I’ve had more than one person ask how I changed to a weekly pricing model.
The eaisiest version is that I just didn’t give clients an option of anything else but I suppose there is a bit more.
I was nervous
I first wrote about weekly pricing quite a while ago. Read the article at least to get the tone of it. I’m speaking as if it’s something I was already doing.
The truth is that I was talking about it a bunch but hadn’t sold a single client get on weekly pricing. I had just been thinking about it a bunch.
I had offered it as one option for pricing with new clients but it was always an ‘option’ and each client just went with flat rate or hourly work.
A kick in the ass
I’m lucky enough to get to chat via Skype regularly with Eric Davis and as he was working on his book about long term contracts he asked me about weekly pricing.
I may have beat around the bush a bit before directly answering his question stating that I hadn’t actually sold a client on weekly pricing and they had always picked a different pricing option.
Why are you offering them options?
Yeah that’s a really great question isn’t it. If I was so confident why on earth was I offering options? I don’t really offer software options to clients, I tell them what the best solution is for their use case.
No more options
My next client didn’t get an option I just told them I billed weekly and how many weeks it would take.
And I sold my first weekly client the next day.
All it took was some confidence
The biggest change in selling myself weekly was my confidence. Knowing that there wasn’t an option made me present it with a different voice. The same voice I use when I tell clients what the best technical choice for their site is.
The next day I sold another client on my weekly rate without hesitation because of the confidence.
When you are starting
Confidence is one of the things that new consultants are lacking. You don’t have a track record yet. You don’t have a bunch of solid decisions that worked out behind you.
All you have is a shingle you just hung up.
This lack of confidence is why clients bully you and get away with it. It’s something you need to cut out (or at least shortcurcuit the process to getting that confidence).
Shortcuts to confidence
Here are some ways to shortcurcuit your way to the confidence that you need with clients.
Work in house or subcontracting
To build up your technical chops, working in house or subcontracting for someone is great way to build up knowledge in your field. You get to rub shoulders with people who already know a bunch of the technical limitations of each option.
Get a mentor
Mentoring is awesome and gets many of the same benefits of working in hours or sub-contracting. Do you have someone that understands business that you can bounce ideas and problems off of? They only need to be a few steps ahead of you to have solid advice.
A good mentor won’t always just be nice to you. They will challenge you to do better and you should want that. They should ask you tough questions and push you.
Mastermind group
I’ve just started a Mastermind group and I’ve had a bunch of great advice from the members. The goal of the Mastermind is to care about each other’s business as much as we care about our own.
That means that I put time in to finding links to help everyone in the mastermind each week. I’m around for a Skype call randomly to bounce a new idea off of.
I’m helping them (and they are helping me) short circuit my process to experince by sharing their experience.
Sidenote: I’m doing a free webinar on mastermind groups. Sign up here.
Read now
Yes there are some great blog posts out there, but there is so much value in a book. I just wrote about 3 books by Cory Miller that I think are amazing. Read them and get a solid jump start on how to run a business from someone that really knows how to run a business already.
Some of my other favourites are:
- $100 Startup
- Lean Startup
- Total Money Makeover (almost no one really knows how to handle money properly)
- Entreleadership
Now add to this list all the books that Cory recommends in the appendixes of his books.
Yes that’s many hours of reading but it’s 100% worth it. Each book will teach you to run your business better. They’ll help you walk a shorter path to confidence.