I wondered this myself actually, as i now started to offer it to lure clients in... hopefully then getting them to pay a fixed yearly/monthly fee.
As Shamus said in another post, to charge your first client for setting up the books and systems, and then not charge anyone else (as you can use/adapt the systems to suit) is a little unfair/immoral. So doing free first visits and working the cost into those 'fixed' fees sit slighty better with me :D
-- Edited by ClawzCTR on Thursday 12th of April 2012 03:52:42 PM
I don't and also the cost of setting up or updating systems doesn't get recovered but a good initial meeting and good work put in setting up systems makes my work easier going forward so I think it's time well spent.
I recover the cost of the initial meeting and setup along with my indirect expenses though absorption into client fees throughout the year. One of the joys of fixed fees I guess.
What do you use as a basis to calculate the fixed fee?
I have thought about carging fixed fee several times, but not quite sure how I would go about calculating this and secondly whether this way would be more profitable for me and accepted by clients...?
currently it's based on a combination of turnover, transactions, structure, vat registration and whether other add on services are required. I am working on a new process at the moment though.
I've never thought about 'recovering the cost' of the first meeting. It's like doing the MLR, invoicing the clients, going networking, designing my website.....not billable hours but still essential parts of running the business. When setting my fees (and I do a mixture of fixed and hourly) I take a holistic perspective, aiming to earn an amount that I am happy with for the amount of hours I spend working in total, not just the billable hours.
So let's say you charge clients £15 per hour then your actual pay will be - what? - £8 per hour, after allowing for expenses and non billable hours. That's just the way it works when you run your own business and the important thing is to set the fees at an appropriate level which take that into account.
