It's not the 30 minutes I spend with you, it's the 30 years I spent before that ...

I love public speaking. Networking events, international women's day, industry conferences, awards ceremonies, roundtables, training courses, you name it. I'm more than happy to get involved.

I enjoy it so much that, when I first set myself up in business, I said yes to everything and never charged a fee. Wouldn't have dreamt of charging a fee, to be honest. I was just flattered to be asked to speak.

And then one day, a couple of years in and several free events later, I found myself at a breakfast event in a very swish city venue, hosted by a multinational, multi-million dollar business for their parents' network. I'd moved heaven and earth to get there by 7.30am, only half the promised audience turned up and it suddenly dawned on me.

Everyone eating breakfast was being paid. The man on the door was being paid. The people serving us breakfast were being paid. The man driving the tube, the people washing the dishes, the chefs in the kitchen, everyone. Except me.

The best bit - and I'm not joking here - was at the end when I was given a gift as a thank you. It was a mug with my initial on it. L. For Lisa. Or Loser.

I still have it. I drink my first cup of tea of the day from this cup without fail.

And I say a little thank you for the wake up call.

A Problem of My Own Making

I didn't blame the multi-million dollar organisation one little bit. When they'd asked me to speak, I'd never mentioned a fee, never asked if they had a budget. And there was the first source of the problem. If I didn't place a value on what I had to say, why would anyone else.

I'd also been guilty of believing the hype when organisations promised that my free speaking gig would be "great exposure." Maybe. Is the room really going to be filled with people who are potential future clients? Will you be given the participant list? Are you even allowed to contact people afterwards or is GDPR going to be a problem.

Beware, those promises of great exposure are sometimes an illusion. All you enhance is your reputation for doing something for nothing.

Why it Matters

At a basic level, obviously, free china cups do not pay the bills. More fundamentally, though, what does it say about the quality and value of your advice and opinion if no-one is prepared to pay for it. And how does that make you feel about yourself?

I realised there and then, that consistently giving away my expertise for free was slowly eroding my confidence in what I had to say.

And here's a thing. If people really value something they are usually prepared to pay for it. Put another way, most people value what they pay for more than what they get for free. During lockdown, I offered a bunch of training sessions for free on Zoom. Typically, around 50% of those who registered actually turned up. Later, I charged a relatively modest fee and guess what, attendance rates were 90% and the 10% who couldn't attend sent a polite note.

Last month, I ran a paid for session for a luxury goods company on "Navigating careers in an era of disruption". Working with my client, we spent a lot of time crafting the invitation and agreeing the content. The organisers assured me they'd attract around 50 participants. I expect around 35. More than 100 turned up. The client valued the content enough to pay and as a consequence put in the time to make it a success.

The feedback was fantastic; the client felt it was a success; and I felt as though I'd added value.

How Much to Charge

Deciding to place a value on your time is one thing, working out exactly how much to charge is quite another.

One way is to calculate a daily or hourly rate based on how much you'd like to earn in a year and how many days you expect to be doing paid work. You need to take into account not just holidays but the time taken to sell the work in the first place. I found even that approach quite tricky.

Another is to think about the value you're actually adding to a client. Is what you do going to improve retention, sales, or some other aspect of business performance. Charging for a particular project or outcome is often more effective as it takes you away from the idea that "all" you are selling is your time.

If, like me and many others you still feel somewhat embarrassed about naming your price, here's something to remember.

"It's not the thirty minutes you spend, its the thirty years of experience that led you to be able to do what you do."

I have Melinda Wallman to thank for that particular piece of advice, which has stayed with me.

It's those thirty years enable me to write a thirty minute script that will engage, educate, inspire. Those years have given me the experience to be able to go off script, to tell stories to make a particular point, to draw on examples, answer a myriad of questions, bring the point to life.

It's only because I've been an adult for well over thirty years that I can talk about the reality of juggling career and motherhood, how it felt to walk away from a career, realise it's time to pick it up again, figure out exactly how to do that.

It also means I can recall other crises from the miners' strike, the Latin American debt crisis, black Monday, the dot com boom, the financial crash. I have to admit this particular pandemic trumps them all but they were pretty horrendous in their own right.

Those thirty years have also enabled me to meet so many other experts, people who have given me advice, from whom I've learnt so much. It's the books I've read, the research I've done, the time I've devoted just to thinking.

Whatever your line, if you work for yourself and you're struggling to name your price or recognise your value hold that thought. It's not the time you spend doing whatever it is you do, it's all the time you spent learning how to do it.

Some Practical Tips

1. Have your opening line ready. "Do you have a budget?" works well, for example. Or "Yes, that sounds right up my street, I'd love to help, would you like my fee schedule?"
2. Have a rate card already worked out. How much to write a 1,000 word article? What's your fee for just turning up and doing a 60 minute off the peg session? What if it's more tailored? A three hour workshop? A day's consultancy? Yes you can flex around it but at least have something to go on.
3. When you're asked about your rates give the answer then shut up. Do not say something along the lines of "Well, this what I'd usually charge but obviously if that's too much ....." and go on to talk yourself down.
4. Have a free or low cost option. If someone can't pay a fee for a bespoke article, there are plenty I've written before that I might give permission to replicate. My book is about ￡7.99 on Amazon right now. We do regularly run free bootcamps for people returning to work after a break. I'm less inclined to talk for free at events run by multi-million dollar organisations, especially if they are paying people to attend.
5. Invest the time to enhance your asset. Here's the best thing. When you charge properly for your time, when you recognise it's the thirty years' experience you're selling, you also realise that you need to keep learning, keep developing and make that experience even more valuable.