Thanks for sharing. The path you’ve traveled is typical for many a coach/consultant. With regard to subcontracting, building bench strength is one thing, but I would encourage you to avoid subcontracting on a personal basis as it is strictly a time for money exchange. However, if you can subcontract others at a margin you’ve now created scale – one method works, while one does not.
 
I would also encourage you to develop more course work. As your curriculum increases so will your revenue stream. With regard to the price point of your ‘Art of Accountability’ course, it’s not really a matter of the price as much as it is a function of the platform, delivery methods and attendance. For example if your course is available for digital download, can be distributed on a recurring basis, and you have hundreds or even thousands of people paying $297 then you’re good to go. If on the other hand, you had to present this in person on a one-off basis, and you only had a hand full of people attend, then you might need to charge more.

I hope these thoughts have helped. Thanks again for sharing Susan…

Until 3 years ago a high percentage of my work was subcontracting on a per day rate basis.  Truth is I always put in more time than a day for a days pay.  My focus is always doing what is necessary to produce the best possible results rather than my time.  At one point I established a minimum rate of $1,500/day for subcontracting and my independent rates ranged from $2k for non-profits to $4k/day.  But I still couldn’t in my own mind correlate time and value so it was never satisfying.   It also didn’t work very well from a cash flow perspective.

Coaching and consulting for strategy, culture change and performance requires a focused investment with the client.  I have determined it is not worth my investment (or my clients) to engage in this kind of work for less than 5k per month for at least 6 months with a target of 10k/mo.  I have smaller retainer fees for a few clients I have long standing relationships with.  What I continue to try to balance is generating an income that is satisfying with a workload that serves my life commitments and sufficient diversity of clients to keep my thinking fresh and my cashflow sustainable.  Very challenging equation when you are on your own.

As part of my quest to break the trading dollars per hour paradigm,  my focus over the last year and a half though has been on how to “productize” my work to better leverage my time.  I offered one class called the Art of Accountability twice last year for $297.  Was that the right price point?  I still don’t know and have a lot more research and experimentation ahead of me to figure out what works.

I am now interested in doing some subcontracting again so I can increase my focus on product development and delivery for my own business.  Do you have any advice for how to navigate the world of subcontracting in today’s world in a way that doesn’t pull me back into a pure day rate model?

Passed this along to our management team for review as they consider pricing for a new suite of consulting services.

Much appreciated

M

Typically my contracts are rarely less than $45,000 because employee engagement, culture & leadership development don’t happen from a one off workshop. Some contracts can easily drift into six figures even if they are just 9 months in length.

My Torch Survey (for employee engagement) is based on number of participants for that survey. This ranges anywhere from $2700 to $13,000 or more.

Thanks for sharing your experience and insights. The fact that your process was challenging suggests that you went about it with discipline and rigor. You were also very crafty in side-stepping your fee structure:)

Once I got over the idea of pricing alone being a determining factor and paired it with value, I was able to land on a fair and profitable pricing strategy.

Finding the pricing sweet spot in your market is somewhat tedious, but definitely worth the effort.

Thanks for bringing up a subject so many professional service providers fret over, but rarely discuss.