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When you start a consulting business, you need to be strategic about your fee structure. High consulting fees may rub potential clients the wrong way. Low rates may have them questioning your expertise.
Below we’ll review what influences consultancy fees, how to determine yours and how to take payments once you’ve started working with clients.
What are consultancy fees?
Your consulting fees should be based on the value of your work. A number of factors influence that, including the scope of your work, your experience and the competitive landscape.
Scope
The type of consulting work you specialise in will affect your consulting fees, and there are two general areas you can fall into:
- Strategy consultants focus on high-level business objectives and growth strategies, and channel their efforts on beating the competition.
- Management consultants hone in on improving specific business strategies and specialise in disciplines or industries such as HR, IT or health care.
Experience
How much experience you have in your industry influences how much you can charge. You want to do research to make sure that you aren’t overvaluing or undervaluing your level of experience. Different industries have different rates for projects, so your area of expertise and the scope of the project will influence your pricing model and consultant arrangement.
Competition
The competitive landscape and your physical location are the final components that will influence your consulting fees. While you don’t need to mirror your competition’s prices, it’s important to weigh in how much others are charging to remain competitive. Your general location will also play a part in your pricing — consultants living in London, for example, can often charge higher consulting fees.
What kind of fee structure should I use?
Consultants usually choose a pricing model or fee structure for their work in order to remain transparent. There are a few different structures that most consultants use:
- An hourly rate: In this time-based arrangement, you bill by the number of hours worked.
- A project-based rate: Before the project begins, you and your client agree on a fixed rate based on the project.
- A combination fee: You and your client set a fixed rate based on the project as well as time spent on the project.
- A performance-based rate: You charge the client based on the performance or results of your work.
While you may want to use the same fee structure across all clients, you don’t have too. The goals of a fee structure are to make sure that you are compensated fairly for your work and that your clients feel comfortable paying you for that work, so it’s okay to adjust structures based on client or by project. Just make sure that you are clear about your fees before beginning any work.
How do I determine my consultancy fees?
There are a lot of things to keep in mind when you create your consulting rate. It can be tricky to balance all of the factors we’ve outlined above, but there are a few steps you can follow to ensure an optimal pricing structure for you and your client.
- Determine your hourly rate based on your experience and industry standards.
If you’re just starting a consulting business, the best way to determine your rate is to calculate your hourly rate based on your former salary, easily done with an online salary calculator. Then do your research on freelancers in your area and look at competitor prices to see how you stack up. - Estimate the time that will be spent on the project.
Do some real thinking on how much time you will spend on a project. Make sure to estimate your hours for every stage of the project, including client analysis, research and interviews, as well as drafting, editing and creating any type of proposal or report. - Factor in additional consulting costs.
On top of what you will charge for your time, you’ll want to factor in additional costs that may arise while you are working for your client. If you are spending any money on materials or transport for the project, you’ll want to include those in your fees. Think through logistical costs, the cost of business disruptions and other hidden costs that might pop up along the way. - Decide on a pricing model.
After you’ve estimated the time you’ll spend and any additional costs, you need to decide how to translate that into a pricing model. Will you charge by the hour, per project, by performance or will it be a combination? Make sure you make this decision based on the project you’ve been asked to work on, how your client works and the structure that you think will get you fairly compensated. - Consider retainers.
Another way to consider charging your client is to propose a retainer. A retainer is a fee paid in advance in order to secure or keep services whenever they’re required. This may require you to work at a discounted rate, but the payoff is having secure, guaranteed work for the period you agree to with your client. So, while you may make £2000 on five projects for a client in a month, with a six month retainer in place you can make £1500 every month for six months regardless of whether you work on five projects or one. Ultimately, this means you can spend less time looking for future work and more time making sure your clients are happy.
Once you’ve put together consulting fees for one client, you should be able to easily adapt the fee and fee structure for new clients.
How do I take my client payments?
Once you’ve figured out how to charge for your consulting services, you should think about how you’ll take payments.
At a minimum, you’ll need a payments system that has the capability to accept all forms of payment, from contactless cards to mobile payments. With a robust point-of-sale software, you will be able to take payments and have access to other payment features, making the entire process a breeze.
Invoices are a popular payment option many consulting businesses use to charge their clients, and it can help you get paid faster for your services. With online invoicing software, you can send invoices via email and clients can pay via card online. Then you can track all of your invoices and payments through that software.
