@Danny: My consulting is all via email too. I track it using the free AIR app Klok, and in every email I add a ‘Time total since last invoice’ with the tally since last invoice sent. I send invoices for totals of 8 hours or 40 depending on the volume of consulting.

That’s an interesting question…I typically consult over the phone so it’s easier for me, but have you thought about a time tracking app like harvest or freshbooks even?

Heck, there are a lot of free timers out there too — you could just start/stop the timer when you’re emailing and let your clients know when they’ve hit the limit.

Alternatively, you could create a specific ‘intro’ package where you would just offer one item for free (like a competitive analysis or something), and anything else would need to come from purchased hours.

How do you calculate the 30 min / hour ? Most of my “consulting” happens via email as I am living in Costa Rica at the moment and Skype isn’t always an option.

Something else to think about is offering ‘packages’ with a certain number of consulting hours. This has worked really well for me as I can also set an expiration date and other things. It’s kind of a cross between hour-by-hour consulting and a retainer (which is something else to think about).

@Danny: Excellent question! To be honest I’ve yet to come up with packages and plans for my consulting services (getting there) I usually just charge my regular hourly rate and adjust slightly depending on the client. As for drawing the line, well that’s the hard part cause it’s very hard not to answer when someone asks you a questions, especially if it’s something rather simple. What I usually do is right from the start I’ll tell clients that I think could use my consulting services that I will give them approx. an hour free to start, and then if they find it’s useful, just hire me! But yeah, it’s not easy to draw that line :)

1. Many a times clients do not know what they are looking for, or at times you would realize that what they want to get done may not help them much. A little consulting help can be extremely useful for such clients.

2. Even if you solve all their problems and your clients won’t need your services for a long time, they are sure to send you many referrals. It is always good to provide as much value to your clients as possible, even at the cost of future business. The referrals and word of mouth will get you more work.

I have thought about doing this for a while. I do pretty much the same thing as you. I design wordpress theme, have a pretty good blog, and know a lot about both.

My question is…..how do you decide how much to charge for this?

Also, if you offer consultation services, where do you draw the line when working with a client who hasn’t paid for the consulting services?