Need some advice, I have been running my own freelance business part time for over 10 years now.
I have half a dozen clients with regular $50-$100 jobs every 6-8 weeks. My rate is $40p/hr but sometimes I do more work than I charge. A couple of weeks ago one of my clients was poached by a Marketing guy offering Google Adwords campaign for sale for a staggering $800 per month. To my surprise my client agreed that was fair. Now I usually charge this client $40 per hour. I almost feel over when I discovered how much this marketing guy is charging.
So this got me thinking, should I be offering a monthly managing fee for my clients to cover updates, etc?
An old marketing strategy is to diverse the product assortment (invented many decades ago in US and still very effective). The products (i.e. packaging) then can be adjusted to be appealing to different targets. Also to generate more trade names (in new packages) to “compete” with other company branches.
Translated to your services, broaden your service range and create new packages suited for different cases. That would give the clients opportunities to choose what they like best.
When you master the assortment trick, maybe also try the “new” and “act now” and “limited time” messages.
Beware though, those messages could also be a repellent, it certainly is to me.
In one sense you want a regular passive income, but when you’re paying a monthly/annual fee your expectations are a lot higher.
I’m starting to think I’m in the wrong business too. A couple of years ago I built my own home security systems after my house was robbed. I made a few videos on how I did it. One of those videos recieved over 100k views. This lead to an enquiry about a creating a security cameras website. Two years on and that website is selling over 20k security cameras per month.
You just described how you solved a problem and then shared your findings and then created a successful platform for bussiness. All started with your solution to a common problem.
Now, you posted a problem where your client didn’t see the true value in your service vs an Adword offer.
Do you talk to (with) your clients about security?
I find that a common thought in the business world is “you get what you pay for” (although this may not always be true) but the point of this is always looming, as a price point can determine the perception of your business. Of course you do not want to overcharge but if a monthly service will guarantee revenue and also give you the freedom to work on it need be, potentially making up for that extra work you’re doing. I’ve always been an advocate of presenting your services like you would most softwares, paying a monthly charge for people to use the vast features of what it offers.
