I asked people on Twitter how much they might pay for 30-60 minutes of Emacs coaching. Based on replies and e-mails, the general consensus seems to be about $25-35 for 30 minutes and $35-50 for an hour, depending on the level of tweaking.

This is how I imagine it might work and why it might be worth it:

Troubleshooting

You could spend days (or weeks!) posting and replying to mailing lists or StackOverflow, or you could spend an interactive session quickly digging into what's wrong and how to work around or fix it. In addition, you'll probably pick up lots of tips by watching someone's problem-solving or debugging process. This probably works as a quick e-mail describing the problem, a 30-60 minute troubleshooting session over screen sharing or SSH/tmux, and possibly a free or paid-for follow-up if more investigation is needed. Probably a good idea to have a satisfaction guarantee, since some problems are harder to solve than others.

Guidance, pair programming, or coding

You've got an idea for an Emacs customization or major mode, but it requires more Emacs Lisp geekery than you're comfortable with or you don't know how to go about implementing it. A few high-level pointers might get you going: check out these examples, use this function to do that, etc. Or you might want to write most of the code yourself while having someone around so that you can ask questions if you get stuck – maybe a lower rate for the virtual equivalent of hanging out in a cafe together while working on separate things? Alternatively, a code review can point out how you can debug or improve things. Lastly, there's also the option of handing off most of the coding, with some interactive sessions as you nail down exactly how you want it to behave.

Coaching

I think this is where incredible is, actually – getting help when you don't even know what you don't know. Emacs is really big. It can be difficult to get a sense of what's possible or what's surprisingly easy, so you might be plodding along with an inefficient workflow that could be tweaked with a little configuration or a few changed practices. A good coach can discuss your goals, watch how you do things, demonstrate better ways to work, and help you implement those changes.

Gradual learning

On a related note, it's also easy to get intimidated by how much there is. It can help to have a gradual learning path. I've talked to quite a few people who found Org Mode task management overwhelming and had hundreds of tasks piled up in their text files. Ditto for Emacs Lisp learning! Imagine having the Emacs equivalent of a personal trainer who can help you come up with an individualized program of learning so that you're focused on one small chunk at a time. =)

Plot twist! This is actually for Bastien Guerry (Org Mode maintainer, also http://emacs-doctor.com/), not for me. I've been doing Emacs-related Helpouts for a token fee and I'm happy to chat with people about Emacs gratis as well, but I think it would be even awesomer to see if someone as wonderful as Bastien can build a nice little business out of it.

How wonderful is Bastien? Well, if you've seen my Emacs Chat with him or read his posts on the Org Mode mailing list, you know that he's smart, experienced, and friendly. In fact, the more I think about what Emacs consulting might be like, the more I want to sign up too. I use Org a lot and I'm generally comfortable tinkering with the source code, but there are a few things that I haven't quite wrapped by mind around yet: more export tweaks, more Babel/tangling, a better capture workflow… And I have yet to get around to setting up proper autocomplete and other development tools, too!

Bastien's travelling at the moment, but wouldn't it be lovely if he got back to a bunch of e-mails to bzg@gnu.org with requests or suggestions? =) E-mail him if you're interested, and help him figure out what's a good way to help you. He mentioned being open to pay-what-you-want pricing. If money is tight, reach out to him anyway – and if you want to donate more as a way of thanking him for all the other stuff he does, that's also a great excuse to ask him to help improve how you use Emacs.

Hey, if there are Eclipse consultants… Surely we can get even more value out of Emacs consulting!