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Cutting Back Client Dependancy

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by cobalt123

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This question was posted almost a year ago and then closed: "How do you communicate your rates/estimates to your clients. A lot of times I need to come in and take a look at there situation before being able to estimate". As a teacher and trainer,I am developing my business to include private instruction for individuals in basic computer skills and/or online computer skills. My target client considers themselves to be "beginners" but it is important to note that they must have some experience with computers before I will take them on. I wish to manage contact so that following a class unit completion, the client will be able to go on forward as independently as possible.

Suggestions for clearly establishing and reinforcing this priority from the professional's viewpoint? I do establish student requirements and expectations I have,in writing, at the first consultation which I do not charge for. I also state that preferred contact with me is through my websites and email. Thanks for any suggestions.

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by mmbarreca

I think this is always in how your set your expectations. Before I was in this position, I was still with my current company and there was NO planning at all. Considering that we are in the healthcare field and there are many that are not "PC literate", I found it amusing that the people in charge of training at the time as well as the sales person and supervisor couldn't see the problem.

Since I took over this position, I made sure that I have an Implementation Manual as well as a Training Guide (this was against the wishes of the remaining team members but I knew I had to make my point). Part of my Implementation Manual includes a Windows Survey that must be completed by each person to be trained as well as an agreement stating that they understand what needs to be done on their part for the training. The Training Guide has an agreement that after training, they understand their system and know how to use it.

Therefore, if you're looking for communicating rates, you can always come up with a "general" cost for the training, assuming level of competency and explain your cost based on your initial observation.

by deadly ernest

I delivery training on a range of IT, and other subjects. For prepared courses I have a syllabus, notes, course outcomes and prerequisites established with a set fee for delivering the course for a group of students from 1 to 15, anything over that requires some restructuring to ensure and more time and costs to ensure each student has a suitable opportunity for personal interaction and question answering.

For new courses and other training I have an hourly rate for delivery of prepared course material and an hourly rate for preparation of course materials. I then give the clients and estimate on time to prepare and or deliver a course. If I misestimate I usually absorb the loss for that particular course and adjust charges for the next one, unless the error is due to changes introduced by the client, then we renegotiate at that point.

I also do some consulting and repair work and have the same basic charge philosphy, set out hourly rates for the different types of work, prepare reasonable quotes and stick to the quotes unless client introduced changes or major unforseen events.

This makes the contracts easy as I have a proforma that i just insert the relevant work type and hourly rate with the estimated hours. All contracts read 'Plus materials' as I supply labour only.

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