As professionals migrate their services from in-person to online, and often move from a set salary to a time-based charge model, a common question is “What should I charge for my service?”
Obviously, the choice is ultimately for you to decide. However, here are 3 tips to help you quickly, easily decide what to charge:
1. Search on what people pay, not what you’ve been paid
If you’re moving from working for a company to charging directly to your clients, you’ll likely earn more per hour than you’re used to. For example, right now a simple Google search for “personal trainer salary per hour ” yields $18/hour:
(Pro Tip Warning!) Charging $18/hour could be much less than you should charge b/c the better search is what clients are willing to pay for personal training. Searching Google for “personal trainer charge per hour” is $40-$70/hour.
This is a good example of how “going indie” with your service online may be a great opportunity to increase your hourly wage.
2. Is there a “digital handicap” to how much you can charge online?
The short answer here is, unfortunately, we don’t know yet. What we’re seeing with professionals and clients on Ourglass (our app professionals use to host video calls with payments integrated for maximum payment success and prorated charges) is that there is a small handicap on charges because of perception that in-person is more of a premium, but this is quickly changing. Given the state of 2020 where in-person is becoming a health risk, rates professionals are charging are increasing towards the in-person rates. Anecdotally, we also believe there is an understanding between pros and clients that the pros don’t have travel time and cost, so digital is more efficient pros, therefore should cost less. Our recommendation is currently to discount video calls by ~10-20% from what you’d charge (or others charge for in-person). A nominal “discount” also is a great marketing technique on social media. Using our personal trainer example above, there is a great case to be made to charge $35/hour via video and cite the google search results of $40-$70 range. That’s still twice the $18 pay range when working for someone!
3. Market Research You were probably trying to avoid this daunting task by reading this post. Well, we’ll make this painless — again, just a couple searches online can make sure you’re not overcharging (or that you are overcharging, if that is your intent). A quick Google search on personal trainers in the Seattle area pulled up a marketplace site for personal trainers, https://fitnesstrainer.com/seattle/personal-trainer . In the case of Seattle, rates appear to be $60-$80/hour! (BTW, perhaps this is a good site to get some new customers and then get them and then lure them away with a lower rate when they use you directly..)
We hope this helps you both earn more money, and keep your clients happy with your service AND your price. Ourglass has made charging for your services and securing payment both easier, faster, and more reliable. Go indie, go big!