsp; She is a high powered, dynamic person who solves other people’s problems, working particularly with fast growing companies whose turnover is growing faster than their ability to recruit staff.&nbsp; With a house in the country, a flat in Fulham and a very fancy car, you would think she had it made.&nbsp; But no, Sally is stressed, always fire-fighting financially and struggles to pay her bills at the end of the month.&nbsp; She often ends up undercharging to get clients, over-working and feeling deeply resentful.</p>

<p>Another client is a holistic therapist and works wonders with aromatherapy massage.&nbsp; If you have a bad back, have emotional blocks, are stuck in your life or just want to treat yourself, Fiona is the person to see.&nbsp; Everyone sings her praises but she is not yet making a truly great living from what she does.&nbsp; Why not?&nbsp; </p>

<p>Yet another client is Hermione, who works in the city for a big bank.&nbsp; She is an employee and every month she stares in despair at her salary cheque - she is paid well, but it doesn’t feel like enough for what she has to do and it certainly doesn’t go as far as she wants it to - which is a holiday home in France!</p>

<p>The problem is the same for all.&nbsp; They haven’t grasped that they will never earn what they want unless they get very specific about what they want to earn.</p>

<p>I have to thank my coach Chris Barrow for his great advice on setting your fees.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Chris works with two kinds of clients;&nbsp; firstly in the UK with dentists via The Business Coaching Co (<a href=”http://www.moreprofitinlesstime.com/” target=”_blank”>http://www.moreprofitinlesstime.com</a> ) and worldwide with coaches and it was in one of his workshops that I really ‘got’ the message about setting your fees or hourly rate based not on what you earn now, but what you wanted to earn, also thinking about how long in terms of days and hours you wanted to work.</p>

<p>The magical thing about setting your ‘rack-rate’ even if you are employed and earning much less than you want to be, is that it really focuses your mind on the fact that your standard of living is not going to improve unless you DO something about it.</p>

<p>Even more magically, it somehow makes you feel worth your new hourly rate and gets you focused on what you want to be earning.&nbsp; If it turns out that your actual hourly rate is much less than your ideal ‘rack rate’ you can tell you self that you are simply ‘discounting’ temporarily.</p>

<p>Many of my clients have gone on to improve themselves in order to qualify for promotions, some have immediately applied for better paid jobs, or created other income streams in order to come up to their ‘rack rate’ more quickly.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Most have stopped diddling about and got serious, very fast.&nbsp; You can hardly spend &quot;income producing activity&quot; hours putting the washing in when your time is worth £150 an hour, can you?</p>

<p>How serious can you get about creating the income stream you deserve?</p>

<p>Download your special PDF report here…. <a href=”http://www.themoneygym.com/uploads/fees.pdf” target=”_blank”>http://www.themoneygym.com/uploads/fees.pdf</a></p>

<p>p.s. And please, when you get all your marketing and paperwork together, get everything spell and grammar checked, as your original post was full of typos and you want to portray a great image!</p>