8. How Much Should You Charge for an Enneagram Workshop?

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Pricing is one of the questions coaches ask about most and one of the things almost nobody shares real numbers on. 

In this episode, I'm sharing what I charge for my workshops now, and why, and considerations when it comes to session length, group size, and company size, plus how I handle travel fees and what to consider if you're just getting started.

In this episode:

• my real workshop numbers: what I charge by format, and why sharing actual figures beats vague "it depends" advice
• How price scales (and doesn't scale linearly) across 2-hour, half-day, and full-day sessions, plus follow-up/office-hours pricing
• Group size vs. company size, two different factors that affect what you charge
• Industry benchmarks to use as a loose reference point, not a hard rule
• Two ways to handle travel: a flat travel fee built into your quote vs. invoicing actual expenses afterward
• What to consider if you're just starting out; pricing for practice and testimonials without underpricing yourself long-term
• Key questions to ask yourself: What do you need to make? What's the actual impact of your workshop? Who are you serving, and what's their budget reality?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to another episode here on the Bringing the Enneagram to Groups podcast. I am your host, Sarah Wallace. I'm also the host of our on the show Enneagram at Work and coming soon, Enneagram for Educ Educators. I'm gonna be hosting that one, co-hosting that one. And then I'm also the founder and managing director over at Enneagram MBA, which is a team training company. And this series has been created specifically for Enneagram coaches who are looking to go from one-on-one services to one to many with group and team workshops and presentations. And maybe that is truly a sh a um a transition to one from the other, or maybe you're just looking to experiment or fold in an additional income stream wherever you are. This show is intended to give you some um some concepts to consider, some tangible um advice and tips and lessons learned that you can also consider and make your own should they make sense for you. And so we have covered all kinds of topics like things to think about before a workshop, during a workshop, after a workshop, some key differences and skills that translate from coaching to facilitating, and some that don't that you'll want to develop or be more intentional about. So all of those are in the first, I think, seven episodes now. And then this one, we're talking about a topic that I know most people have questions about, um, if not a lot of self-doubt about some level of self-doubt questioning, back and forth. And so we're just gonna talk about five considerations and then I'll I'm gonna share how I have my workshops, my standalone workshops currently priced. Um, not to say that you should also do it that way, but just as a point of reference uh and to be kind of transparent about my thinking behind that. So I'll share that at the end. Um, the first and for the first and foremost tip, even if you don't get to that point, even if you don't get through all of these, is the very first one. This is the the most important one when it comes to understanding your own numbers and what do you actually need to make per session, or what do you need to make per month, per year for this to be worth your time? If you're gonna transition into or fold in more workshops, it's not an easy lift, especially in the beginning. And so you want to make sure that it's worth your time. So, what would make it worth your time? Now, for some people, your business might be kind of a it might be a side hustle, a compliment to the revenue you're already making, or it might be your main way for taking care of your family, paying your bills, which is my scenario. So what I need to make um is going to be a little bit different than somebody who maybe is just kind of doing this on the side. And if they get a client, great. If they don't, that's also okay because they have that another revenue stream that that's taking care of their life and and their family. Um that in in my case, and maybe in your case and other people's cases, um, that might be a little bit different. So what I need to make, what you need to make, um, could be very different, and it is a very important consideration when we think about what is your time worth and not just your time in the room, but your prep time, the travel time to wherever it is that you're going, any sort of follow-up time that you have, and then also taking into consideration what is your break-even on a session once you've and you know, once you've considered travel, materials, and then all of the administrative time and the administrative uh resources and support that are factored in. For example, for you to be able to do a virtual workshop, you have to have some sort of tool to be able to deliver that virtual workshop, right? So we use Zoom, but we have to pay for Zoom. Um there is a scheduling link that I use that is connected to Zoom to make booking sales and discovery calls easier, to make booking uh workshop prep calls easier, to make working, um, to make making uh post workshop debrief calls easier, calendarly. So that is also in there and it enhances the client experience. Um, all of my slides are created inside of Canva and delivered on a live link inside of Canva. So