I am not sure if this is an appropriate thing to blog about but since it was such a shock and it has absolute business implication I decided it was a great thing to blog about. Chris Brogan’s most recent blog post states that he charges $22,000.00 for a full day of his time. Now he didn’t say how many takers he actually gets at this rate but he did share that he only needed 2-3 takers per month. (Don’t we all.) He also has a post about his reasoning and some built in tips about having multiple layers of price options i.e. his free blog, his $20.00 books, his $47/month membership site and his $22,000.00/day one-on-one consult.
The learning here is that we need to provide people with multiple ways to work with us at varied price levels. I can only imagine the stress I would feel if after talking for 3 minutes, or 180 seconds, I had not provided $100.00 in value. But I digress. I did figure it out though and that would be a little over $36.oo/minute.
His main point is to charge what you deserve and I imagine there are many business people who undervalue what they deserve. My advice, although not worth $36.00/minute, is to charge what you feel your time is worth and deliver on your worth. I think more people spend copious amounts of time trying to figure out the price they should charge…figure no-one will pay it… so they lower the price…then they feel aggravated and undervalued… and by the time they deliver the work, they under-perform because they feel like the customer doesn’t deserve their best for that price. Which makes no sense at all because the customer doesn’t know where you started or what process you went through to set the price to begin with.
Let’s all be inspired by Chris Brogan’s fee. Let’s imagine he get’s 2-3 clients at this rate every month. (That is an incredible visual) And then let’s aspire to deliver value to our client’s that would be worth $22,000.00/day. I believe it is all about making a difference to people and giving them our best regardless of the price. Why? Because it glorifies God. It is all His anyway. And He is faithful and will bear fruit when we really deserve it!
I don’t know if you will take my measly $2.00-$3.00/hour advice, but I have seen how much value Chris tries to provide, so I believe this is pretty aligned with his actions!
I found your post interesting and certainly you are trying to reason why someone should choose you over someone as influential, knowledgeable and with amazing business instincts and foresite. The main point that I believe Chris Brogan was trying to convey was that every day he offers “FREE” advice, via his blog, newsletter and even tweets. There are also a multitude of resources which are provided on his site for free. His point being, he is bombarded with people wanting “MORE” for less. You must set a value on your own individual worth. He wasn’t saying to compare yourself or any other company out there to him. But to look at what you personally cam provide of value, and is it worth your time and fee? Chris Brogan is a successful entreprenuer. He is a fast forward thinker. An amazing speaker and someone who brings a lot to the table. His point was, he offers something for everyone. Just because you aren’t a fortune 500 company doesn’t mean you can’t access the wealth of information that Chris Brogan has shared for the last 10 years !
Look at the big picture, he wasn’t trying to “blow” peoples minds, but give a wake up call to those who feel they are entitled to something MORE for nothing. Everyone is valuable in their own way. It all depends upon your connections, actual life experiences and let’s face it- Chris Brogan is a smart man.
Actually Cassie, I agree with you. Chris wrote on his blog that people were blown away like maybe he isn’t worth it. On the contrary, I agree with him philosophically and in actual application. That is why I am setting my bar up there where he is. As a matter of fact, in his book Trust Agents, they recommend setting the bar with someone whose results you want to emulate – his example was copyblogger.com. My point is that before we worry about what we charge we have to have the value to give. So being constructive I try to figure out how to get to the bar I set for myself. In this case, I feel I should work on providing the highest amount of value I am capable of. Maybe one day it will be worth Chris’ rate, but even if it doesn’t, I want to still try to make it worth it! I think basically we agree – Chris Brogan is a smart man!