– Blogue –

A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE COST OF A COSTUMIZED E-LEARNING COURSE

Here is a story inspired by a construction entrepreneur that I was able to adapt to my own story as an entrepreneur in the training sector. It’s quite the kind of conversation I sometimes have which is part of entrepreneurial life.

One day, a client asked me how much it would cost to develop an online training project for his employees. (A theoretical training with exercises and exams)

Based on published standards and recommendations, I am making him a proposal for $3,750.00

  • The client responds: “It sounds really expensive.”
  • So I ask him, “What do you think would be a reasonable price for this job?”
  • The client replies: “No higher than $2,000.00.”
  • I kindly reply: “OK, unfortunately, depending on what you’re asking, you’ll have to compare with other providers or do it yourself.”
  • The client replies: “Do it myself! … I don’t know how.”
  • I say, “Alright, so how about for $2,000.00, I’ll teach you how to do it. That way, in addition to saving you $1,750.00, you’ll learn valuable skills that will be useful for other trainings to create in the future.”
  • The client says to me, “That’s interesting! Let’s do it !”
  • I reply “Great! To get started, you’ll need a few tools. First, you’ll need a platform (LMS) to upload your training materials and others to come.”
  • The client replies, “I don’t have one!”
  • I reply: “There are several e-learning platforms on the market that can meet your needs depending on what you want. My “PAELO” platform allows you to create and upload e-learning materials, upload and manage your work procedures, build apprentice booklets for your workstations, make interactive surveys, create forms and reports to be filled out online as well as 3D equipment inspections. Since your need is currently oriented towards e-learning only and it is urgent, I offer you the e-learning component of PAELO for free for one month and you will see afterwards if it suits your need or not. The training you will create inside PAELO is yours, you will not lose it.”
  • The client says to me: “Perfect, let’s do it that way to get started.”
  • I reply: “Okay, then to create your training materials, you need to gather all the documents related with the topic (powerpoint presentation, photos, videos, procedures in PDF or Word, etc.)”
  • The client responds: “Uh, OK… I’ll try to get it all together, but several documents are out of date!”
  • I reply: “I can take care of updating your documents for you, but depending on the workload I will have to charge you extra fees. My hourly rate is $75.00/hr.”
  • The client says to me: “Okay, that’s fair.”
  • I reply: “Great! I’ll get your PAELO platform ready and we’ll start the project on Monday to help you with how to create training materials with good andragogical principles for your employees.”
  • The client replies: “Wait! I have appointments and important business to handle during this week. I won’t be available.”
  • I say: “OK, no problem, you let me know when you are ready and available. Plan on about 20 hours of learning and preparation + 30 hours of work to do to complete your training project. Otherwise, if you are not available, I can train someone else in your company.”
  • The client responds: “Ohhh! I don’t have 50 hours to devote to this, because I have to work on my contracts and I don’t have employees available to do this work. Also, very few of my employees have the computer skills to create online training.”
  • I say: “I understand. Indeed when you do a job yourself or by an employee, you have to take into account the unproductive factors.”
  • The client says to me: “What do you mean?”
  • I reply: “Doing a job completely from scratch includes time spent planning the project, gathering all the documents and information, using the right software to create, converting to web format, testing, making corrections before delivering the final product, assigning trainings, tracking learners. All of this has to be done over several hours and it will disrupt your usual tasks and possibly affect your revenue stream for your business.”
  • The client replies: “Well, you know, I realize that the job is much more complex than I thought. Your proposal of $3,750.00 is very reasonable. I’d like you to take on this project.”

CONCLUSIONS:

When you pay for a training job, especially a customized job, you are not only paying for the service and the task at hand. You are also paying for:

  • Knowledge
  • Advices
  • Experience
  • Customized skills
  • Computer tools
  • Time spent for planning
  • Time spent for preparation
  • Professionnalism
  • Work ethic
  • Excellence
  • Discipline
  • Commitment
  • Integrity
  • Licensing 
  • Responsibilities
  • Computer security and data protection

If you are asking a specialist for a customized work proposal, it is important to remember and understand the issues you are facing. If you do the work yourself, how will you benefit from it and will you achieve the desired objectives from a financial, regulatory compliance and human factors perspective?

If the offer exceeds your budget, there is nothing wrong with getting other proposals.

Remember, as we often say… you get what you pay for.

  • SERVICE PROVIDERS: If you’ve done a good job of analyzing the customer’s needs, know your value and be confident in it.
  • EMPLOYERS: Carefully analyze your needs and understand the value of a proposal based on the services offered and the goals to be achieved. Don’t just pay attention to the price at the bottom of the page. Ask the vendor questions to understand the value of a proposal.

Thank you very much and feel free to share this articles to your friends, entrepreneurs and customers.