Thread: What the Hell do I charge as a Professional Development Consultant? Autism

Does your PhD supervisor do any consulting/know anyone who does? Ask around at the University. I've just checked with a friend of mine who is a Professor at UoM Zoology Department and he charges $1000 per day for private consulting. He comments that he'll charge less than this for preparation time, but that you should charge for prep. And remember that he's collecting his Professorial salary in addition to the $1000 per day - so really your day rate needs to be more like $1500.


I have been a consultant for 23 years, but my work is by project, not by time. I always bill direct travel costs on, but not time as that is included in the project charge. Is the potential client a State School or Private? First rule of consulting - what can the client afford to pay? Good luck!

I was a consultant (one man show) for ~15 years though worked in a very different field. Like you I developed and delivered training, amongst other things like software & model development. In my case clients were multinational companies. I mention this because it has a bearing on what you can ask. Multinational companies have large budgets, I suspect govt. schools do not. So you may have to scale your remuneration ambitions appropriately.

When working away from home would always bill all travel associated costs (Accom, taxis, planes meals etc.) at cost and identified separately on an invoice but would include any travel time in the invoice at the contracted daily rate. The rational being I could be working on another paying job during that time rather travelling to somebodies work site.

If you're developing training material you need to have a think about who will own the material you develop, ie who will own your intellectual property.

Basically if they pay you to develop the material for them then they may have a claim on ownership of the material, at least in the form you have delivered it to them. If you develop it without payment you own the copyright without question.

Consider copyright aspects if you have thoughts of maybe delivering this sort of training to other clients. Nobody can own your knowledge and expertise but others might / can own the specific instance of the way that knowledge and expertise was delivered to them. For instance do the documents, power point slides, software etc used during the delivery of your training program become their property or do you retain ownership of them. You hold one training course for them, they may now have (own) all your material to train others themselves. It may not be a problem to you but you need to think about it. I supplied everybody with a printed copy of my material (at a cost + / copy) but reserved the right to leave behind an electronic copy of the material.

As another has said think about how you will charge people for you services. Training delivered on a per person basis with a minimum number of enrolments or just charging your time on a daily basis without limitations on numbers attending. I charged at an hourly rate, didn't care how many attended but know of others who did it the other way.

My experience was $200/ hr when working from home (as per gavinwilbrow's post) or $2000 / day when working away from home was near the mark but as said govt. department might just not have that kind of budget.

I used to bill different people different rates. People I got a lot of work from I would bill at a lower rate. What looked like might be a 'one off' job would attract a higher rate. People I found difficult to work with also attracted a higher rate. 'Difficult to work with' usually meant they were vague in what they wanted, change their mind often, communicated poorly etc which often resulted in rework or wasted time on my part. People who wanted a fixed price rather than an hourly rate also effectively received a higher rate because I assumed the 'job risk' - their stuff ups, vague goals, undeliverable promises on their part etc.

One further point of advice I would give is don't start work until you are properly set up within the clients invoice processing system and have an actual order number to which you can invoice against.

Good luck on your journey.

Maybe look at getting a "Name" for your consulancy and an ABN. This will mean you may have to charge GST but can claim back GST on your purchases as well as purchasing new items e.g laptops, software, etc as business expenses and also claiming depreciation.

With regard to what to charge, I can't help with that but you have some pretty clued up responses for that already. Just remember from whatever you receive for you time and effort you have to pay tax and (if you wish) contribute to you own superannuation.

There is an awful lot to consider, do it carefully and when needed seek professional advice.

The best of luck.

I know someone who gets paid about $3000 plus expenses, accommodation, travel etc for running a two day workshop in a health related field.
Don't hand over your PowerPoint. Just give a printed summary of main points.
Are there any practical exercises they can workshop as part of the session?
Get an ABN. Get their booking in writing spelling out exactly what they want.
For them, this is Professional Development and counts towards the in service training the staff have to do to maintain their registration.