So last week’s article got a lot of great feedback – we talked in that article about how to start looking at packaged and project rates for your business. I’m pleased to continue with the discussion!
There is often so much confusion around how to charge clients when you are providing them with a service. It can be a difficult decision – especially if you haven’t been in business all that long. And if you have been a service provider for a while, it can be difficult to change your rate structure.
The key to your continued success, is for you to recognize your own value.
As you master certain skills in your business, you become a specialized expert, whether you know it or not. You can do things faster. You can do them more accurately. Maybe you can even suggest better ways of doing things.
I have actually been doing a lot of strategy with my clients lately. A few of them are rolling out new programs or using new services, and they are turning to me to discuss their options.
It’s partly because I know a lot about business and marketing strategy, but it’s also because they trust me – and because I know their business.
Whether it’s talking about options for shopping carts (are we using the right one? how can we use it better?) or follow up (are we maximizing the follow up with our prospects and our clients?) or even website copy (does this sound like me, or does it sound too salesly?), my clients trust my expertise when I work with them.
This is where the VALUE comes in to the relationship. I like to start working with clients that I know I will work with long term – and I will build a relationship with them.
It’s so much less about how many minutes I work for them each day, than the value that I can provide them in my level of service.
I think Jim Rohn states it best: “You don’t get paid for the hour, you get paid by the value you bring to the hour.”
I love this quote because it really does describe the partnership that gets created between a client and a Virtual Assistant when you build a solid working relationship.
Knowing your value or even recognizing it is usually the biggest barrier to charging what you are worth.
Here’s an exercise that can help you recognize the value that you bring to your clients:
Write down on a piece of paper what it is that you do for your clients (ie. I do their client care, or I post their social media or I help them with their newsletter, etc.)
Now take that one step further by adding the words ‘so that they …’ and indicate what you doing that task will allow them to do. I do their client care so that they can spend more time networking and finding new clients.
Now take that even one step further by doing it again and again. …
So that they can … fill their programs and build their business … make more money … work less and earn more … take their family on vacations … so they can ‘whatever’.
Keep going as far as you can with just one task and you will start to see the value you are bringing to them by providing your support services.
Their reason for getting support in their business is for THEIR BIG PICTURE.
You need to research your target market or ideal client and really understand them to find out what that is, and by knowing that, you will more easily see your value in their business. By supporting them, you are playing a part in helping them achieve their big picture.
And that’s what you should be charging them for. 🙂