Ready Kids › First Job Ready › Badge 2 › Lesson 2.5
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What to charge
Work out a fair rate, agree it before the job, and say it out loud without hedging.
1Watch
Ten to midnight
Ten to midnight
The parents are back. Keys on the table. Dad reaches for his wallet and says, so what do we owe you? The sitter's face, and the film ends.
15 secondsShe has been dreading this bit since seven o’clock. It is the easiest bit, if it happened earlier.
2The idea
How a rate is built
Nobody is born knowing what to charge. A rate is built: what sitters your age get where you live, which you find out by asking a parent and two sitters. Then more for more kids. More for a baby. More after midnight. A bit more if you are first aid trained. The number is built from facts, not from how brave you feel.
It is per hour, and you round it. It is the same for every family unless the job is different. If they offer more, say thank you. If they offer less, say your number again, once. Then either they meet it or you decide to take the job anyway, knowing you decided.
3The idea
When and how you say it
At the first meeting, before the date is agreed.
1. They ask, or you raise it: can I check the rate with you?
2. Say the number, then stop. It’s ten an hour. Silence.
3. If they ask about extras: it’s twelve after midnight, and for three kids.
4. Both say yes.
5. Put it in the message that confirms the date.
Say the number, then stop talking. That is the hard part. The urge is to add if that’s OK, or whatever you think, or I don’t mind. Every one of those tells the parent the number is soft. It is not soft. It is a price, and prices come with a full stop.
4The idea
Noah and the number
Noah’s dad says sitters his age round here get nine to eleven. Two kids, one a baby he has learned about, until half ten. He picks ten. At the first meeting the parent asks. Noah: It’s ten an hour. Pause. Parent: Great. The confirmation message says: Saturday, six till half ten, ten an hour, my dad collects at half ten.
At half ten the dad reaches for his wallet and there is nothing to discuss. The awkward bit was never the money. It was the not having said it. Every sitter who dreads the wallet moment skipped a sentence at the kitchen table three days earlier.
5Build it
Rate calculator
Rate calculator
Sliders: the local going rate, number of kids, a baby yes or no, past midnight, first aid trained. It gives you a number. Then a scripted practice: the parent's line appears, you tap your reply, and it catches you if you add a hedge.
The trap in the script is the hedge. It is kind, and it costs you money.
6Decide
The parent asks what you charge. Which is the answer?
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The number, then nothing
Say the number. Then close your mouth.
“It's ten an hour.”
Swap in your own number. The full stop is the important part.
8Find them
Which of these should be settled before the job, not at the door?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Say your rate out loud to a parent, three times, with no if-that's-OK and no or-whatever. Number, full stop. They tell you when it sounded like a price.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Rate agreed before the job, out loud, both of you. Never at the door at midnight.
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