that's a cost. Um, the the podcasts that I have here, um, not just for you, but for um our clients as a way to get to know me, the rest of our facility, the other our other facilitators, um, as a way to to add value after a workshop. So record those podcasts on Riverside, which is another expense, be able to host them on Buzz Sprout, another expense. Um, for clients to even be able to find you, to understand that you're an option and to to help them decide if you're an option that makes sense to even talk to. You have to have most likely some sort of website. Um, then you're paying for the the URL. You might be paying for your Google email, your Google workspace. Um, so there are many things that go into that in addition to the training and certification that you got to be able to even put yourself in a position to be able to teach others about the Enneagram. There might be continued education that you do to stay relevant and fresh. Um, and then on in my particular case, you might have something similar where you have um a virtual assistant or a bookkeeper. We have I have um Bridget who helps with that. She has helps with invoicing in the past, and then I have Liesel, who is our workshop coordinator. And when um we have a workshop, she works, and when we don't have workshops, she does not. But um, she helps is a tremendous help with um back end uh logistics, welcoming, onboarding, helping prepare, get it following up, friendly reminders, she helps with some things on the back end. And so as I'm thinking about pricing my own workshops, all of that is getting considered into the the price because as much as I love doing workshops, um, if I end up losing money doing them and almost instead of the client paying me, I'm it's almost like I'm paying the client to be able to deliver a workshop. Even if I want to do that, um, for me personally, I I cannot do that. Um, my I I am responsible for taking care of myself, my my son, my dog, my cat, making sure we have a place to live, a car to drive, food to eat, bills to pay. And so that is that break-even point is incredibly important for me. And then to think about um, you know, the the um the profit on top of that, what what are the margins there? So that is my scenario, but it is important for you to really understand, outline, kind of lay out your scenario and really get clear on on what you need um to cover those costs to break even. Because I think even if this was a hobby for you, even if this is something you were just doing on the side for fun, I don't know that it would feel good to continuously lose money on these. So even in those scenarios, I think it's very very important to understand that break-even point and what you what you need. So that is the the biggest, most important point here is understanding your own numbers. Start here before you start anywhere else. Even if you don't get to anywhere else, okay? This is this is the most important is your scenario. Um, the second thing to consider is the value that you're delivering. So what is that, what is the actual impact of this workshop for your client? Is it better communication? What is that worth? Are you helping them reduce conflict? What is that worth? Are you helping them come together better as a team after a merger or acquisition? What is that worth? I mean, probably quite a bit. Um, what is it worth if you're helping somebody, an organization improve their employee retention? Or what is a stronger, more empathetic leadership team worth? Um, the more tangible the outcome, the more you can hopefully feel confident about what you charge and and probably should charge. So be careful too about charging the workshop itself versus, or I should say, only the workshop itself versus also considering that transformation or the return on investment. Um, because those are gonna be different numbers, you know, just a two-hour workshop full of Enneagram content, what is that worth versus an experience that allows the company to work better together, to have stronger communication, less conflict, um, and really come together as a team? Those are probably two very different numbers. And then is there anything included beyond the session uh that you may you maybe you're forgetting, um, like pre-work, any sort of pre-work that you have the client do that you're doing on your end to make that experience even better? Is there any sort of post-workshop report, pro post-workshop follow-up, post-workshop meetings that you're doing to help them implement what they learned in the workshop? What type of follow-up access do they get to you if there's questions, if the team asks questions? Um, so what and then you might also offer um coaching, maybe typing sessions before, maybe typing sessions after. Is that included in a package? Or are they priced separately? So things to consider that just overall the value that you're delivering. The third point to consider is who you are serving. This is going to be like the company size, the group size, um, company size-wise, uh, you want to consider their budget reality. So even if you're taking into consideration what you need to make, even if you're taking into consideration the value that you are bringing a team, it is just a reality that a 12-person nonprofit group is going to have a very different budget, most likely, than a 200-person global enterprise organization? Um, those those are just different budgets, even if you're delivering the same content. So