going freelance

Freelance
Hello Isobel,

Depends upon what you are training as to what the market will hold for a day’s training. You will want to cover your expenditure and will need to carry ( should carry) professional negligence and liability insurance as well as having professional looking materials, letterhead, business cards etc.

In the soft skills areas there is a lot of competition and that drives the market price down. Clients pay extra for added value to the service and for those who have established good relationships with them and offered a good service.

For unusual subject areas and areas of high skill the price is higher as the market will stand a higher price as less availability of subject trainers.

You probably have a client base already to be thinking on these lines. Why not discuss with them what you can do for them, the budgets they are working to, and timescales of when they want you. That will give you an idea on what to charge and also ( a big help here) how much work you will have. Without being pushy also see if you can get confirmation bookings from them so you can cashflow project your income needs.

I cannot overstate the need to find, keep and develop relationships with clients. It is what got us started three years ago from a £300 day’s training to a public body to a 2 year contract for over 9 days per month and with over 1500 people. The training market is very competative and we all compete to some extent with the colleges, universities and each other but also in house provision trainers. You survive by offering different products from your competitors in different ways to attract buyers.

The training market at the moment is depressed, partially through economics as training is placed on hold if the companies are trading poorly. Also the time of the year as in the run up to Xmas is a traditional time to plan 2003 training focus and allow exisiting training contracts to conclude.

We trade with both public sector and private companies and all are seeking training at the lowest cost due to training budget cut backs. That is where the Quality freelance market comes into its own as your daily rate might be attractive in your home area. Quality is the key area here as often we are called in to follow a freelancer who has not been able to deliver the client’s programme.

We have diversified to retain cost low by offering internet training and these are going well for us but it means we do less face to face thus keeping within a budget. The face to face market is price sensitive and you need to pitch at a price that is good for all you need and your client can afford and that is a thin line.

The best of luck with your plans.

Training By Design Global Ltd

2 Responses

TrainingZone says:

October 26, 2002 at 1:05 pm

Freelance
Hello Isobel,

Depends upon what you are training as to what the market will hold for a day’s training. You will want to cover your expenditure and will need to carry ( should carry) professional negligence and liability insurance as well as having professional looking materials, letterhead, business cards etc.

In the soft skills areas there is a lot of competition and that drives the market price down. Clients pay extra for added value to the service and for those who have established good relationships with them and offered a good service.

For unusual subject areas and areas of high skill the price is higher as the market will stand a higher price as less availability of subject trainers.

You probably have a client base already to be thinking on these lines. Why not discuss with them what you can do for them, the budgets they are working to, and timescales of when they want you. That will give you an idea on what to charge and also ( a big help here) how much work you will have. Without being pushy also see if you can get confirmation bookings from them so you can cashflow project your income needs.

I cannot overstate the need to find, keep and develop relationships with clients. It is what got us started three years ago from a £300 day’s training to a public body to a 2 year contract for over 9 days per month and with over 1500 people. The training market is very competative and we all compete to some extent with the colleges, universities and each other but also in house provision trainers. You survive by offering different products from your competitors in different ways to attract buyers.

The training market at the moment is depressed, partially through economics as training is placed on hold if the companies are trading poorly. Also the time of the year as in the run up to Xmas is a traditional time to plan 2003 training focus and allow exisiting training contracts to conclude.

We trade with both public sector and private companies and all are seeking training at the lowest cost due to training budget cut backs. That is where the Quality freelance market comes into its own as your daily rate might be attractive in your home area. Quality is the key area here as often we are called in to follow a freelancer who has not been able to deliver the client’s programme.

We have diversified to retain cost low by offering internet training and these are going well for us but it means we do less face to face thus keeping within a budget. The face to face market is price sensitive and you need to pitch at a price that is good for all you need and your client can afford and that is a thin line.

The best of luck with your plans.

Training By Design Global Ltd
TrainingZone says:

October 28, 2002 at 12:30 pm

Have a look at the following url
Isobel,
TrainingZONE has produced a few expert guides that should be of interest.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/news/expertguides/

Hope that helps

Regards