I received an email from someone recently:
… someone just contacted me about a consulting gig. It would be a 1 day thing of teaching and the like followed by an hour or two here or there. What type of rate should I charge for that kind of work?
An actual dollar amount is hard to arrive at and has a number of factors in it beyond the scope of this particular blog post – competition, your own minimum needs, etc. However, I wanted to share part of my response as well, as it’s advice I find myself giving more often these days.
What I would suggest is coming up with 2-4 rates.
- 1 day rate
- 1 half day rate
- 1 hourly rate
- 1 weekly rate
You can just make the others a direct multiple of a base hourly rate, or offer discounts. $50/hour would be $400/day and $2000/week, but a $350/day and $1500/week might be more palatable for people who want your undivided attention for those time periods (and make sure it’s pretty undivided – minimum 8 full hours per ‘full day’, for example).
