Hi Nicola,

I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules, except maybe 'Your time is worth what someone is willing to pay for it'!

There are many factors that will affect what you can charge, such as your level of experience, how rare your services/ what differentiates you from others/ how competitive the market is, whether your services are being contracted because you have specialist knowledge or whether it's just cheaper than taking on a salaried worker etc. - and what you are willing to accept i.e. whether this is your only source of income or added extra on top of another salary etc., whether you have a steady source of consultancy work or it is very lumpy. Remember there is an opportunity cost to what you do - when you're consulting for one company it's often at the expense of (theoretically) doing something else more lucrative. A rule of thumb I've seen used in companies I've worked in where they've contracted out individuals with specialist knowledge is the rule of 3s, where the hourly charge-out rate is 3 times what they actually earn i.e. 1/3 is the cost of the person's salary; 1/3 is the on-costs (e.g. employer's tax, NI etc.); and the last 1/3 is the opportunity cost/profit. You could do something similar if there's an established salary scale for a position similar to what you're consulting on.

Hope that helps,

Brian

On 14/Sep/2011 08:58, Dr Nicola davies wrote:

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me how much they charge for a days consultancy work? I have had my doctorate in health psychology for a year and am venturing into consultancy. However, I am having difficulty knowing how much my time is worth!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Nicola