How to Determine Your Fee, Pt. I: Why We Want to Pay You in the First Place
First of all, I’d like to state for the record that I’m fully aware of why people think we’re a scam or spam. And, while it definitely doesn’t make me happy, or my job easier for that matter, it can’t be helped. See, it’s this: “…an hourly rate that you set–between $100-$500 per hour.”
Now, spam blockers are generally instructed to bar any emails containing monetary values within them, and probably for good reason. I certainly understand that people are wary—after all, I, too, got sick of receiving all those emails from that man in Africa claiming to know my great-grandfather, saying he’d pay me millions of dollars just to help him transfer his money around. It completely makes sense to me and, to be fair, I’d also be dubious if someone, out of the blue, was offering me hundreds of dollars to share my thoughts about my profession or the particular industry I work in. Still, not many people are willing to do anything for free nowadays, right? Especially when that activity takes away from time they could be spending, say, watching television, or playing golf, or shopping online, or walking the dog. You get the idea.
The point is, your time is valuable and we know it, and, therefore, we want to compensate you accordingly. We want you to understand that, by sharing your experiences and observations (sans confidential information about your company!—I cannot emphasize enough how we do not want you to talk about your company’s non-public activities), you’re educating our clients and providing them with the sound knowledge they need to make better business decisions on behalf of their companies. And, given that knowledge is power, you don’t need to be doing that for free.
technorati tags: Tribeca Insights, knowledge is power, not a scam
