How Much Should You Charge for a Speaking Engagement?

One of the questions  I get asked when someone has been invited to give a presentation on personal histories is “How much should I charge?”

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer or formula, but there are some useful guidelines. A colleague of mine and fellow Association of Personal Historians member is Pattie Whitehouse. She has some good suggestions which I’ve summarized below.

• If it’s  a general 30-45 minute presentation on personal history  and the event is free, don’t charge. Consider it part of your marketing. But if you’re  asked for a full-scale seminar of 2-3 hours, charge for that. How much,  though, will depend on the following:

0 How long will it take you to prepare the presentation?  You should make preparation time a part of your overall charges.

0 Can you market the presentation to other groups? And is this  something you’d want to do? If it is, you won’t need to put in as much preparation time for future groups.  Would this  group help you secure other bookings? If the answer is yes to all of these questions, you might consider reducing your presentation fee.

0 How likely is it that you will get business, either
directly or indirectly, from your presentation? If  likely, you might be willing to charge  less; if not likely,  you might want to charge what you think you’re worth.

0 Do you know the group’s budget? What have they paid
for other presentations? Ask! If their budget is  unrealistically low or if they are used to paying a nominal  honorarium, you’ll need to reconsider. How do you feel, say, about charging a  church group less than you might charge a for profit corporation?

Ultimately, what you charge will come down to  a balancing act. You’ll need to weigh the  experience, the exposure, the raising of awareness about  personal history, the opportunity to present yourself as a  knowledgeable professional against the cost to you in time and  effort of putting together and making the presentation.

I would add a few other suggestions to Pattie’s excellent list:

• When discussing your presentation fee with a non-profit organization, consider quoting your regular fee with a 15%  to 25% “non-profit” discount. Doing this  honors your professionalism, informs the organization what your actual fee is, and shows your appreciation for its limited funding.

• Factor in your “star” quality when quoting a fee. You won’t  be in the  Bill Gates or Tony Blair league but your years of experience, visibility in your local community, and previous “gigs” all give you some clout when negotiating with an organization.

• Don’t forget to factor audience size into your presentation fee.  Is this a conference where you’re a keynote speaker in front of hundreds or is this a local service club with 50 members? The larger size demands a higher fee.

• A negotiating line that I like to use sometimes is “My usual fee is____ but if it’s is a deal breaker, I’m flexible.”

• Consider whether speaking engagements are going to be a major thrust of your personal history  work or just an occasional activity. The answer to that will determine how you market yourself and what you charge.

A final word. Appreciate the  experience and the value you bring to potential audiences.  And never, never, let yourself agree to a deal that doesn’t recognize your worth.

Photo by flickr

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