Many freelance trainers tell me that they worry about the whole business of pricing more than anything else and the main fear seems to be that if they are too expensive they won’t get any work. But you also have to take the view that if you are too cheap you won’t have a viable business. A lot of people who are on the other side – Training Managers in corporate – as I once was – will look at what you are charging per day and think ‘It’s alright for some ….’

But what they don’t know or don’t think about is that day rate is only the end product of the end process which will have involved meeting the client in the first place, building a relationship with them through regular contact, having meetings, writing a proposal, designing the programme etc – a huge amount of time which adds up to many more hours, days and weeks than the day rate you will be charging.

And don’t forget, you are not out delivering training 5 days a week. When you take all your other business activities into consideration plus holidays you only have between 100 and 120 fee earning days available. Plus there are all sorts of other costs involved in running a business such as phone bills, IT, priniting, professional subscriptions etc. So, it’s vitally important to charge what you are worth right from the start.