Comments on Aletha VanderMaas | Inspiring Fresh Ideas: Charging for Initial Consultations

Thank you ALL for the feedback! It's interesting t...

2009-11-02T20:37:47.292-05:00

Thank you ALL for the feedback! It's interesting to hear how everyone deals with similar situations.

Great post, Aletha. I do not charge for initial c...

2009-11-02T11:13:17.400-05:00

Great post, Aletha. I do not charge for initial consultations. Building trust and establishing a personal connection with a potential client starts with that initial consultation. I also think by asking the right questions upfront before the consultation you can somewhat determine whether or not the potential client is going to be a good fit with what you are offering service wise.

I know if I charged for my consultations, I would ...

2009-10-31T20:38:40.052-04:00

I know if I charged for my consultations, I would not have as many clients. There are very few professionals in my area that charge for an initial consultations. I think it depends on the city you are in.

We recenty removed the consultation because we fou...

2009-10-29T13:41:18.791-04:00

We recenty removed the consultation because we found we were scaring away a lot of potential business. We already struggle with people being scared off by our website, thinking we're expensive! (Even if they had a large budget to spend) The consultation fee only added to this fear of the brides. So we removed it! (3 months ago)

Up until now, I've only had a handful of clients that waisted my time. All in all, due to the recession, I feel the removal was beneficial!

so interesting, thanks for bringing this up. this ...

2009-10-28T23:08:58.785-04:00

so interesting, thanks for bringing this up. this is an accurate reflection of what went down at engage, and i don't think that anyone came to any sort of conclusion b/c i don't think there is one to be made. i believe that every business owner has to do what is right and works for them. in an ideal world, i'd like to think that we can all charge for every second that we spend on our business, but i'm not sure that is the reality. hopefully we can somehow build those unintended costs into our overall prices and come up somewhere near the top. thanks so much for sharing! as always, great content and food for thought from you!!

I am somewhere in the middle on this. My initial c...

2009-10-27T22:21:47.321-04:00

I am somewhere in the middle on this. My initial consultations for custom stationery used to be completely free, but I have had potential clients take my sketches and design concepts and try to create them on their own or have less ethical (and cheaper) "designers" copy them. I still have a complimentary initial meeting with clients, but am careful to keep from getting too specific with designs. While I will create quick sketches during the meeting, I don't give them anything on paper until they place a deposit. I move forward with less custom design projects now, but the custom clients I do take on don't flake on me or steal my work. Saves me valuable time and protects my work.

Great post Aletha! I've often wondered this myself...

2009-10-26T19:04:36.763-04:00

Great post Aletha! I've often wondered this myself; however, after much thought decided not to charge for initial consultations. I do however limit them to approx 1 hour and usually try to meet potential clients close to my home office.

Very timely post. Very insightful as well. I don't...

2009-10-26T16:29:51.644-04:00

Very timely post. Very insightful as well. I don't believe in charging people for a consultation but I also keep my consultations within a certain time frame. Charging for a consultation to me would be like charging someone to come into a boutique to try on dresses before they make a selection. I wouldn't pay to do that so why would I charge someone to see if my services are a fit for them as well as for me.