Name Your Rate QA

So, Marnée, you're gonna be your, own boss.

Yes, I am.

And in some way, for some reason, you get access to the name, your rate calculator, which let me share it so we can look at it.

Yes.

And let me make this smaller.

And you had some questions, so tell me about it.

Yes.

first, I just want to say, like, this opened my eyes to what I need to be doing.

so thank you, first.

Glad you give it a try.

Yes.

really, because I was really just focused on, like, single session cost and, like, you know, that only without the admin piece and thinking about everything else that could be built into my practice.

And I feel like right now I'm very much still at the startup phase.

So a lot of the stuff I haven't either built or haven't thought about building yet.

So my questions are really surrounded of, like, at least at my stage, how do I best utilize this?

knowing that I am not, like, up and running.

I don't have, like, the admin work outline yet.

like, I do want to build workbooks and those types of things too, but they're not built yet, so.

Okay.

but yeah, I think this would still be helpful to build a package.

Totally.

So we can do it live if you're down.

Yeah.

So first, I built this because I needed to.

This is how I calculate my programs.

I built it because I was working on a program that I built and I was like, I need to.

Instead of me building new spreadsheets every time or going to the same spreadsheet, which is boring, let me just build a calculator.

Then I was like, you know what?

This is kind of nifty.

So let me just share with the world.

I've used it multiple times and continue to use it all the time just to validate a lot of stuff.

So first we start with, how much do you want this business to bring?

Because a lot of times, especially as a solo practitioner, as, someone who's starting your practice, many times I would say, from what I have seen, 80% of the time, people have another source of income while they're ramping up their coaching practice.

And so what that has, that I've seen, it does to people is like, you take your fee as an afterthought.

Like, well, everyone's charging 75 an hour when you start, so I'm just gonna start there.

When the truth is you have a lot more experience from whatever background you have, and so why dismiss it, you know?

Yeah.

And so the first question Is what is you, what do you want your annual take home income to be from your, in this case your coaching practice?

So if you already have another source of income, if you were to look back from the future in the past and you were like annually my coach just my coaching practice made me X, what would that be?

I would say annually.

Looking back, I could say my practice maybe paid me like 75k.

Okay.

so now yeah, there's a little drop down here.

Before you settle for it, ask yourself if you're going to be supplementing a different income.

If you like, this is not a what do I think I can make, this is a what do I want it to make?

And so if the 75, let's just for the sake of numbers, because I can't do math, you, your cost of living, like your minimum to live is 100, let's just say.

So you could say, well I have, I want my coaching practice to make me 75.

With my supplemental income, whatever that is, I can make another 25.

Now looking at is this a real number?

Means are you taking vacation?

Is this like the bare minimum that covers just your mortgage, your rent, your car payment, your insurance, whatever or are you actually giving yourself permission to live life how you want to live?

Do you want to pay for a gym membership, do you want to get a dog?

And like, you know, what are all those expenses that like all of that needs to be considered.

So just to not make you think about it but to think about it later because you have access to this is, let's just say that you're like yes, 75 will cover my coaching practice and it will cover, let's say a vacation.

Sometimes people do side jobs because they want to go to the other side of the world.

Great.

And so, so once you settle on that number.

So this dropdown is here specifically to make you ponder is this am I settling for the bare minimum or is this actually the life I want?

Right.

So let's just say that you're like yes, this is the number.

Now business overhead is what people also usually don't consider meaning.

Are you paying for a website hosting?

Are you paying for stripe anytime you swipe a card, Are you paying for like Google for your email?

You know, like all of those things you're paying for them.

That is considered your business overhead.

So usually include software contractors, et cetera, et cetera.

Most solo businesses, your business overhead is about 20 to 30%.

Okay.

And so I'm going to say always err, on the side of High is because you can have more cushion.

Right.

So business overhead.

Overhead is, let's say 30% of your income.

Now, how many vacations do you want to take?

So considering that the year has 52 weeks plus minus, then out of those 52 weeks, how many weeks are you taking vacation?

I have a friend, for example, Chloe Nwangu, who she takes a once a month sabbatical.

That's what she calls it.

And so like however many.

That's 12 weeks, right?

Right, yeah.

And so which is widely generous.

It's amazing.

I haven't gotten there yet.

Yeah, I take like not a whole week.