who you're delivering this material to is also going to play a part in the the way that you price these. Um, and then considering group size. I'm and I'm asking the question to you. Does more people in the room mean more value delivered? Meaning you could justify charging more? Um I would argue it does. You know, uh, and I think that when you are impacting a, you know, a team of 15 people, um you are you are potentially, you know, changing that team dynamic. That can be incredibly powerful. But then what what is the value when you have a team of or a group of 500 people in a room that you're also sharing this material with? How how does that impact the pricing and the value that you're delivering? That would be a question. That would be a question, a good question to think about. I think I think it is. Um, I think it is a little bit more. And I think event coordinators who are who have 500 people in a room um are going to understand that. Um, and so just another consideration. Um, also maybe considering your own logistical load, um, that might justify charging more. It might justify charging less. Um, when we think about prep, travel, um, all the all the things logistically that happen or don't um could also play a part in in uh in that pricing consideration. The next one that I have here, the fourth one is where are you in your own journey to so to consider that? Um, this might be your experience level, a new facilitator versus a seasoned facilitator. Um, we had talked about, let's see, in episode three, how to land your first three Enneagram workshop clients where you're not just charging less for the sake of charging less, you're charging less so that you can get practice, you can get testimonials, you can get feedback, and that can help you then charge more in the future. And um, you it will give you the confidence, I think, to charge more when you have a few under your belt. And I think that social proof um will help the client help them make a decision and feel good about hiring you because you have that social proof and that credibility is there as when they see testimonials and case studies on your website or you're bringing those up in conversations, um, that can impact your pricing. And then something else that can impact it is just your capacity for how many you can do. And is does your pricing reflect that scarcity? If you can only do two a quarter, you know, is is the pricing reflective of that? And then last but not least is the place I think where most people start though, is market factors. Um, and then also here considering format factors. So, you know, when we're talking about market factors, this is what's the industry norm, what are other people charging, what are industries paying, what are these types of organizations paying? Um, and this is a loose data point, uh, not a hard and fast rule that you need to go by um because of all these other things, these four other buckets that we just talked about are probably being taken into consideration on someone else's website for pricing, and that all of the factors, the variables that they're using, a lot of them might be very different than yours. So you're going to get a different number, a different result. So make sure that you don't use this as, oh, well, they're charging this, I'll charge this. Um, use it as a reference point. Um, it can be a helpful sanity check, uh, but it should not necessarily be copied exactly. Uh, and then as far as kind of format factors go, considering is this a virtual versus on-site? Am I charging different for those based on my time and energy and the the travel differences? Um, does it justify a gap? Is it the same? I will tell you we have a flat travel fee that um I will I will add on. It's just a it's just a flat fee. It is what it is. I think it's $17.95 um right now, and it includes two nights and a hotel so that we're not rushing before or rushing out of your workshop. Many organizations, um, many team events. Like anything can run behind. And so thank goodness I have been able to um stay that additional day because otherwise I would have missed my flight because the group was running an hour late and I didn't have a big buffer, or I could have not had a big buffer, or I have been in a group before where they were off schedule, some emergency had happened, and it was almost two hours late. Now that is not regular. Um, and this, yeah, that's not a regular occurrence. You just never know what's going to happen. And so I really like as much as possible to have that day before and then the the evening after buffer. Um, it's not always possible. You might have personal things you need to get home to, you might have a another workshop that you need to head off to. Um, but as much as possible, that's the way that we do it. Um, that flat fee includes those two night hotel, the flight, the food, parking at the airport, parking at the hotel, or an Uber, which isn't always a isn't always cheaper than a car rental. Um it includes food. Um, I think that is, but we talk about it on our discovery call. Um when we get into the pricing, we it is a line item on the invoice. And I I like doing it. It's easier on my end. It's easier for our visiting facilitators to be able just to here's your here's your flat fee, manage it how you want. If you have extra great. Um, but you know, we have some averages that that will, you know, for uh, you know, a certain hotel, the car, you know, we we put all this and and