Sliding on the scale without sliding off the cliff -A guide for the perplexed on fee charging

Nov. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Marc Zegans, a leading Creative Development Advisor, has developed a free tool called Working on A Sliding Scale to help creative professionals work out how to charge their clients on a sliding scale. This elegant solution to the often perplexing problem of knowing how to charge for services means that creative professionals and consultants can afford to work with a range of clients paying them different rates, without compromising their income.  Indeed, it can even help them create abundance in their professional practice.

“Working on a sliding scale” is available from Marc Zegan’s website,  http://www.mycreativedevelopment.com.

The key points and advice in the tool include:

•   Making decisions about pricing before or after you see clients, not on the spot

•   Breaking down your sliding scale into three different levels of charges

•   The 80 per cent of billable hours rule

•   Figuring out how many hours to you can work at each of the three levels of charges to achieve a viable income

•   How to determine income objectives for your practice or consultancy

•   Demonstration of these simple calculation tools with a clear example of how to work out how much you need to earn and how to divide that into billable hours of different pay rates

•   Seeking out and work with clients you truly want to work with to make your practice thrive


Zegans developed this model because many of his clients in the creative arts maintain part-time professional practices to support themselves while they are developing their creative careers.

“Many of my clients in the creative arts maintain part-time professional practices.   As socially conscious artists, they feel torn between their generous wish to provide services for people in the community at a price their clients can afford, and the need to make sufficient income in a limited number of hours to afford themselves the freedom to pursue their creative passions”, says Zegans.  

Miranda Loud, a multi-media artist and environmental activist who works part-time to support her creative career who used Zegans’ method to set up her web consultancy www.designforsuccess.org practice says:

"Marc knows how to break down the essentials for starting a consulting business. He showed me how to set clear parameters that allow for good communication and confidence in negotiating with clients. He is one of the most remarkable problem-solvers I've ever had the good fortune to work with."


Ends

Notes for editors

To see the full article go to http://www.mycreativedevelopment.com/p/tools-for-you.html.

Marc Zegans marc@mycreativedevelopment.com (617) 547-9547


For further information please contact: Caroline Ratner caroline@carolinecomms.com www.carolineratnercommunications.com

About Marc Zegans

Marc Zegans advises creative artists and creatively driven organizations. In addition to prominent artists, writers, musicians, actors and directors his clients have included: the World Bank, the Ford, Rockefeller, Ewing Marion Kauffman and James Irvine Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, From the Top, GrantCraft, The Actor’s Shakespeare Project, Tooth and Nail, Opera Boston, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Ariel Group, XVIVO, Artists in Context, NatureStage, Philistine Records, the Social Innovation Forum, Theater Offensive, Embody Yoga and Chelsea Pictures. He has also advised the George H.W. Bush and Clinton Administrations on fostering innovation in the public sphere, and managed the City of Boston’s goals program, integrating strategic planning with the city’s first program-based budgets. From 1988 through 1995 he served as Executive Director and Research Director of the Innovations in American Government Program, a joint venture of the Ford Foundation and Harvard University.  In 2005, he was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Institute for Democracy and Innovation.