Dan Mall's "one slice rule" says charge about one-tenth of what your client will gain from the project. It mirrors offering a friend the first slice of pizza: a small enough cut that everyone feels good about the deal.
So here's the rule that you can use every time to arrive at a price. Your price is the client's win divided by 10. Where did this 10% number come from? There's no law that says it has to be. Why not 25% or 50%? I call it the one slice rule. Think about it this way. Imagine your best friend gives you a call and says, hey, I'm coming over, I'm gonna bring a large pizza. And you're like, yeah, that sounds great. How much do I owe you? How much can I chip in? And they're like, oh no, no, it's on me as long as I can have the first slice. Would you take that deal? I would take that deal. I get a whole pizza and all I have to give up is 1 slice? What a steal! Most pizzas have 8 slices, so giving up 1 slice means giving up about 12.5%, which is pretty close to 10%. Giving up 10% or 12% doesn't feel like giving up much at all, and that's what it's like when you say it to a client, and when you say, I'm gonna make all these great things happen for you as long as you don't mind me having the first slice.
