Pricing Strategies for Instructional Design Work
July 11, 2022
In this episode, Sheldon goes over the mindset for pricing an instructional design gig. You will have to think past hourly for successful pricing.
Keywords: SafetyFM, Safety Consultant, marketing, sales, pricing, instructional design, Sheldon, Primus, Sheldon Primus, ADDIE, Bloom taxonomy, OSHA, government, US, 360 Training, Red Vector, SAP Litmos, Alliance Safety Council, OSHA regulation, US government, Joe Biden, EPA, Department of Labor, Donald Trump, Resume, OSHA 10, training, safety and health, EHS
[00:00:08] spk_0: this episode is powered by safety FM.
[00:00:17] spk_1: Welcome to the safety consultant podcast. I am your host, Sheldon Primus, is the podcast where I teach you the business of being a safety consultant. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. So this is one of those things that as a safety consultant safety officer, someone in this field you might be thinking all right, where do I go for resources? So I present to you today to the safety consultant podcast. Consider this a podcast for those of you that want to be safety consultant and those of you who play the role of being a safety consultant or even those are you who want to get the understanding of what a safety consultant would be, how you bam got you with all of them. So this week I'm actually gonna go over one of the things I thought would be really helpful for you throughout the years. I always talked about me and my professional work and I do write courses for many people who take online classes. So if you've ever taken some online classes, you may have taken one of mine before that I've written in the background, you can see my resume and my linkedin all the people who I've written courses for or been their subject matter expert. There's nine people who are approved to be on OSHA's online training. If you want to take an OSHA online 30 or online 10, There's only nine companies, I believe if I'm right nine, companies, I could do that. Um there's subject matter expert for general industry and construction for four of those companies. So that's right in my courses where you're either going through reviews that I've done. So I've been in in structural design work for a while. I've been in the subject matter expert work for a while. Excuse the dog barking in the background. I am not in a sound stage. So we're gonna kind of go over just really briefly, a couple of considerations that I had. So one of the considerations that I wanted to let you guys know and I thought might be really cool is how to price for this. That's what I'm thinking of. How do you price for this? Pricing is going to be something for everybody? Right, so let's say someone is gonna let's do a one hour course, one hour courses manageable. It's something that we could think about in context. So, first you gotta think of who is receiving this course. So is it gonna be technical, is it going to be something that's just an awareness level? How in depth are you going to have to do your research for this? Almost one hour of course. How familiar are you with this topic? You may be the sme and you may be familiar enough that you understand the major concepts but you may not understand the regulation side and you're gonna have to learn a little bit more about the regulation side. So then that's how much research time it's going to take too. Right, So in the back of your brain you're thinking yes, it's an hour topic, I'm going to have to figure out how many things I need to include in this hour. So you're gonna have to start with an outline. Break down that outline as to these many things need to be in this topic. You can get your outline through uh OSHA regulation or standard. If you're in the U. S. Or some other entity, go through their standard. And you say all right, this is what we're gonna use. And you follow the standards guidelines step by step by step and that's what you're gonna end up with. So now let's say you had a guidance and it's going to take you roughly as you're looking through it with your development time um and find out how they want the course this our course. Are you going to deliver to them as a power point? Are you delivering this as the word document? And then they have people who are going to grab that, They're going to edit it even more and they're going to cut it down and then they're going to put it in the storyboard and then they're going to put it in some sort of power point or some sort of functional program, find out where you are in that piece. Are you the person who's giving them that word document or you the person who is giving them the completed power point, that's going to be a big difference. And it could be power point, just whatever the presentation is. So that's difference in their pricing. So the first thought is, how long is it going to take me to do my all of the things that I'm going to need to as far as investigation and getting data and all that and then disseminate that information in uh format that is going to be mostly chapters modules. So as you're getting this information that's going to get you thinking about time consideration. So let's say this thing in realistic terms with your typing ability, you're able to type in and it's going to take you roughly about 10 hours to do this class with their type and building everything and what they're looking for. Two ways of figuring this thing out. You could price by your hours. So if you're making you know, $250 an hour, you can go and say this project is going to be $2,500, you could do it that way. And of course if you're doing an eight hour class, 10 hour class, then you could exponentially add to that figure or you could do it the other way, which is word count, how many words is required for this project to be complete. And then at that point you're going to be thinking about your words and how many people could um as you go through reading, how how much are you reading? So a normal blog post just to give you guys some context, a normal blog post, that's about a page and a half is roughly around 700 words on uh Excel. If you are just a word document of and it's one of those new time romans, 12 inch font doubles um double spaced. That's roughly gonna get you about 700 words. Once you get into courses now you're going to be thinking of more advanced wording for that one. So when you think of courses for word accounts, that now is going to be a word count, including testing and everything else. So you're gonna have to think if they're looking for Uh 10,000 words for this quiz or for this program. How much does that relate to you? So 10,000 words is going to equal 10 hours of work and therefore at that time you're looking at $2500 for your hours or you might want to break that down into, you know, my our worth is 20, say 10 hours. And I'm gonna think of this as how many hours am I being paid at this time, how