Fractional Resources

When most consultants or fractionals talk about pricing, they’re actually talking about three different things. They just don’t realize it.

They say “I charge $15k a month,” or “I do value pricing,” or “I bill hourly,” or “they get one call a week”—as if that’s all the same thing.

It’s not.

They’re mixing up three things—and calling it pricing:

• Price – the number. The dollar amount. What you charge.
• Structure – how you charge it. Hourly, retainer, milestone, equity, flat rate, subscription, whatever.
• Package – what you do and what the client gets. (Yes, both. It’s two-sided. We’ll come back to that.)

And when you conflate those, you lose all your flexibility. You can’t experiment. You can’t make good offers. You can’t even evaluate if your pricing is “working,” because you don’t know which part isn’t.

Let’s tease them apart.

Price: The Number

This one sounds simple—until you realize you’re making it up every time. It’s the part that makes people sweat.

You can base it on:

• Cost
• Value
• What you made at your last job
• What your gut says you’ll be happy doing it for
• What your competition charges

But in the end, price is a number. It’s not morality. It’s not value. It’s not a judgment. It’s a lever.

It’s what makes the work worth doing—for you.

Want a simple way to find your price?
Try Hungry, Happy, Ecstatic—a dead-simple model for knowing what makes a project worth it.

Structure: How the Money Moves

Structure is how the service is delivered—and how the money moves in return.

• Hourly / Daily / Time-based — sell slices of time.
• Retainer — reserve availability over a set period.
• Subscription — recurring access, often “unlimited” or loosely scoped.
• Fixed-fee — one price, defined deliverable or outcome.
• Performance-based — tied to specific results or success metrics.
• Prepaid blocks — a set number of hours, calls, or sessions, used as needed.

Structure is the shape of the deal: how money flows, for how long, and who carries the risk.

It’s not the work—it’s the lane it drives in.

The same $20,000 feels very different depending on whether it’s upfront, monthly, on delivery, or tied to a goal.

That difference? Structure.

Package: What You Do and What They Get

The package is the offer. What you’re selling.

Sometimes it’s simple:

• “An hour on Zoom”
• “A day of strategy”
• “A roadmap in two weeks”
• “A guaranteed outcome or your money back”

Other times it’s complex:

• “Unlimited Slack access and two calls a month”
• “Fractional CTO for a product team”
• “3-month sprint with onboarding, workshops, and async review”

But every package has two sides:

• What they get — access, calls, deliverables, outcomes.
• What you do — prep, follow-up, thinking, context switching, emotional load.

A good package works for both sides. Otherwise, someone pays for it later—usually you.

They create clarity, boundaries, and repeatable value—for them and for you.

Why This Matters

When you understand the difference between pricing, structure, and package, you can actually start designing your work.

You can:

• Change your price without changing the work
• Adjust your structure to shift risk
• Redesign your package to match your real energy and capacity

Or you can leave them all bundled up in one big knot and keep wondering why clients push back, why you’re exhausted, or why you’re stuck at the same income ceiling.

Your call.

I’m David Raistrick. I coach fractional leaders and solo consultants who want to make their work sustainable, valuable, and sane.
If you’re tired of winging it every time a client asks, “What would it cost to…” — I can help.

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