Here’s How To Set Realistic Rates As A Solopreneur Coach

As a solopreneur coach, you may find it challenging to ensure that your rates and price structures are realistic. While you want your fees to align with everything you offer clients through your practice, you also don’t want your price points to drive prospects away.

Here, 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council offer their best tips for reassessing and adjusting your payment/fee structure as a solo professional coach. Follow their recommendations to strike the right balance and set a rate that is fair to both you and your clients.

1. Think Beyond The Service Your Provide

To charge high fees, think beyond the service you provide. Consider the tangible and intangible outcomes a company or client has as a result of working with you. Are there benefits resulting from exposure to your network, new ideas or new perspectives on existing issues they’ll gain, or will they be able to sleep better at night? As demand increases, increase fees to further demonstrate your value. - Shawn Casemore, Casemore and Co. Inc.

2. Offer Tiered Pricing Options

Determining your worth should never be a “cost-plus” endeavor. I counsel solopreneurs to understand how their offering transforms their client’s situation and what value the client would place on the solution to their problem. Clients are not a monolith. Different clients will perceive different value in your services, so the smartest approach is tiered pricing with a differentiated offering. - Katy MacKinnon Hansell, Katy Hansell Career Strategies

3. Experiment With Your Prices

My advice to new career coaches: Say the amount you can say without throwing up. Many new career coaches undervalue their worth due to a lack of confidence. Set your price at the upper end of what you can tolerate saying, and over time, modify it based on data. Lower the price 10% if you’re not hitting a 10% sales conversion and, conversely, raise it 10% if above 30% sales conversion. Target 20% sales conversion, and let the market dictate. - Cara Heilmann, International Association of Career Coaches

4. Consider Ideal Hours And Annual Salary

I teach my clients to start with what they want to make on an annual basis and then consider how many hours they want to work. I review my capacity and fee structure quarterly to inform my capacity and determine our product development and marketing. We’ve shifted to more group coaching and launched an online academy to keep rates reasonable and provide the flexibility clients expect. - Meredith Leigh Moore, Leverette Weekes

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5. Understand Your Offering’s Value

“Value for value” is a structure used to determine the worth of a solopreneur. I determine my worth by the amount of value I provide to clients (in the form of expertise, new ideas and so forth). Based on the launch of new products (webinars, courses, etc.), I reassess and adjust my payment structure according to new innovations, which is what motivates solopreneurs to always be creative. - Liudmila Schafer, The Doctor Connect Consultancy

6. Assess Your Work’s Impact

The way to determine your worth and how much to charge is to objectively assess the real impact of your work. Ask past and current clients about the return on their investment. Invite them to share those results as social proof to increase the value of your services in the eyes of prospective clients. Consider raising your fees when the demand for your services consistently exceeds your capacity. - Vered Kogan, Momentum Institute

7. Align Your Rates With Your Perceived Value

Your worth depends on the value you add to your clients. Being a solopreneur or part of a company doesn’t matter. Your age doesn’t matter, either. When establishing your price, the value you add to your client matters. Our rates are one tenth of whatever value the client expects to get. If they doubt they can achieve that much, negotiate a success fee and overdeliver on your promise. - Mariana Ferrari, Dooit

8. Help Clients Know What To Expect

First, I separate worth from worthiness and then reframe it as the value I bring to my clients. I consistently help my clients see quick, actionable and sustainable results. This is my unique superpower, and my rates reflect the results. My rates are consistent across clients, so my clients always know what to expect. Simply put, what you see is what you get, and that’s the result. - Kristy Busija, Next Conversation Coaching, LLC

9. Consider The Transformation Provided And Your Desired Lifestyle

As a solopreneur, proper pricing is critical to your success as a business owner. Failure to charge sufficient rates will limit growth. You must set your pricing structure based on not only the transformation you provide for your clients, but also the lifestyle you want to live. It’s important to reassess pricing each year to determine how you rank in the industry as well as your company’s profitability. - Lori A. Manns, Quality Media Consultant Group LLC

10. Evaluate How Busy You Are

For me, this is quite simple: access. I determine my worth with the value I provide. I have 75% or more of my clients leave me a review on either Google or the Better Business Bureau’s website. This provides social proof to those who come after. If I start filling up my days with appointments and am “too busy,” then it merits an increase in price. I reassess these fees and determine if they are too high or too low quarterly. - Carlos Then, Mr Then Consulting LLC

11. Reflect Market Growth

I reassess my value depending on my growth in my market. I keep up by constantly educating myself; therefore, my clients receive many more valuable assets and investments in their company’s growth. I do not ever disvalue what I am worth or what I bring to the table. I know the growth margins I bring to a team that is worthy of change and investment in themselves. - Jennifer Carrasco, Jennifer Carrasco EOS Implementer

12. Learn From Competitors

As a solopreneur, there are plenty of unique ways to determine your worth. I would start by looking at competitors with similar courses or products. Define who these people are, the contents of their programs and what they are charging for their products. After researching and seeing what sets your product apart, determine what the price will be. Adjust your fee structure each year! - Kimberly Olson, The Goal Digger Girl

13. Do Your Research

There is data on almost every function as to what is market pricing in various geographies. Do your research to figure this out. But then experiment to see what works. I always suggest planning on not making money to start and coming in with lower prices to be able to have some customers to point to as yours. Over time, adjust your pricing for new clients and as your brand expands and has equity. - Kimberly Janson, Janson Associates, LLC

14. Use A Sliding Scale to Reflect A Fair Price

Starter pricing for coaches can often be compared to other, private one-to-one tuition—for personal training or music lessons, for example. As you gain experience, you can raise your prices according to clients’ willingness to pay. A sliding scale reflecting seniority ensures a fair price that reflects the value of the work to the client. Review your pricing annually and consider holding the price flat for existing loyal clients. - Gary Crotaz, KultraLab

15. Raise Prices Whenever You Add Value To Yourself

I built my pricing model based on a quote from the great Jim Rohn: “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.” Once I began viewing myself from a value-added perspective versus being a commodity, my rates fell into place. I raise my prices whenever I add value to myself, because it immediately translates into additional value for my clients. - Cathy Lanzalaco, Inspire Careers LLC