I take like once a month sabbatical.

Like one.

One.

One day.

One day, maybe two sometimes.

And at the end of the day, how many full weeks do you want to take off?

Considering that the year has 52 at a minimum, you want to take four, because that is what the US usually gives you.

Right.

Like the rest of the world usually takes 812 weeks of vacation.

Right.

And so here's the thing.

sometimes people leave corporate or leave their standard regular 9 to 5 to run their own business and they kind of like follow the same standards.

But like this thing will just.

I think what it does is it allows you to look at possibilities.

And so maybe if you're building your coaching practice, but you have supplemental income, maybe you're like, you know what, from my coaching practice, I'll take eight weeks off.

Like maybe your, your other supplemental income, like you're still working, but from your coaching practice you take some time, more time off than usual.

Yeah.

And so that's something to think about.

But for you, for now, how many do you want to add?

I think we can stick to four.

Four, okay.

Yeah.

Now how many hours per week do you work in this business?

Well, if I am supplementing, I would say probably around 30.

30.

Yeah.

So you're gonna work three 30 hours a week on this specific business.

What is the percentage of your time that is available?

I think this is where people get like glitch a little.

So this is where it's paid, client facing work.

And because we in the US we exist in a way that we are paid by the hour, then we're so used to just charging the time we are working like client facing working.

But the reality is that you're working when you're sending an email, you're working when you are building a contract, when you're adding your clients to your CRM, you're working when you are following up, when you're posting on social media.

All of that is labor.

And so the percentage of time that is billable is the client facing time.

So usually for solopreneurs is between 50 and 60%.

Because you're doing a lot of the admin work.

Right.

So 60%, like out of 10 hours, six hours is client facing, four hours you're doing admin work, whatever that is, or marketing operations.

Yeah.

So do we want to keep it 60?

Yes.

Okay.

Years in your craft is something before I show the hourly.

Right.

So years in your craft is also something that I see, especially early stage entrepreneurs or even, even late.

Listen, especially women, frankly.

Especially women of color.

We're not trained to understand that our, lived experience and our wisdom and our past lives influence how we show up in the world and how we support people and serve them.

And so count.

This is the invitation to count all the years that you've worked.

Even if you were like, you know, I was a barista at a restaurant, who cares?

You still were building experience that still taught you a way to show up.

For me, my barista days, my serving days, my restaurant serving days, those were the most formative days for me to understand the power of service and hospitality.

If I hadn't served food before, I don't know if I would value it so much.

I don't know if I would value serving people, like through my work now as a coach.

so all of it counts now, Renee, how many years have you been working?

Do I, do I count my very first job?

Whatever you consider part of your lived experience that influences your work today.

So I'm not gonna.

I'm gonna.

I would say yes, but I'll leave it up to you.

I mean, I've been working since I was 16.

so that would be like 22.

22 years.

Okay, so we'll, add 20 years of experience.

Right.

So right now with the five years.

Or let's do zero.

Okay.

your hourly rate is.

If you wanted to make 75, work 30 hours a week and take four weeks off, your hourly rate would be $150 an hour.

Right?

Yeah.

Now, with 20 years of experience, your hourly rate is $160 an hour.

okay, because the 20 years add to your experience, we charge for that.

Like, this is why senior level people in, in corporate get more money.

Yeah.

Yeah, because that counts.

So why are we discounting ourselves from our experience society?

I know.

That's why I built this.

So now we know that your, your hourly, your client facing hourly rate is 160 an hour.

Now for you as a coach, this is where you could price it at 1 6.

You could say, my hourly rate is 160 or you could just package it up now.

Now if you want to take home 75, you need to bring in 100.

Yeah.

Because that is the income and overhead, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You would work 48 weeks.

You have 864 billable hours a year.

And your premium experience adds the 160.

Now price a program or a project because many times you're like, okay, I landed here.

Cool.

And now what?

Right?

This is where the admin rate comes in.

So the client facing rate we've established is 160.

Usually your administrative rate is not as premium as your client facing rate because you're not using the same level of energy.

Right.

And because also it can give you a lot of context on hiring other people.

So if you're charging clients 160, then your Admin rate for sending emails, for building contracts, client profiles, invoicing, marketing, all of that would be 112.

Just solely on percentages.

Right?

