Freelance PRs - a question about fees

[kittkat]

Hi - I am pretty new to life as a freelance PR consultant. I just wondered how others deal with the time they spend at meetings?

I have (hopefully) secured some work via a marketing agency whose client is after some PR work. The client wants to meet me next week - do I bill the marketing agency for my time to meet?? Or, as its the first meeting, should I swallow the cost?

Bump

Not in PR, (market research), but if it's a meeting to discuss prospective work I wouldn't expect to charge.

If the agency has already said that they want to work with you, and this is the client 'checking you out' then I'm not sure - have you raised it with them?

Who would the contract be with? If it's the marketing agency then it's important that they understand from the beginning that they are buying your time, and that any meeting (as it involves your time) will incur a charge.

If I were you I would raise the issue of time/fee with them and see how they react. Often agencies 'forget' that you don't work for them full time and just expect you to turn up for meetings as they would.

I take this on a 'project by project' basis - I charge some clients, but not all, OR usually, I charge SOMETIMES but not always - depending on travel, hassle etc

I absorb the initial meeting into my costs. I charge anywhere between £250-£400 a day depending on client but also work projects out one by one.

I do not charge for this type of meeting, I see it as part of my "marketing admin": no cost but then that's why the daily / hourly cost is so high for agreed work.

If you are new to this, then you need to take these sort of commitments into account when you work out your charges, estimated profit etc.

For most clients I charge a fixed sum for the agreed work and outputs/outcomes. For a few I charge on an input basis (per hour and day of work that I have completed.