Having a day rate in your coaching business may not have been something you’ve considered before, but there’s several reasons why having one can be a really good idea!

We’re going to look at what a day rate is, what you can use a day rate for in your business and how to price that day rate too.

It might not be something you use all the time but it can be helpful to have thought about it all in advance and then if the opportunity to use it comes up you have it ready to go.

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What is a Day Rate?

A day rate is basically a fee that you charge in exchange for a day of your time. You might think of a full day as being 7 or 8 hours of work.

It might include lots of different things, which we’ll look at in a sec. It can just be really helpful to have this set up so if you get a certain kind of opportunity as a coach you can respond quickly instead of faffing around trying to figure out what to charge.

So what kind of things might you use a day rate for?

Workshops – corporate or not!

When I was a health coach I did quite a few different corporate workshops where I would go into company offices and deliver something around wellbeing to employees. There’s a lot of different similar things I’ve done as well, such as talking to companies in a consultant capacity.

It may be that delivering something like this is a half day or a full day and there might be prep involved, which we’ll touch on in a second. But it was really good for me to have a day rate so I knew what I wanted to charge for these kinds of things. 

It might be that as a coach you already want to be doing this kind of work or perhaps it’s the case that someone approaches you and asks you to provide a workshop, when you have a day rate prepped you’re ready to respond to those opportunities.

I even have a day rate now as a business mentor because I still sometimes get people who come to me and ask me to deliver a workshop around Pinterest for example.

As well as corporate opportunities, it could also be the case that a community organisation or charity would like to work with you.

Speaking opportunities

You may be asked to speak at an event or speak at some kind of big conference. There’s all sorts of different things that you might get asked to go and speak at, which is awesome!

Speaking opportunities can be really good for your business, besides getting paid for the speaking opportunity. I honestly believe that anytime that we get to be with people, whether that’s virtually or in-person, it’s really powerful and a great way to raise awareness of you and your business.

Having a day rate can help you price that speaking opportunity and quote for it, although it might be that some speaking events you’re happy to do for free because of the other benefits that come from that as I’ve just described. However there’s nothing wrong with charging for your time, I think it’s really important that we do that. We can’t pay our mortgages or our rent with ‘exposure’ and good wishes.

Something else to think about with speaking opportunities is having some signature talks prepared in advance that you can just tweak. In the past I had a self care talk and a business talk and having them ready to go with a little tweaking saved me a lot of time.

So having a day rate you can use to help you quote for a speaking gig is a great idea!

VIP days

Another thing you might use a day rate for is offering some kind of VIP day. This isn’t something I’ve offered in my business so far, but I know some coaches do VIP days and that’s a big part of what it is that they deliver. 

Having a day rate is a great way to start thinking about what you might charge for a VIP day, although they don’t have to be the same price.

How to price your day rate

I think there’s a few things to consider in the mix with this, the first thing is really thinking about what you are going to include in that day rate.  So when I used to charge for mine, I would generally include travel, but if I was travelling a long way and had to stay over I would add extra onto that because it would really just leave me with nothing. For example, if I was traveling from the Northeast to London on the train and having to stay over, then if my day rate at the time was £500, I wouldn’t be left with a lot of change out of that because of the travel element being so costly.

You also want to consider if you include any prep in with that day rate, so for example, if you were delivering a two hour workshop you might still charge a half day rate because it’s not just the time you’re delivering there would be some prep involved too. 

Plus you need to consider tax and any other elements that come into what it means for you to deliver in that time.

As an example, I used to charge £750 for a full day and £450 for a half day as my basic rates a couple of years ago.

Using your day rate

Once you have a rough price, you can write that down somewhere and come to it when needed. Just because you’ve worked out what it is doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll charge for every opportunity that comes your way, but at least this way you have a starting point.

It can also be key to remember that when we charge purely based on our time it can be easy to overlook the value that you’re offering someone, so don’t forget to consider that as well. If you’re offering something which is providing huge value and your costed day rate is £750 don’t be afraid to charge much more to reflect the value you’re creating, not just the exchange of time. The VIP day is a good example of this.

You can also share your day rate on your website or in a PDF sales guide. If you activity want to do speaking and corporate workshops it might be a really good idea to have a page on your website that lets people know this and gives them an idea of price. Even if the price you state on the website is a ‘starting from’ figure.

I hope you’ve found this quick dive into day rates as a coach helpful and it’s given you lots to think about, as always I’d love to know what you think! Do leave me a comment below and share one takeaway you’re going to put into action from this post!

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