So this, you have an option so you can say, yeah, I can discount my admin rate 30%.

I've worked with people that they're like, I don't feel comfortable charging 100 bucks an hour for sending an email.

All right, you can do it.

50.

Okay.

Now if you were to hire somebody, if you're like, okay, what if I had a virtual assistant that I'm paying, I don't know, 40 bucks an hour, 20 bucks an hour, then you can play with the numbers here and be like, okay, so if I discount it, if I discount my hourly rate and I pay 75% less of my hourly rate than I can pay somebody $40 an hour and still include it in the package.

yes, because I learned this from my mom, actually.

So she, she had a business.

I grew up in a single mom entrepreneur income.

And when I first, when I was in college, I was making pretty good money for being a college student.

And she.

And she was like, the moment you earn, the moment your hourly rate is higher than what it costs for you to pay for it.

You pay for it.

Because I was talking to her and I was like, should I pay for somebody to clean my house, let's say, or like, do my laundry?

Which every single one of my clients.

First thing that I tend to do is like, hire someone to do your.

Like wash your drawers and clean your house.

Yeah, like, people need that job.

You can pay for that job.

True.

And so, so I learned that from my mother, who was like, the moment your hourly rate covers you paying for it, you pay for it because that allows you to free yourself up from doing it and do whatever else.

Yeah.

And so this is a way for you to say, okay, if I had somebody that I was paying 40 bucks an hour, then what would that look like?

Right.

But let's say that you're still doing it yourself.

So what do you feel comfortable making?

Your hourly rate, your admin, what would it look like at 40%?

I feel comfortable with that.

Great.

So then let's say that you are working on a client package.

No.

So what would the package look like?

How many calls are you going to have with the client?

Yeah, so I'm looking at, like either three or six month containers.

So, probably two sessions a month.

Okay, so.

So six or 12.

All right, so we'll start with the smallest and then we'll just double it.

Okay.

So six hours of client facing delivery.

Okay.

A lot of times people stop right here and they're like, my package is $960.

no, ma', am.

You're doing a lot more so planning and curriculum designing.

Because maybe like there's different type of coaches.

Some coaches are pretty fluid and they're like very like the session you run it, I always show up and whatever the client needs to work on.

Some other clients are a little bit more, I don't say rigid, but a little bit more programmatic in a way where they're like, okay, we have a goal.

And then in this case, maybe we're going to meet six times.

We need to like have a beginning, have an end because there's closure.

No.

And so if you're going to do planning, curriculum designing or anything like that, if the answer is yes, then how many hours?

Yeah, I don't know.

I.

I think I'm more fluid, to be honest.

Okay.

I think I would like some type of structure overall in my packages, but I don't know what that is yet.

Okay, so maybe do two hours.

Sure.

Okay.

Kind of like bookend it.

No, like an hour to at the beginning, an hour at the end.

Like maybe an hour at the beginning where you send like this is what we talked about, this is our goals.

And at the end where you like do a wrap up.

Yes.

Okay.

Content creation, slides, works, workbooks or videos.

If you're not going to do any of this, it's zero.

Okay.

so I mean, I'm like content creation.

Is that include marketing then?

No, not this time.

This is just for the package.

okay.

I'm gonna say zero.

Yeah, yeah.

Admin, logistics, scheduling, emails and tech setup.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like that makes sense based on the hours that I would be spending with the client.

Like an hour.

An hour per hour?

Yeah.

Okay.

Follow up support, like voxer community office hours.

Additional things that you may do that are client facing this.

You can, you can drop it, you can toggle between admin or client rate.

But if you like.

Do you think you'll do like offline, like asynchronous test type of coaching?

I think I will.

Like, I want to provide some type of, I want to do a community like as well, like in eventually.

but I do think I'll be providing some type of like support in between sessions.

Okay, so if you're having six calls, how many hours?

maybe hour per hour?

Again, like six hours.

No, this is a, this is client rate because you're serving the client, right?

Yeah.

So what we thought was a thousand dollar program or package.

It's actually a 20 hour program.

That's $2,600.

Okay.

Okay.

Now this is where you can play with it, right?

Because you're like, well, do I feel confident?

Confident, comfortable?

I was going to say both at the same time.

charging this for six calls.

Now don't go looking at what the market bears and what other coaches are charging.

Like, Truly, ask yourself.

