Aug 21, 2026 · 1 hr · 16 segments
A prospect asks what you charge, and you freeze. You quote a number that feels about right, then spend the whole engagement watching the clock and quietly hoping the hours work out. The truth is that…
Dan DeLongHost
Well, I mean, when I left Intuit, going from an employee making an hourly wage and not really concerned about the nature of the conversations that I'm having with, with people to me, it made no difference, you know, and, and, and I didn't get the luxury of saying no to answer, you know, when somebody calls.
And, you know, going from an hourly type of employee to an entrepreneur, you know, business owner at, at that point, that was a huge question.
I'm going to date myself, but I found my, well, my original clients that I had, if anybody's read my book, were all from my current, the operations facility that was going out of business and, or being sold, I took on them.
But as I grew, I would go to Craigslist and I would look up ads for people looking for a bookkeeper, people looking for an office manager, part-time, a few hours a week.
I mean, I knew enough to be worth $20 an hour, which back in 2006 was actually pretty dang good.
And then I went up to 25 when I knew, when I was like, okay, I know what I'm doing.
But yeah, hourly, hourly, right? It's, that's what we did because you went in the office, you got in there at this time, you left at this time, I pay you for those three hours.
Yeah, so I'm curious, and I just put it in the chat there, you know, how did you first decide what to charge your clients? Did you...
Did you crowdsource, right? Did you go to Craigslist, look what other people are charging? Or did you have a mentor that would, you know, provide guidance as to what to charge? I'm really curious.
Well, I mean, when I left Intuit, going from an employee making an hourly wage and not really concerned about the nature of the conversations that I'm having with, with people to me, it made no difference, you know, and, and, and I didn't get the luxury of saying no to answer, you know, when somebody calls.
And, you know, going from an hourly type of employee to an entrepreneur, you know, business owner at, at that point, that was a huge question.
I'm going to date myself, but I found my, well, my original clients that I had, if anybody's read my book, were all from my current, the operations facility that was going out of business and, or being sold, I took on them.
But as I grew, I would go to Craigslist and I would look up ads for people looking for a bookkeeper, people looking for an office manager, part-time, a few hours a week.
I mean, I knew enough to be worth $20 an hour, which back in 2006 was actually pretty dang good.
And then I went up to 25 when I knew, when I was like, okay, I know what I'm doing.
But yeah, hourly, hourly, right? It's, that's what we did because you went in the office, you got in there at this time, you left at this time, I pay you for those three hours.
Yeah, so I'm curious, and I just put it in the chat there, you know, how did you first decide what to charge your clients? Did you...
Did you crowdsource, right? Did you go to Craigslist, look what other people are charging? Or did you have a mentor that would, you know, provide guidance as to what to charge? I'm really curious.
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