How to Determine Private Detective Fees
PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS IN SINGAPORE
You want to be a private investigator and have gone through all the necessary training and acquired the necessary skills and hours required to be licensed by the relevant authorities. You were working under the tutelage of a either a respected independent private investigator or a well established private investigation agency. You are now on your own and you have to determine how much private detective fees you will be charging your clients. You are stuck in a rut and have no idea of how to charter your way into coming up with your fees. Well, do not worry; we are here to help you figure it out. You should always keep in mind that each and every case is unique and thus your fees will vary from one case to the other. You should also keep in mind that you are running a business and the fees you charge should neither be too exorbitant that you do not get any clients nor too low-priced that you operate on a loss. You should have a cut off price that you will not go below that is standard to you. The cut off price is usually determined by the utility costs of running your practice, the insurance and indemnity cover costs as well as the operational costs.
The location of your practice will also factor in to the private detective fees. Whatever you charge as fees should help you cater for the rent of your premises. The higher end your premise is at, the higher your fees will be. Just make sure the location you choose is in line with the kind of clientele you want to attract. You should find out the going rate of related services in your locale and peg your costs around theirs. Your skills and qualifications should also reflect on your fees as well as your experience. The more experienced and qualified you are, the more fees you can charge. Just make sure that you have testimonials and referrals from past clients as well as other relevant professional agencies to justify your fees. Clients want assurance that the money they will spend on you will be a worthwhile investment. You should also consider the cost of equipment and resources to be used when quoting your fees to a client. A criminal record check should not be priced the same or higher than the price of carrying out a surveillance or an undercover operation. You must use logical thinking as well as be rational when coming up with the fee quotation.
The risk you will be exposed to should also factor into the fee quotation. Some of the assignments you will take up will require courage and maybe additional back up from well seasoned detectives and may lead to getting physically harmed. If you plan to join an agency, you should consider the costs associated with working with the agency. Working with an agency gives a larger pool of resources as well as rich network for gathering information. This should also be reflected on the fees. Private investigator fees for a private investigator working with an agency are usually higher compared to that of being an independent private investigator. The complexity of obtaining the information required will also determine how much fees you will charge to each and every client. The more resources required and the more time that will be used, the higher priced your services will be. You should also consider travel and accommodation costs if the investigation requires field work. Field work assignments usually require a lot of fiscal and human resource and it drives up your fees; especially if surveillance or undercover work will take place. As a rule of thumb, make sure that whatever fees you quote for your different clients, they will reflect your professional standards as well as be able to sustain you and your practice in the long run.