Sometimes I've had people be like, okay, let's lower the admin rate a little.

And then you play with it.

Or Truly, this is where you can be like, all right, the minimum price for this program with these numbers is 2,600.

Could you maybe feel cool with it if you're like, I'll charge 2,500.

If we do a different kind of math, which is usually what the client will do.

Let me see.

I moved screens.

Let's say that you end up at 2,500 for six calls.

Then your hourly, they'll.

They'll be like, so your hourly rate is 460, 16, dollars.

Right?

Yeah, that's what they would do.

But you'll be like, I charge by project or by package.

And all of like the hourly, it's not by the hour, it's by all of the components that come underneath it.

Yeah.

And you can like, the idea for this is to give you clarity and then you decide, like, I've talked to people about it and they're like, there's no way.

Like, that's like, there's no way.

All right, well, if your body cannot bring itself to say the number, then what are you comfortable knowing?

That this is what you need to make the money that you need.

Now you can play with it, right?

So maybe you can be like, okay, cool with the 160.

Maybe.

Maybe we want to do one, 150.

No, and maybe we want to do like 60% here.

So then your program is 2200.

Or you can be like, you know what if they pay in full?

I can do 2,000.

Yeah.

And you're still adding all of the things that you need to add.

Like you're not undercharging yourself.

Right, right.

You know, now there's more.

So because I was, I was working on a group program when I built this.

I was like, well, in my case, these numbers were super high, right?

Like client delivery session, like planning curriculum was like a lot of hours because it was a six month program.

And so it was like a lot.

And so it ended up being like a $50,000 program, you know, like adding all the, all the things.

And so this is when I was like, okay, wait a minute, so what would happen If I bring 10 people thinking that this is a group program?

Right.

So then if I have six.

There we go, 230, I'm like, what, $230 I would have to charge for this program to cover my revenue stability.

Got it.

So $230 would be.

If I bring 10 people, if I bring six people, they like, in order for me to cover my bare minimum to run the program, it would be 380.

This is where you play up and down with like, this is not an absolute math.

Just because we're going to post this and people might question it, this is, is not absolutes.

Because eventually, for example, if this is a group program, well, you're not just going to run the group program.

Once, you know, there's like, this is where you can get into financial modeling and like so much more in depth math that this is just to give you clarity because some people may be like, well, the group program, they're going to run like for 50 years.

Like you can very easily charge 100 bucks and over time you'll cover it.

Which.

Yes.

And you want to know what revenue stability looks like with the numbers that we have right now, Right?

Yes.

So that's about the admin, right?

Did that answer your questions?

Yes, this answered my questions.

This is so helpful.

I love how flexible it is that you can just play with it.

And I think it does always come down to like, what am I comfortable with?

And as someone who's just starting out, I know that often people are like, don't discount yourself just starting out.

And I'm like, I can raise my prices, so.

Right.

You can always raise them.

Right.

So I will be raising my prices.

So, yeah.

Like, I.

And I'm also someone who wants to practice ethics and transparency in how I also charge.

So this really does, like, give a view to how I break it down and how to explain that to clients as well.

Yeah.

I'm glad.

Please use it as much as you need it.

Thank you.

This is there.

It's there for the world.

This is awesome.

Yeah.

And I mean, yes, to your point, you can always go back and be like, you know what, what if I want to make 90,000.

Yeah.

You know.

Yes.

Then everything.

You don't have to redo anything.

Like, yes, it switches.

That's the beauty of this.

Yeah.

So now your hourly rate is 190.

This one you do have to change.

But then look, now it's a $3,000 program.

Yep.

And look, I mean, I know, I know coaches that charge five.

$5,000 an hour.

Yeah.

Like, yeah.

So, at the end of the day, think about, really, I think the purpose of this tool is to clarify that you have what it takes to make change and that you deserve to make the life that you want.

And you deserve time off.

You deserve to not work, you know, hundreds of hours a week and still make it happen.

And it's very doable.

Like 190 bucks.

It's very doable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now you need 117,000 to cover your overhead, but then you get into, okay, could I pay somebody $50 an hour?

And the answer would be like, yes.

Because if you're charging, your initial package is priced for you to do the work, then that will give you more flexibility to then hire someone at a really nice rate, which, like, going back to the ethics and being good business owners, you want to pay somebody good.

