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The Original Sin of Starting Your Business as a Freelance Consultant — Not Charging What You’re Worth
Do not hesitate to charge a substantial fee equitable to your knowledge and experience!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They were formed over 43 years of entrepreneurship, and many trials and errors. What worked for me may not be the same as what works for you due to a variety of mitigating factors. User discretion is recommended.
What to do, what to do!
Congratulations, I hear you’re finally going to bite the bullet, take the leap of faith, and start your very own consultant agency. That’s a very brave move for you. How much will you charge?
Who are the first people we tell when we have news to share? Family, right? Sure, that’s right!
Tell me who’s next? Is it the in-laws, out-laws, strangers on the street, or whom? Our objective in sharing is to spread the word far and wide, so that everybody knows, and can react accordingly.
The obvious answer to the question is our friends. After we tell our family, we next tell our friends our exciting news, hoping they will tell their friends, and their friends will…well, you get the picture.
But wait a minute! What has to happen before any of this can come about?
Let’s rewind a bit and go back to the infancy of your idea to start consulting on your own. This is the point in time where you use deductive reasoning to determine if you are up to the task — or are you too squeamish?
You answer the question with a “yes,” and then…
You don’t know where to start. What comes next?
In a consultancy profession, it may look something like this:
- Know your product.
- Know the cost of your product.
- Know the price you want to charge for your product.
- Know the features and benefits of your product.
