How to look at your fee structure from another angle

If you allowed your clients to decide how much to pay you, what sort of fee would you receive? It’s a question that co-founder Sean Russo’s risk management firm Noah’s Rule tackles every day.

“We let our client decide how much they should pay us. The client determines the fee and it’s entirely up to them to determine whether we have added value to their company.”

“For a year and a half, we didn’t pay ourselves. Any revenue we earned went back into the company to help us market, and to pay the lady who helped us in the office. We just spent that time establishing our name, and getting work by word-of-mouth.”

“But we needed to charge more, and we didn’t know how to do that initially. But when we had established a track record we wrote a letter to all our clients saying “we’re not charging enough for our services”. That’s when we introduced this fee the client decides upon. We charge a fixed fee, then they pay another fee that is up their discretion. It’s been incredibly successful.”

“We recorded $2.6 million in revenue for 2007-08 with 5% growth in 2008-09 to reach $2.73 million.”

Read a full profile of Noah’s Rule co-founder Sean Russo.