Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

It would probably be a good idea to do some business, financial and marketing planning before you go any farther. How much revenue do you need to generate to pay the bills? How much are you prepared to invest to create awareness and generate leads for your business? How long will the sales cycle need to be before you can expect to close some sales for the kinds of services you'll offer?

My approach to pricing your services would be to consider each assignment on its own. Determine how much time you'll need to put in on it, and then decide what the project is worth to your client. That's the price you should charge. Of course if the price you need to charge is greater than what it's worth to the client, you probably won't get the job, but that's OK. You don't want it if you can't cover your costs and make a fair profit on it, right?

I think it's unreasonable to expect (or ask for) retainers right off the bat, and billing by the hour or the day is a fast way to lose clients and put yourself out of business.

What you need to do is price by the project, and be sure you understand what the project will entail before you quote a price. As long as you charge less than what the project is worth to the client, you should be OK.

You may want to check out Rasputin For Hire. The subtitle of the book is An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career, and the book has several important lessons for new consultants and marketing service providers -- including several pages on the various pricing options for marketing consultants and service providers, and the pros and cons of each approach.

If you order using this link you'll also receive a free bonus report that contains a round-table discussion with five of the experts from right here on the MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange. They discuss the lessons they learned in consulting -- including how they price their own services to prospective clients, some of the mistakes they've made, and specific advice for new consultants and marketing service providers. (You can also order just the special report, if that's all you want.)