On the back of my last blog, about how some people feel entitled to cancel our services as freelance healthcare trainers, and how it doesn’t occur to them that we have bills to pay as well, Marianne (2M Training – you should check them out!) and I thought we’d give you some perspective…
As freelance trainers we can not ignore the basic principle that we are in a commercial business. There are two fundamental principles on which we will charge our clients: our financial requirement, and the value our clients get from our services.
Based on the principle that training as an independent is our primary source of income, the rewards we get for our training-related services must cover ALL our personal and business needs and necessities.
On the assumption that we are going to generate our income from fee-earning days delivering training, the calculation to determine our rate is quite simple. The rate we charge is equal to our personal financial requirement PLUS our business financial requirement divided by the number of fee earning days. To put this as a formula:
CRT = (DDI + RPE) + (RBE + PFT)/ CHD
CRT: Chargeable rate =
DDI: Desired personal disposable income (holidays, leisure, gifts, etc) = 10,000
RPE: Required personal committed expenditure (mortgage, food, bills, etc) = 15000
RBE: Required business expenditure (office, consumables, transport, marketing etc) = 5000
PFT: Profit (the magic reward that you get over and above what you need to earn) = 20,000
CHD: Chargeable days
Profit is often a taboo subject but we DO have to consider it! We carry a profit margin for re-investment, the cost of continuing professional development, professional licences and registrations, and other hidden and unexpected costs. And then there are the economic downturns, enforced absences and sickness that previous profits wisely captured can lessen the impact of.
Consider: There are 365 days in the year but a lot of them cannot be used for fee-earning days. There are 104 days that are weekends (we do want to see our families!) There are also about 15 days that are bank holidays, and of course we too would like to have a couple of holidays a year…
That leaves us with around 220 potential fee-earning days. Within those 220 days, we have to actually administer our business: make phone calls, do our accounts, write letters and emails, update our websites, attend Zoom meetings and the like, visit clients and do otherwise general unproductive, boring office ‘stuff’. The “80:20” rule applies.
Business administration, let us say, takes an average three days per month. And then there is our CPD; you do want a professional, well-informed up-to-date trainer, don’t you? This can easily take up another day per month, sometimes a lot more. After all this activity and not yet having engaged with any attendees on a training course, we have no more than 190 potential fee earning days left.
Going to networking events, conferences, exhibitions (such as the excellent Care Roadshows, and the Care Home and Dementia shows) etc, all take up days, and mostly days that we could be earning fees.
We now have at best; 160 potential fee-earning days (given all the preparation such attendance requires), but we are not quite finished. Of these we will have to research and write material and/or do preparation work prior to running a workshop or session. And there will be the daily occasions where we have to travel. At worst this reduces by one third, the number of potential fee earning days left. The result is that at best, we need to generate all of our required revenue in 100 or so fee earning days.
So based on the above formula;
DDI £10,000 + RPE £20,000 + RBE £25,000 + PFT £10,000 / CCH 100 = CRT £650/day. (And we’re STILL mostly charging less than that!)
“Training is not and should not be considered an easy ride. Good trainers work hard during their fee earning days and some days can be exhausting.” – it wasn’t me who said that, but I wholeheartedly concur!
So then, what DO you get for your money?
Responsibilities of a Contract Trainer:
1. Participation in awarding body ‘train the trainer’ courses, annual refresher activities and other CPD;
2. Review of course content and practice to ensure effective delivery, regular updates of course materials;
3. Some pre-program coordination activities required by the trainer AND the client (identifying need, and tailoring the training to specific requirements);
4. Compile pre-work or assessment results, course administration etc and provide these to the client where appropriate;
5. Organise, set-up and disassemble training environment, which includes all the health & Safety considerations, availability of parking, refreshment and toilet facilities, and arrange any special requirements that delegates may have;
6. Write, compile, and Deliver learning program using presentation materials that follow an instructional flow and address individual learning styles, applying our years of experience and knowledge in the process;
7. Complete level 1 and 2 learning program evaluations for participant reaction and learning where appropriate and other ‘initial assessments’;
8. Post-session phone and/or email follow-up activities required by trainer, such as issuing certificates and any follow-up support;
9. Provide feedback on program improvements such as content, flow, exercises, activities, roleplay scenarios etc.
10. Pay up-front for delegate materials such as textbooks, handbooks, and registrations with awarding bodies.
So to break down the trainers role even further…..
And THAT, dear reader, is why your face-to-face training is “Expensive”. Read all the above again, and you’ll see, that, in fact, it isn’t…and that’s why we get a little pi**ed off when people don’t pay.
SEED Training 