factored it in. We're definitely by no by no means living, you know, uh a luxurious lifestyle, but we're also not staying at a motel where we might have to worry about bed bugs. Okay. So that's how that factor that flat fee is factored in. I've also found that it's easier for the client. Um, and when we talk about it, I will talk about it in a way that's, you know, we manage the travel. We manage the travel. There's a flat fee that we 100% manage. So you don't have to worry about booking our our flight. You don't have to worry about finding us a hotel. Um, now occasionally will there'll need to be exceptions made to this. Um, recently there was a team that had a specific location. Um, and they were able to get us their room rate if they booked it for us. They put it on their card. So I just kind of took what we typically pay for a hotel night, took that out, and then their travel fee. Um, they still had kind of the flat travel fee, but with the exception of the room taken out. So you may have to work with the client at times. Um, I've worked with another client in the very beginning who had a relationship with American Airlines. They had a deeply discounted rate. So they wanted to book our flight with that. Um, if I had it to do over again, I've never done that since because something changed and then it was I couldn't get a hold of the person who had booked my flight. So there was just some extra um anxiety and extra work that had to happen because I wasn't in control of that flight. Um, so there's ways, ways to do that, but you may have to make an exception for the client. But typically that's where we start, is with that flat fee. Um, and that is why now, if it is a regional travel uh experience, we where you know I'm driving up to four to six hours. That is a different price point where we'll take out the flight. Um, typically, if it's in driving distance, that means it only needs to be a night. Um, so we'll, you know, that extra hotel night is taken out. So that's gonna be a little cheaper. I think it's $9.95. And then there is a flat travel fee. If it is um, I think less than two hours, um, there's something with that um that we have where it's maybe just a $400 flat fee. You know, I'm at a Louisville. If we have to drive to Indianapolis, there's the time, there's the gas, there's the parking downtown somewhere, um, there's grabbing lunch before or after that needs to be taken into consideration, but that is going to be obviously cheaper than staying overnight. So those are kind of the three tiers of a flat travel fee. Um, you may decide that's too complicated, or there's just too many variables. I don't know. Um, but I like doing it that way. I also like doing it that way because there's no surprises at the end. I'm not giving a client a surprise invoice with my travel expenses that maybe they weren't expecting to be so much or they forgot about. And then it's like we just had this great workshop experience, and now I'm handing them a bill, or I'm reminding them about the bill, or you know, Bridget's, there's somebody on our team is reminding them about the bill. And I just don't want that. If they're not going to continue on with us, or if they're only gonna do the standalone workshop, I don't necessarily want that to be one of the last encounters they have. I want to take care of much of that in the beginning before the workshop, have a great experience, just kind of ride the high of that. And instead, we're talking about how they can apply it, what the takeaways are from the team, and not have you, you know, what's the delay on this invoice with my travel expenses? Here's my travel expenses. Um, so that's why we do it that way. You may want to do it very different, but just sharing that as an idea, take it, make it your own. Um, and then the other consideration around format factors is a one-time session. Is this a one-time session, standalone? They just want to bring you out for their end-of-year company retreat or summer retreat. It's just kind of more for entertainment, or is this an ongoing relationship where you're going to be doing some uh programming and this workshop is kind of the kickoff? So that is going to probably be some different pricing and what you do for that half day workshop for a one hour session. Or a standalone workshop versus that half day workshop is the kickoff to the rest of this program. So that will be another consideration when you're looking at pricing by workshop. So those are the considerations. We had five of them. The first and most important one, in my opinion, is understanding your own numbers. What do you actually need to make this worth your time? The second one is understanding the value of what it is you're delivering. The third one is understanding who you're serving and what their budget constraints or their budget reality is. What's the group size? Does that impact the value? The fourth one we talked about was understanding and considering where you are in your own journey as far as experience level, client portfolio. And then the last one was understanding the market and various format factors, industry norms, one-time session versus ongoing relationship, virtual versus on-site. How are you going to price those things differently? So I hope that that gives you things things to think about. As far as what we do inside of Enneagram MBA, it really is all up on our website. So it's not a secret, and I'll share why I do that in just a moment, but