I’ve been getting more requests recently to have calls/conversations to give advice, review documents, or be part of extended sessions on things. Most of these have been from EAs.
I find a lot of this work fairly draining. There can be surprisingly high fixed costs to having a meeting. It often takes some preparation, some arrangement (and occasional re-arrangement), and a fair bit of mix-up and change throughout the day.
My main work requires a lot of focus, so the context shifts make other tasks particularly costly.
Most professional coaches and similar charge at least $100-200 per hour for meetings. I used to find this high, but I think I’m understanding the cost more now. A 1-hour meeting at a planned time costs probably 2-3x as much time as a 1-hour task that can be done “whenever”, for example, and even this latter work is significant.
Another big challenge is that I have no idea how to prioritize some of these requests. I’m sure I’m providing vastly different amounts of value in different cases, and I often can’t tell.
The regular market solution is to charge for time. But in EA/nonprofits, it’s often expected that a lot of this is done for free. My guess is that this is a big mistake. One issue is that people are “friends”, but they are also exactly professional colleagues. It’s a tricky line.
One minor downside of charging is that it can be annoying administratively. Sometimes it’s tricky to get permission to make payments, so a $100 expense takes $400 of effort.
Note that I do expect that me helping the right people, in the right situations, can be very valuable and definitely worth my time. But I think on the margin, I really should scale back my work here, and I’m not sure exactly how to draw the line.
[All this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t still reach out! I think that often, the ones who are the most reluctant to ask for help/advice, represent the cases of the highest potential value. (The people who quickly/boldly ask for help are often overconfident). Please do feel free to ask, though it’s appreciated if you give me an easy way out, and it’s especially appreciated if you offer a donation in exchange, especially if you’re working in an organization that can afford it.]
Opinions on charging for professional time?
(Particularly in the nonprofit/EA sector)
I’ve been getting more requests recently to have calls/conversations to give advice, review documents, or be part of extended sessions on things. Most of these have been from EAs.
I find a lot of this work fairly draining. There can be surprisingly high fixed costs to having a meeting. It often takes some preparation, some arrangement (and occasional re-arrangement), and a fair bit of mix-up and change throughout the day.
My main work requires a lot of focus, so the context shifts make other tasks particularly costly.
Most professional coaches and similar charge at least $100-200 per hour for meetings. I used to find this high, but I think I’m understanding the cost more now. A 1-hour meeting at a planned time costs probably 2-3x as much time as a 1-hour task that can be done “whenever”, for example, and even this latter work is significant.
Another big challenge is that I have no idea how to prioritize some of these requests. I’m sure I’m providing vastly different amounts of value in different cases, and I often can’t tell.
The regular market solution is to charge for time. But in EA/nonprofits, it’s often expected that a lot of this is done for free. My guess is that this is a big mistake. One issue is that people are “friends”, but they are also exactly professional colleagues. It’s a tricky line.
One minor downside of charging is that it can be annoying administratively. Sometimes it’s tricky to get permission to make payments, so a $100 expense takes $400 of effort.
Note that I do expect that me helping the right people, in the right situations, can be very valuable and definitely worth my time. But I think on the margin, I really should scale back my work here, and I’m not sure exactly how to draw the line.
[All this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t still reach out! I think that often, the ones who are the most reluctant to ask for help/advice, represent the cases of the highest potential value. (The people who quickly/boldly ask for help are often overconfident). Please do feel free to ask, though it’s appreciated if you give me an easy way out, and it’s especially appreciated if you offer a donation in exchange, especially if you’re working in an organization that can afford it.]
https://www.facebook.com/ozzie.gooen/posts/10165732727415363