The second thing to say is that this page is about my consultancy work with organisations. It's not about help for Private Clients, and it's not about any of my fiction or storytelling work. If you are interested in any of those, please contact me directly for more details.
So the third thing to say is that these are the costs for Writing; Interviews and Discussions; Webinars, Seminars and Other Talks.
How are consultancy costs worked out?
I come at these consultancy costs and charges in three ways.
Firstly, you can tell me your budget and I will work out with you what's possible to do within that - always aiming to achieve what will best support and enhance your work. This approach is often used when people have more modest budgets (less than, say, £3,000) because it makes sense to spend time together working out how to make the very best use of limited funds.
Secondly, you give me the details of the piece of work and I then work out the likely cost, and explain how I will go about doing the project. This method is often used for much larger pieces of work - perhaps projects with budgets of £10,000 or more, although I do work with organisations that ask a number of consultants to submit a tender for much smaller budgets.
Thirdly, you can offer a set fee for a set piece of work. This is used most often for speaking engagements or training events.
My contracts have ranged from working for a day a week over several months, to just doing one day.
Organisations sometimes baulk at the idea of using a consultant, but in my experience they are often then pleasantly surprised by how much can be achieved in only a few days. That's partly because I'm just focusing on the project in hand - I don't have internal meetings to attend, or other organisational demands.
Consultants - or freelancers - like me often get called in when organisations need an expert, or they have too much on and need support to get things completed on time. There are plenty of other reasons to seek to use someone else's skills, experience, and time - even for a very short period of time.
Most consultants working across health, care and housing matters charge for their work by using a daily rate - an amount for each day's work.
Sometimes the level of this daily rate is such that people who aren't consultants believe we earn a fortune, because they think we earn this every day (*sound of many consultants around the UK laughing*). We don't.
The daily rate is an odd device, since all jobs also benefit from some 'free' time. This might be the time taken to keep up to date with developments or to undertake our own training and professional development, time taken to carry out detailed background research about the job before starting it, and time taken to discuss the project with various people before a contract is issued. There are all sorts of other ways that 'time freebies' are given and added to the work, largely because most consultants want to do as good a job as possible (although we also aim to do so without becoming personally bankrupt in the process).
My daily rate varies depending on the nature of the work, the length of the contract, and who it's for. In general terms, the daily rate is from £250 to £500. Just occasionally it is lower - this is usually where it is an investment at an early stage: for example, if there's a minimal budget but where my contribution might help raise additional funding, which might in turn mean more work for me; or because it's a very particular issue with which I'm keen to help. Very occasionally the daily rate is quite a bit higher - this is when there's a huge amount of work involved both before and on the day (for example, if I am giving a seminar and on the same day also offering in-depth one-to-one information sessions with many individuals). I'm not registered for VAT, so there's no extra to add there.
The rate includes all my costs except travel and - if needed - overnight accommodation. Travel means second class train fares (aiming for the best available deals) or whatever the organisation pays for mileage if I need to drive (I have a car and clean driving licence). Overnight accommodation has in the past meant staying in the housing association's (the client's) guest room (fine by me!). I have worked for far too long in the (sometimes poorly resourced) voluntary sector to waste budgets (yours or mine). But it's unusual for there to be other charges - unless there are specific materials needed for a project. If I write a report, my fee doesn't include design or printing costs - just the time for me to do it. If you're not sure what's included, please ask.
If the range you are able to pay falls below these levels, or your total budget is truly tiny, you can still always get in touch and ask. The worst that will happen is that I (very politely) say no!