many words is necessary and then divide your hours by how many words are necessary. So at that point that's going to give you your price. So whatever that number works out to. So that's some, some just considerations, you could do anything. It's up to you. But what you really want to find out is the audience, you want to find out your timeframe once your deadlines and make sure you hit those, you also want to find out what are you delivering, What is the deliverables you're giving to them? Uh Then of course you wanna agree on that price, you're going to do tests and when you do your test, make sure your test questions are also going to have uh the answers to it with the reasons why the answer is right. And then uh deliver your material, get that thing out. There's a lot more instructional design, but this is just giving you an idea. Okay, that's really what I'm just trying to cut into your brain. I want to give you guys a good idea of what to think of when you're being called on to do the pricing your rate. So there you go. I am an sme this is what I do all the time. My pricing varies, but I have a method to my pricing. I've been doing it for like seven years for many, many, many companies. So they must like my pricing. So in this way I feel like it could help you a little instructional design is if you're a consultant, you're an expert or something, right? So therefore you can take your expertise, put it in an instructional design and walk people through the process. Welcome through everything. All right. So that is it for me please like and subscribe to this podcast. Uh if you have a chance, I would love it. If you could help me out with the algorithms and what that is is people give you comments and google and itunes and all the other places. Love seeing comments and interaction and then you get launched up a little bit higher. So that's a good way to support me. If you like the content that I am giving you, it doesn't cost you a dime to hit the subscribe button or in any way it cost you to do a nice review for me. That'd be awesome. So thank you so much for the support spread with the friends. Keep an eye on Sheldon Primus dot com. I'm changing a lot. And if you have not been on safety consultant, tv safety consultant dot tv go for that right now use code S C 101 and you will get 30 days free instead of the three day free trial. You're gonna get an extended $3 free trial of 30 days. And that's safety consultant dot tv has many, many, many, many videos on it to help you with your safety consulting career. It's going to help you with a lot of things. And also I got interviews in there that you may have remembered and you heard you can see those interviews in there. So that's all part of safety consultant dot tv And for the online version. If you go on safety consultant dot tv online and you remember you can download my templates. I have templates of my written programs. Alright. For clients, I got templates for my proposals. You can get them all there. So safety consultant dot tv. Use code S C 101 for 30 days free and keep an eye out on Sheldon Primus dot com. I'm making a bunch of changes and you'll see it there. Alright, gang, Go get him.
[00:11:11] spk_0: This episode has been powered by safety FM. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host of its guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour are only examples. They should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they are based on very limited and dated. Open source information, assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast or broadcast may be reproduced stored within a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast or broadcast. Sheldon Primus. Mhm
[00:00:08] spk_0: this episode is powered by safety FM.
[00:00:17] spk_1: Welcome to the safety consultant podcast. I am your host, Sheldon Primus, is the podcast where I teach you the business of being a safety consultant. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. So this is one of those things that as a safety consultant safety officer, someone in this field you might be thinking all right, where do I go for resources? So I present to you today to the safety consultant podcast. Consider this a podcast for those of you that want to be safety consultant and those of you who play the role of being a safety consultant or even those are you who want to get the understanding of what a safety consultant would be, how you bam got you with all of them. So this week I'm actually gonna go over one of the things I thought would be really helpful for you throughout the years. I always talked about me and my professional work and I do write courses for many people who take online classes. So if you've ever taken some online classes, you may have taken one of mine before that I've written in the background, you can see my resume and my linkedin all the people who I've written courses for or been their subject matter expert. There's nine people who are approved to be on OSHA's online training. If you want to take an OSHA online 30 or online 10, There's only nine companies, I believe if I'm right nine, companies, I could do that. Um there's subject matter expert for general industry and construction for four of those companies. So that's right in my courses where you're either going through reviews that I've done. So I've been in in structural design work for a while. I've been in the subject matter expert work for a while. Excuse the dog barking in the background. I am not in a sound stage. So we're gonna kind of go over just really briefly, a couple of considerations that I had. So one of the considerations that I wanted to let you guys know and I thought might be really cool is how to price for this. That's what I'm thinking of. How do you price for this? Pricing is going to be something for everybody? Right, so let's say someone is gonna let's do a one hour course, one hour courses manageable. It's something that we could think about in context. So, first you gotta think of who is receiving this course. So is it gonna be technical, is it going to be something that's just an awareness level? How in depth are you going to have to do your research for this? Almost one hour of course. How familiar are you with this topic? You may be the sme and you may be familiar enough that you understand the major concepts but you may not understand the regulation side and you're gonna have to learn a little bit more about the regulation side. So then that's how much research time it's going to take too. Right, So in the back of your brain you're thinking yes, it's an hour topic, I'm going to have to figure out how many things I need to include in this hour. So you're gonna have to start with an outline. Break down that outline as to these many things need to be in this topic. You can get your outline through uh OSHA regulation or standard. If you're in the U. S. Or some