Stop Guessing: How to Calculate What You Actually Earn Per Gig

You’ve diagnosed yourself with Revenue Reality Disorder… Now what?

First, some assurance…  

It’s going to be okay, my friend.  

Most speakers I’ve talked to have a very vague idea of what their average speaking fees actually are.  You’re not alone.

This is a problem that is limiting your business… for now… but that ends today!

We’re going to look at some initial steps you can take to get this whole “fee tracking” thing under control.  Once you have a better grasp of your actual numbers, you’ll have stronger fee discussions, more effective negotiations, and increased revenue.

Ready to dive in?  

Good. Let’s do this thing.

Stop Counting Services – Start Thinking in Days

One of the first things you’ll want to do is be incredibly clear about what actually counts as a “gig.”  Some speakers muddy the waters by trying to track separate prices for the speech, the book signing, the books, the workshop, the discussion panel, etc.

Geesh… that’s a lot!

It’s like ordering à la carte at a five-star restaurant when you really just wanted the combo meal. Who’s got time for that?

You can simplify things (immensely) when you start using a day rate principle.  One day’s appearance at a gig – with all of those things bundled together – counts as what you earned for that event.

For instance, if I do a keynote and a workshop at an event, those items are not listed separately in my tracking data.  Instead, they are bundled together for one day at $20K total.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll know that I often refer to this bundling of services as a “Happy Meal.”  Not only does this pricing system make things simpler for your tracking, it also makes things much easier for your event organizer to understand.

Once you think about things in terms of “days” and not “individual services”, it becomes easier to plan out your schedule for the entire year.  Take out weekends and holidays, and your speaking business probably has about 200 bookable days in a year.

If you want to get really nitty gritty, then you’ll recognize that most single-day events also include a day before and a day after for travel.  That cuts down on your 200 bookable days even more, unless you can stack events together in the same city on back-to-back dates.  (This happens, but it’s rare.)

Turn Guesswork Into Real Numbers

Once you’ve adjusted to the “day rate” mentality, set up your actual tracking system and set some rules for how things get recorded.

Honestly, an Excel or Google spreadsheet can be the easiest place to start although you may choose to use a different system with fancier features later on.  (Personally, I use a software I created just for this purpose called GiGs.)

In your tracker, record values for what you initially quoted for a gig along with the final fee you negotiated down to.  This gives you a third number – the difference between these numbers – called your Negotiation Gap.  The average of your final fees over time will help you generate the average fee you’re charging.

When you’re starting to record values, you need to be really clear about how you track.  For example, let’s say you do a gig that includes eight separate events for one client.  Each of those appearances (each day) needs to be listed separately.

I’m actually in the midst of one of these speaking tours right now.  It’s a single client who is running an event across the country in July and August with eight separate venues and dates.  I am earning $80K for the entire tour, but listing this in my tracker as eight trackable events at $10K per day.

It’s fine to tag it somehow so you can remember that each of the eight speeches was part of the same deal.  Tracking this way is going to help you understand what your average fee is per day.

And my Happy Meal still applies.  Each of the eight performances still covers one “day” of my time including a panel discussion, books, and the keynote.