Of course, when you price a good, you can pay somebody good.

Yeah.

Totally, totally agree.

Yeah.

What other questions you have?

let me see what other questions I might have written down.

Let's see.

I think.

I think that's most of it.

I think I had a question about one of the categories had, like, the admin category had tech setup.

What would you consider is, like, tech setup, like a customer profile and a CRM.

okay, yeah.

So my CRM, for example, I set up a portal, a customer portal.

And so I set it up and now it's pretty templatized and it's super easy to create.

And I create a password for them and like that's where all of their contract is and all that.

That.

That's Texas, right?

That makes sense.

Yeah.

And I'm sure that's more secure than spreadsheets and stuff or just like sending contracts through email.

Right?

For sure.

let's see.

How do you handle office hours?

Office, hours.

Do I have office hours here?

Yeah.

So usually I build.

Because this was built to plan a group coaching program, I bring embed the office hours as part of the program.

That makes sense.

And so this is client rate.

That's why this is client, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Because it's client facing work for my one on one clients.

They get access to office hours that I do once a month.

Okay.

And so, you know.

Yeah, it's one more hour.

It's client facing.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, honestly, I think you just walking through this was so helpful and just to hear your context on everything.

I.

I feel like I can run with this now and like, yay, confirm my pricing, because that is the next step.

I'm so excited to hear what you ended up with.

Yes, I'll let you know.

Yeah.

What I recommend is like, usually when people do this for the first time, they get shocked because it's like, no way.

You know, like, everyone told me to start at like $2 an hour because I'm starting it.

And so.

But you, I mean, once you do all the things, it makes sense.

No, Right.

Like also going back to how long I've been working, and even if I were to just count my recruitment experience alone, like, that's a decade right there.

Yeah, that counts.

Yeah.

I mean, you're dealing with people, you know, and so all of it counts.

So if you're initial response to the first number that comes up is like shocking and you feel resistant, then that's where the tool is flexible.

Yeah.

You know, where you can be like, I don't know if I can get there today.

All right, well, could you get at 75% of it and then plug the numbers at 75?

Yeah.

You know, what would that look like at 75% of it?

So you can like have your ultimate goal of like, this is where I want to be one day and, and then walk it back and just have goals set up.

Like, I love that.

Yeah.

Because.

And that's why it's built in two parts.

Because first it tells you this is the hourly rate that you want to have to reach the revenue stability that you need.

Yeah, yeah.

The second part, the first time around, it automatically adds that hourly rate.

But if you're like, I don't know, do you build the program?

Yeah, you can, you can change that.

Right.

And it will recalculate.

Yeah.

And then also like, like you said in the beginning, if you're have, you have another job you're supplementing, if that goes away, then you have this as a tool to like recalculate what you need to be making.

Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this is where like group programs could come in handy because maybe you're like, I don't know if I can do like, eventually you'll get capped at one on one, right?

Yeah.

You can only do so many one on ones.

And so the tool is also built so you can see like, okay, if I brought eight clients and put them in a group, what would that look like?

Yeah.

You know, what would it require from me in order for me to serve them and in order for me to reach the revenue stability?

So there's congruence and there's reciprocity from both sides.

Right.

Which is what we need, right?

Yeah.

Otherwise we're self exploiting.

And like, I've seen it like, I've done it myself.

I've seen it done so many times and you know, so easy to complain about the system, but when we do it ourselves, it's tricky, right?

It's not tricky.

It's painful.

It's.

It is.

I mean like, yeah, we've been conditioned, so it's so hard to say I am worth this period.

Yeah.

Yeah.

choked.

It is hard.

It's so hard.

But it's real.

It's so real.

Yep.

But yeah, I'm just like, I think it does take time to like get in your mind, get comfortable with it.

totally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this was so great.

And play with it, you know?

Yeah.

I will be.

I've been playing with it.

I'm just like, all right, how much if I make this and, and eventually gets fun.

Yeah, no, it has been.

And also like really nailing down finances of like how much do I need to survive.

And things are changing.

Groceries are high as hell.

So you know, I.

That has to flux just like totally.

Economy does.

So, this is something that can help you weather the storm and indeed.

And get you through.

Yeah.

Yes, it can.

Thank you so much.

Yes, thank you.

This was so great.

Yay.

Let me stop the recording.