The awkward maths of selling calls across time zones

You open your calendar to find that the only time your client can attend is 6am on a Tuesday. The client is in Vancouver, you are in London, and the fee you quoted was based on a neat one-hour call rather than the early start, preparation and admin around it. International coaching can widen your market, but it also makes the awkward parts visible: whose working day matters, which currency feels clear, and how much of the sale is left after the work is done.

Start with the time you are actually selling

A 60-minute call is rarely a 60-minute product. Add the time you spend reviewing the booking, preparing notes, joining the call, writing a follow-up and handling messages. If those parts take 30 minutes altogether, the delivery block is 90 minutes. At a target rate of £80 per hour, the minimum calculation is 1.5 × £80 = £120 before payment processing, tax and any extra inconvenience.

1. 1Write down the call length.
2. 2Add a realistic preparation and follow-up allowance.
3. 3Add any fixed administration time, such as checking a form or sending resources.
4. 4Decide whether an early, late or weekend slot deserves an additional premium.
5. 5Round the final price to a number you can explain without a calculator.

Do this calculation for each delivery format. A one-off call might need 90 minutes of your time. A three-session package may also include a baseline review, between-call messages and a final summary. You are not charging for an abstract hour; you are charging for a defined piece of work with a defined amount of access.

Make time zones a product boundary

Do not begin by asking every buyer when they are free. Begin by choosing the hours you are willing to protect. For example, you might offer two morning windows and two afternoon windows in your own time zone, with a 15-minute gap between calls. The gap is part of your capacity calculation: two 60-minute calls with one gap occupy 2 hours 15 minutes, not two hours.

A client in another country can convert the time for themselves. Your job is to make the reference point unmistakable. Write “all times shown in UK time”, for example, and include the date as well as the time in confirmation messages. A booking page should also say whether the call is delivered live, what happens if the buyer needs to reschedule, and what they should prepare. For the product itself, a dedicated coaching calls storefront page gives you a clearer place to set those expectations than a short social-media post.

Handle currency without turning the checkout into homework

Currency creates two separate questions: what price you want to receive, and what price the buyer sees. Choose a base price using the economics of your work, then present the amount and currency plainly. If your price is £120, say £120 rather than making the buyer infer it from a vague “international rate”. You can add a short note that the buyer’s bank may apply its own exchange rate or charges.

• Use one primary price unless you have a clear operational reason to manage several currencies.
• Do not quietly add a different price only because a buyer is from another country.
• Keep taxes and local obligations in mind; payment collection does not decide your tax treatment.
• Separate payment processing from your price. The amount you receive is not always identical to the amount the buyer pays.

For the payment layer, store.fan payments sends money straight to your own Stripe account and store.fan takes 0% of sales. Stripe’s own processing fee still applies. That makes the arithmetic easier to inspect, but it does not remove currency conversion, tax, refunds or your bookkeeping responsibilities.

Reduce the administration around the call

The sale is only one hand-off. You also need to provide confirmation, the meeting link, preparation instructions, reminders and a follow-up route. Put these details in the product description and confirmation flow so the buyer does not need to ask the same questions by email.

• Ask for the buyer’s preferred name, time zone and one sentence about what they want to solve.
• Send the meeting link with the appointment date, time zone and cancellation terms.
• Keep the call link in one consistent place rather than sending a fresh version manually.
• Use a short post-call note to record agreed actions and the next step.
• Track international sales separately enough to reconcile currency, refunds and tax records.

If you sell through store.fan, the storefront gives the call a proper product page rather than leaving the offer as a message thread. On a paid plan, you can also use email marketing for reminders or follow-up. The iOS app can send instant sale alerts, which is useful when a booking arrives outside the hours you normally check your inbox.

Test the offer before expanding it

Start with one call length, one base currency and a small set of booking windows. After several sales, review the actual delivery blocks: preparation time, late changes, no-shows, follow-up and the time zone distribution of buyers. If a slot repeatedly creates friction, remove it or price it differently. If the same question appears before every booking, add the answer to the page.