Did you see the recent study (discussed in the Wall Street Journal) about the high stress experienced by people who charge by the hour?

People who get stuck in the “hourly rate trap” feel more stress for a number of reasons:

– If they aren’t working with clients, they feel like their time is costing them a fortune…even if it is doing things outside of work like being with family. Taking vacations can feel like a nightmare.

– They always feel under pressure to fill their hours with paying clients. As a result, they can feel like they are in a perpetual a state of worry.

– By quoting an hourly rate, they position themselves as commodities and have trouble justifying their fees.

– High-end professionals feel this stress acutely, because their opportunity cost of not being with clients is much larger. Who wants to think that they can’t watch their kid’s baseball game because it is costing them $250 per hour?

At The Center for Executive Coaching, we already knew this. That’s why we teach you simple ways to get out of the hourly rate trap and start charging in smarter ways.

For instance, when I work with clients, I set up the engagement as a project, and get paid accordingly. I never charge by the hour. Never. And clients are happy to pay me as a project, because I position my value up front in the questions I ask and the
way I discuss what I do. Most importantly, a project is designed to solve a specific issue, so that the client gets results.

There are many other strategies that make it easy to set yourself up so you are charging for the value you bring to a client, and not by the hour.

There are also crucial strategies that every coach should put in place to make money even while you aren’t working with clients.

To learn more about best practices in executive coaching, and in setting up a successful coaching business, please sign up for our Certified Executive Coach program. See details about our approach, pricing, and your options here. You will get the tools and skills you need to feel confident charging based on the value you provide and what you are worth — while also building other sources of income that don’t rely on time with clients. Once you do this, you will have a dream life of working with great people on important issues, setting your own hours, and working from wherever you want. I know, because I do the same — working from home, playing tennis almost every day, and never missing one of my kid’s piano recitals or sporting events.

You can even achieve your executive coaching certification with an intensive, virtual seminar.