What should I charge for consulting after 50?
Price the outcome rather than your time. A first consulting engagement for an experienced professional typically runs $1,500 to $5,000 for a scoped project, or $2,000 to $6,000 per month for ongoing advisory. If nobody has hesitated at your price yet, it is too low.
Why hourly billing caps you
An hourly rate invites the buyer to compare you to a salary and to negotiate down the hours. Worse, it penalises exactly the thing your experience gives you: speed. When thirty years of pattern recognition lets you solve in two hours what a junior consultant needs twenty for, hourly billing charges you for being good.
Scope a deliverable and a result instead. The buyer stops counting hours and starts weighing the outcome against its cost.
Three pricing structures that work
- Diagnostic or intensive: a fixed-fee assessment, usually $1,500–$3,500, ending in a written recommendation. Low risk for a first-time buyer and it often sells the next phase.
- Scoped project: a defined change delivered over 6–12 weeks, $5,000–$25,000 depending on the value at stake.
- Monthly advisory: standing access plus a recurring working session, $2,000–$6,000 per month with a three-month minimum.
How to set the number honestly
Estimate the annual value of the problem being solved — revenue gained, cost avoided, time recovered — and price the engagement at roughly 10 to 20 percent of the first year of that value. If the problem is worth $200,000 a year, a $20,000 project is defensible and easy to explain.
Say the number out loud, then stop talking. Most under-pricing happens in the silence after the price.
Raising your rate without losing clients
Raise on new clients first, never retroactively mid-engagement. Every second or third new client, add 20 to 30 percent until you meet real resistance. Existing clients move up at a natural renewal point with 60 days of notice and a short note about what has expanded in the scope.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I answer 'what's your hourly rate?'
- Redirect to scope: 'I work in fixed-fee engagements rather than hours — tell me what you're trying to change and I'll price the whole thing so there are no surprises.' Buyers almost always prefer a known total to an open meter.
- What if a client says my price is too high?
- Reduce the scope, never the rate. Offer the diagnostic phase alone at a lower fixed fee. Discounting the same work teaches the client that your first number was not real.
- Should I publish my prices on my website?
- Publishing a starting-from figure for a productised diagnostic filters out unqualified enquiries. Keep larger project and advisory pricing in conversation, where scope can be established first.