I got an email today asking a few questions about training. I’ll answer the questions here in case anyone else asks the same questions in the future.

The first question was about training companies. I wasn’t aware of this situation before, but there exist a ton of technical training companies who act as brokers between technical trainers and the end clients. I heard an episode about training on the Freelancers Show where Reuven Lerner recommended to work through training companies first, then go out on your own later. I would second this recommendation.

Here’s how I identified training companies to work with: I made a list of technologies I thought I could teach, then I googled “[technology name] training” or “[technology name] training company”. My list included Angular, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL…you get the picture.

I checked each training company’s website to make sure they offered a least one class I thought I was qualified to teach. Then I emailed the training company and said (roughly), “Hey, I’m an instructor. I teach X and I see you offer X. Want to talk?” The response rate was insane. I think more than half the companies I reach out to respond.

I also keep an Excel spreadsheet where I keep track of who I’ve contacted, when I contacted them, whether they responded, etc.

It seems that most training companies want to have you do something called a test teach before you’re an officially-vetted instructor with them. I found this process to be surprisingly time-consuming, but if you want the rewards, I guess you have to put in some effort.

Some training companies will provide the actual training material for you and some will expect you to provide your own. They usually use the term “courseware” for the material. Some training companies want your fee in the form of an all-inclusive rate. Other training companies just want your day rate exclusive of expenses. I understand market rate for working with training companies in the US to be about $1000/day plus expenses.* I understand market rate for working directly with clients in the US to be $3000/day or $5000/day or more. Training companies tend to have big-name clients. I’ve worked for clients like HP, VMware and Deloitte through training companies.

*November 2018 update: I now understand that I had been mistaken. I now understand market rates through training companies to be more like $1500/day plus expenses.

I’ve noticed a commonality among trainers: they seem to have written a book or at least have a lot of technical writing available online. Some trainers get leads directly via their book or blog posts. This is a great situation but it’s a long-term strategy and the lead flow isn’t very easy to control. It’s a little easier to make your own destiny by proactively reaching out to training companies for gigs, although they of course take a hefty cut. Best of all is probably to proactively reach out directly to end clients, although that’s much easier said than done. If I had to guess, I would guess that training companies have sales teams that directly reach out to Fortune 500 companies and pitch the training companies’ services. They have a lot of overhead so they’re probably not waiting around for someone to call them.