I was asked my hourly rate to do some consulting. I assumed it was one on one. I gave my rate. The guy comes back and asks if it’s okay if his partner joins us. Fine. Not cool but fine. Just now I got an email that he has 10 people who want to sit in on this training. Oh, and he would pay me 20.00 more for having added 9 additional people.
Is it just me or is this not right?
Shouldn’t he have asked me how much additional people cost? At this point my hourly rate doesn’t apply. RIGHT? Would I be out of line writing him back and saying WHOA! My classroom rate is different than my hourly one on one rate?
You’ve been had. Cancel the contract outright if they demand to bring in more people.
Are the people sitting in other workers from his company, or are they other business people? Either way, you should say no. I agree with you that it would have been fine to have his partner to get the info first hand if they are both working together. If these are other people in his company, I would say to have him and his partner do the consultation and there would be an additional fee to do more of a classroom Q&A for the others. If he is inviting people with other projects than they need to pay for their own individual consultations.
How I handled it:
Hi—
The rate I gave you was my discounted hourly rate for 1 to 2 people. I cannot do a group training session for that same amount. Group training is an entirely different endeavor. I need to prepare which takes time that you haven’t figured in.
When I am hired to do training, it is done on a per person basis. To train a group up to 10 (for 1 to 1.5 hours), the lowest I could go is ###.00, and ##.00 for each additional person. Considering the information they would be getting out of it, that’s a steal.
I do apologize for this misunderstanding. Hopefully this fits within your budget.
–Donna
Oh, and he wasn’t asking colleagues or employees to sit in– he asked AREA BUSINESSES!!!
Depending on what business he is in, I wonder if he would charge any extra to provide the service to 9 of your friends as well?
Maybe he was charging others and making a profit off of your presentation….. I definitely wouldn’t have done it once he changed it to a group of 10 or more. That is unless he paid for it. The letter you sent was just right, any businessman has to understand that you pay for services.