How do you charge? By the hour, job, project? Why do it your way?

Mostly by the Job these days.

Will vary as a 1 day in IT training is less than a 1 day on say, presentation skills and different for a 1 hour Espresso Knowledge Session.  This is down to the additional materials used on the non IT courses.

The cost for the training element (my time) is the same though and therefore it would be a day rate.  This can then be broken down for the Espresso Knowledge Sessions (1 hour sessions) or half days etc...

Why?  To keep the pricing simple and make it easier for people to understand.

Yes we have a discount offer but this is an early payment offer i.e. pay up front prior to the course and get £50 off the course.  This has helped me with my cash flow this year and saves me as much from chasing up late payments etc...

The other big part would be the additional costs, which I always do at cost price so the client is clear on the pricing.  If it costs me £150 for a room to train them in then they are charged £150.  If they want printed manuals, then they get those at cost price as well (most have moved over to having manuals electronically now, saves them on average £60)  Another lot of additional costs would be if they want me to provide laptops with the software on.  Looking after 10 lots of kit and having updated and many variations of different software on them all is expensive.

For clarity, the client knows how much the training costs them and then what the extras cost.  Not as clear as I would like it but given all the different ways the clients want courses, the easiest route I have found is to have a price for the training and then a price for the additional costs.

Consultancy

Usually by project, occasionally a day rate.

Fixed price with 50% up front and 50% on completion.

Coaching

On a monthly/quartlerly retainer basis or per hour.

Coaching

As much as possible do things for fixed pricing for a given task.  Ideally prices fixed and visible for clients to see and choose on the website, without the need for them to get a bespoke price.

As a consumer, if I can't see how much something will be without phoning up, I'll avoid it and try to find someone else where I can see it up front.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way, hence that's the benefit for the consumer.

For me the business owner, it helps because I don't have to spend time on detailed quotes, and people whose budget is way below my price won't waste both our time getting in touch.

Varies - but a mini-story

I have developed a management accounts pack which takes exports from Sage or KashFlow. This was really for internal use. However, I have been asked top produce versions for other companies.

First time quote was £1k - that represented the time it would take

Second time price dropped, as it took me less time, then third time a bit more

Now I have realised, that I should be charging the full £1k if someone asks.

This is a product, it contains my IP, the market value of that product is what the first biz was prepared to pay, why should I discount now?

For most projects it's a fixed price based on an estimate of the time involved.  For smaller jobs (usually outsourced from other web devs) it's time billed to an hourly rate, and similarly retainers are based on time too.

We try to build long term relationships with clients and the fee structure matches that we charge a monthly retainer for our services and then by the hour for additional work

95% of the time it is fixed price as that helps me and the client plan better.

We do get the odd job where the specification is incomplete so we have to work on an hourly basis with regular updates

Most of the time it's a fixed price or is quoted upfront based on previous experience of how long it will take to do. Most clients prefer to know how much they'll be paying at the end so I've found they're usually happier doing it that way. An hourly rate wouldn't tell them that as they'd probably think 'it's just a quick job' or perhaps imagine that it would take much longer than it does. Once my new website is live I'm going to experiment with publishing prices for a range of common design jobs - even if a client's job is then quoted as a bespoke design it will at least give an indication of likely costs and will add to the transparency.

A handful of clients prefer to work on hourly rate - mainly marketing agencies or similar where I'm white labelling the design element for them. They tend to have a good idea of how long a particular task will take, but understand that sometimes ideas just come together more easily than others.

One or two clients have recently discussed some form of retainer.