to give you just kind of a point, let's see, let me pull this up of where of what we do. And this isn't necessarily where I started, but this is where we're at at this moment in time recording this podcast. It might change, it might go up, it might go down, but this is where it is right now, and this is why it is right now. So our workshop experiences, and they are intentionally called experiences and not just simply a workshop, because there is so much that goes in before a workshop. Um, and then there is so much that goes into after the workshop, you know, tying it all up, um, understanding the ROIs, the takeaways, planning for next steps, that sort of thing. And so our two-hour experience is $3,500 plus Enneagram Institute assessments if they would like the paid assessment with the report, um, or we use personal personality path as our free quiz option. Um, a half day is $5,000. Um, so it's not, you know, $3,500 times two. It's, you know, there is a little bit of a decrease there when you add more time. And then our full day is $8,000. Um, and that all of those is the assessments are priced in addition to, um, and then any sort of workshop materials, like we have our guidebooks, is also priced separately, and then plus the travel fee. So um if they needed to, you know, if budget was an issue, uh, they could do the free quiz versus the paid assessment. Um, they could print their own field guide. So we charge $200 for the digital download. Um, so instead of us printing it, but I do, I love our printer. Our work, our guidebooks look so good. I love the stitching. They just have turned out really nice. So when it's possible, I like us to be able to do it because I think they look really nice. It's definitely not a moneymaker, um, but I but I love the way that they look. But some companies have um a pretty robust printing system because they print things off for clients, proposals. So they like to do it themselves, and that is quite all right. Or they will put the material inside a larger um event, event booklet. Um, we've done that before, where we're part of a leadership training that is maybe over the course of three days. So they'll get our digital download and then insert that into the overall leadership guidebook that they have for the three-day event, for example. So that is that that's some ways to do that. Um, and then also sometimes they will just want their uh the attendees, the their team members to print it off themselves, staple it, put it in a binder, whatever however they want to do it, um, and just be responsible for bringing it themselves. Again, totally up to the client how they want to do that. And obviously, um there's the wants and then there's also their their budget um constraints. So we do have some flexibility with that. Um, and then that might be um it might be more depending on if it is a large group. So, you know, if there's 75 people, that is going to be a different price point than a group of 20 people for two hours. So that'll that will increase the price, and then we can also decrease the price when we start taking things out. So um typically if if it's like, oh gosh, we really need to be at 3,000, we can't go uh an ounce over that. Um, so then we might need to take out the group mapping um analysis that we do on the front end. We might need to take out the post-workshop report, the the post-workshop debrief call. So there's some things that we can take out. I hate to do that because they are all in there very intentionally with the with the intention of giving a you know beginning to end experience, adding value at different points along the way, not just the workshop. But again, we I like to be willing to work with the client with what they what they have as much as possible. So we can always lower the investment a bit by taking some things out of the experience and maybe making it more of a true just kind of in and out workshop. Um, not ideal, but but but definitely a possibility. So you'll want to think about your own um offerings. Now, when we when I speak at an event, I don't usually have two hours. So there is an hour to 90 minutes. Sometimes I've had to do 45 minutes, but I will tell you, and I've talked to other Enneagram coaches, those are almost harder to do. So I I'm not as uh I don't feel as compelled to make the price any less because the it's actually more work and more time to condense all of this material into 45 minutes, an hour, and even 90 minutes. Um and that, you know, that that takes that takes some work. And then usually too, going back to the point where we were talking about group size, um, you know, for a a one-hour conference event, there may be 300, 400, 500 people in a room. And so the amount of people that are leaving with value is going to be hundreds more than just a team of 20. So again, that that is factored into that. Um, so I don't, I'm not saying that I'm an expert on pricing. I'm not saying that I have it right. I may be way off base, but it has worked for us uh at this point in time, um, open to changing things in the future. But if you have tips that have worked for you, um, if you have questions that you're not that you would like answered when it comes to pricing, um, I would love to be able to answer those as best as possible. Share those with others if you have tips or guidance or philosophies that you have applied in in your pricing journey that have worked for you, lessons learned, um, please share those. And if you