08/27/2026
A provider I know was thrilled. The local workforce board loved her unsolicited proposal for a new AI training program.
They told her, "Great program. We can approve this for a cohort of 20 people."
Then they gave her the price: $2,500 per person.
She immediately did the math: 20 people x $2,500 = a $50,000 contract. She'd never seen a check that big. She said yes on the spot.
What she didn't know was that the board's approved rate for high-demand IT training in her state went up to $7,500 per person.
She didn't leave money on the table. She never even knew it was there.
By accepting their first offer, she locked herself into a contract worth $50,000 when she could have negotiated for $150,000. That's not a win. It's a $100,000 lesson.
Underpricing isn't humility. It's a failure to do your due diligence.
Workforce boards have established price points and funding ranges for specific training categories. A lowball quote doesn't make you look like a bargain. It makes you look like you don't understand the system you're trying to enter.
You are not pricing a freelance project. You are aligning your program with a pre-approved, state-sanctioned cost structure. Your job isn't to guess a price. It's to know the official rate and build a program so robust that it justifies the highest possible reimbursement.
Stop guessing. Start building a program that commands the maximum allowable rate.
That's the work we do inside AI Contract Skool. The link is in my bio.
Have you ever accepted a contract and later found out you could have charged more? 👇