other entity, go through their standard. And you say all right, this is what we're gonna use. And you follow the standards guidelines step by step by step and that's what you're gonna end up with. So now let's say you had a guidance and it's going to take you roughly as you're looking through it with your development time um and find out how they want the course this our course. Are you going to deliver to them as a power point? Are you delivering this as the word document? And then they have people who are going to grab that, They're going to edit it even more and they're going to cut it down and then they're going to put it in the storyboard and then they're going to put it in some sort of power point or some sort of functional program, find out where you are in that piece. Are you the person who's giving them that word document or you the person who is giving them the completed power point, that's going to be a big difference. And it could be power point, just whatever the presentation is. So that's difference in their pricing. So the first thought is, how long is it going to take me to do my all of the things that I'm going to need to as far as investigation and getting data and all that and then disseminate that information in uh format that is going to be mostly chapters modules. So as you're getting this information that's going to get you thinking about time consideration. So let's say this thing in realistic terms with your typing ability, you're able to type in and it's going to take you roughly about 10 hours to do this class with their type and building everything and what they're looking for. Two ways of figuring this thing out. You could price by your hours. So if you're making you know, $250 an hour, you can go and say this project is going to be $2,500, you could do it that way. And of course if you're doing an eight hour class, 10 hour class, then you could exponentially add to that figure or you could do it the other way, which is word count, how many words is required for this project to be complete. And then at that point you're going to be thinking about your words and how many people could um as you go through reading, how how much are you reading? So a normal blog post just to give you guys some context, a normal blog post, that's about a page and a half is roughly around 700 words on uh Excel. If you are just a word document of and it's one of those new time romans, 12 inch font doubles um double spaced. That's roughly gonna get you about 700 words. Once you get into courses now you're going to be thinking of more advanced wording for that one. So when you think of courses for word accounts, that now is going to be a word count, including testing and everything else. So you're gonna have to think if they're looking for Uh 10,000 words for this quiz or for this program. How much does that relate to you? So 10,000 words is going to equal 10 hours of work and therefore at that time you're looking at $2500 for your hours or you might want to break that down into, you know, my our worth is 20, say 10 hours. And I'm gonna think of this as how many hours am I being paid at this time, how many words is necessary and then divide your hours by how many words are necessary. So at that point that's going to give you your price. So whatever that number works out to. So that's some, some just considerations, you could do anything. It's up to you. But what you really want to find out is the audience, you want to find out your timeframe once your deadlines and make sure you hit those, you also want to find out what are you delivering, What is the deliverables you're giving to them? Uh Then of course you wanna agree on that price, you're going to do tests and when you do your test, make sure your test questions are also going to have uh the answers to it with the reasons why the answer is right. And then uh deliver your material, get that thing out. There's a lot more instructional design, but this is just giving you an idea. Okay, that's really what I'm just trying to cut into your brain. I want to give you guys a good idea of what to think of when you're being called on to do the pricing your rate. So there you go. I am an sme this is what I do all the time. My pricing varies, but I have a method to my pricing. I've been doing it for like seven years for many, many, many companies. So they must like my pricing. So in this way I feel like it could help you a little instructional design is if you're a consultant, you're an expert or something, right? So therefore you can take your expertise, put it in an instructional design and walk people through the process. Welcome through everything. All right. So that is it for me please like and subscribe to this podcast. Uh if you have a chance, I would love it. If you could help me out with the algorithms and what that is is people give you comments and google and itunes and all the other places. Love seeing comments and interaction and then you get launched up a little bit higher. So that's a good way to support me. If you like the content that I am giving you, it doesn't cost you a dime to hit the subscribe button or in any way it cost you to do a nice review for me. That'd be awesome. So thank you so much for the support spread with the friends. Keep an eye on Sheldon Primus dot com. I'm changing a lot. And if you have not been on safety consultant, tv safety consultant dot tv go for that right now use code S C 101 and you will get 30 days free instead of the three day free trial. You're gonna get an extended $3 free trial of 30 days. And that's safety consultant dot tv has many, many, many, many videos on it to help you with your safety consulting career. It's going to help you with a lot of things. And also I got interviews in there that you may have remembered and you heard you can see those interviews in there. So that's all part of safety consultant dot tv And for the online version. If you go on safety consultant dot tv online and you remember you can download my templates. I have templates of my written programs. Alright. For clients, I got templates for my proposals. You can get them all there. So safety consultant dot tv. Use code S C 101 for 30 days free and keep an eye out on Sheldon Primus dot com. I'm making a bunch of changes and you'll see it there. Alright, gang, Go get him.
[00:11:11] spk_0: This episode has been powered by safety FM. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host of its guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour are only examples. They should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they are based on very limited and dated. Open source information, assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast or broadcast may be reproduced stored within a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast or broadcast. Sheldon Primus. Mhm
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