want to remain anonymous, I will keep your keep that anonymous. But if you would like to and willing to be given credited, um, if you're willing to be credited for those tips, um, I would love to share those in a future episode. Um, and be sure to um call out your name and your Enneagram business with those. So please share. Um, and you can drop advice, lessons learned, or questions specific to pricing over at Enneagram MBA.com forward slash contact and just put, you know, pricing episode in the the subject line, and I'll know what you're talking about and and be able to to to uh put it in the right place. So um with that there's probably more there's definitely more to say on this, but I think that's uh a good amount to be reflecting on um and sharing. And the last thing I almost forgot, I did want to say, I put my pricing on my my website. This is a personal preference um because this is how I like to buy myself. I do not like to get on a call with anybody without at least having a range. I will not do a call. If I don't know and I don't, if I don't have an idea, are we talking about $500 or are we talking about $5,000? You know, when I rebranded um a couple years ago, there was a range. I didn't know exactly how much it would cost because they didn't know exactly what I wanted. And so you may not know exactly how much you're able to charge or or need to charge for a workshop experience because you don't know how many. Are you, are you do you have to travel? Um, what are their expectations? What are their wants? What's their budget? But there should be some sort of range. I just I don't, you know, I think most of the time we are buying things, maybe except for our healthcare services, with being pretty clear of how much it is. You go to the grocery, you know how much they are. Um, you know, you go buy clothes, you know, you know how much it is. You go buy a car for the most part, you know, you know, you have a range. And so if you if you don't want to maybe put the actual price, um maybe there is a range that you want to put. Um, but I I just find that to be helpful so that I'm not wasting the potential clients' time. If they are thinking a workshop's gonna be $300, and then they schedule the workshop, they decline other meetings because this workshop is on or this workshop call is on their schedule. Um, then we have the call, we do the call, we get through the 20, 30 minutes, and then at the end we're talking about pricing, and then we realize, oh my gosh, our you know, typical two-hour workshop is 3,000, but they were expecting 300. And then that is so far away that it's probably not going to happen. And now I have wasted their time versus them having maybe looked for somebody else that was in more of their price range. And so um I like to, I like to put the pricing on the website for those reasons. Um, I'm just thinking about myself as a buyer, my own buyer behavior preferences. I'm just thinking about how to um make this an efficient and an enjoyable experience for the client because that's not an that's not fun to put all that time and anticipation and then realize, oh my gosh, this is way out of my budget. Um, and so that at least is you they at least have an idea if it even makes sense to have a conversation to continue learning about each other um if you put your pricing. So that's why that's why I do that. Um, it is for myself, but it is also for the client as well, just to be kind of transparent in that way. So that's why I do that. I I know that I said I was gonna share that, so I wanted to share that. All right, with that, um please share questions, comments on this episode, enneagrammba.com forward slash contact. And then if you feel like, all right, I'm ready to start putting some numbers down on paper, but I don't yet have my actual workshop content. I'm still working on that, or I've been staring at a blank slide deck for days, weeks, months. Um, that is exactly what our DIY workshop facilitator facilitator kit is for. It comes with a commercial license so you can use it in your own business to make money. Um, the intention is to be able to do one workshop and immediately get your money back for this kit. Um, the kit comes with slide decks, it comes with talking points, it comes with a sample virtual training workshop so you can kind of get ideas of how I go through a workshop. Um, it comes with edit um links that you can edit and change the slide deck and the field guide to your own branding, colors, fonts. You can change out the content. If you don't like the way that we talk about it, you can change out the photos. Um, it also comes with the post-workshop and pre-workshop questions. It comes with the planning calendar, it comes with a sample, um, two-hour training agenda, comes with icebreaker examples, uh, discussion prompt examples, breakout activities and exercises. There's various handouts, there's post workshop activities. So there is a lot that goes into that. You can see what all exactly is included over at EnneagramMBA.com forward slash Enneagram slash facilitator slash kit. Um, but the link is in the show notes, and that'll probably be easier to get to if you want to you want to check that out. So um, and then with that also comes um a bonus 15-minute strategy call with myself to help answer any questions about the kit or a specific workshop coming up. Um so check that out. Thank you for being here. I think we have two more left. So I hope to see you um in both.