(This is an enhanced transcription with more detail added). If you’re offering a specialised service, there are three different levels that you can offer.
They are very different and which you choose will depend on the kind of work you enjoy, how introverted or outgoing you are and whether you want to work at home or not. All three can be virtual, conducted from an office or co-working space or in the client’s space.
Each, as you can imagine, commands a very different level of fee, depending on your authority, skill set and self esteem.
The first one is DIY, where you teach people how to do it themselves. That is great, because it can be inexpensive for the client and you’re empowering people, teaching them to fish, which I really like.
Video training is very high value, especially if you give the student the audio version to download and listen to, on the go. You can also include an online PDF workbook for your student to work through. People like to tick things. A private Facebook group provides a Student Area and you’ll find they all start to answer each other’s questions and coach each other after a while.
However, you might need to ask questions occasionally to get the conversation going and you must monitor the group and step in if you see people offering advice that is just not right or if one student starts to sell their services or mentoring to another.
Often, your customers or clients aren’t actually going to do the thing they’ve paid for you to teach them. Yes, it’s sad but true, most people really don’t want to do the work and you’ll find a disappointingly large number fall by the wayside.
So the next level up is DWY – Done With You which is where you teach someone how to do something and you mentor or coach them through actually doing it, either on a one-to-one basis, or in small groups.
Now that is obviously, of necessity, a little more expensive, because it does involve your time but it’s also an affordable way for people to get good mentoring, and actually, you learn a lot from the other people in your group, not least which training product you need to create next.
However, you need to be careful because you don’t want to get trapped into charging by the hour. I once lost a Facebook Ads client – a solicitor – because she worked out I was earning more per hour than she was charging! A much better solution is to package up your knowledge with training materials and also include some group mentoring or 1:2:1 time.
The third level is DFY – Done For You where you actually offer to do the service for them and would be a premium-priced offering. You really need to think hard about what kind of an entrepreneur you are. I work best doing the strategy and supervising the implementation, while some people need to hire a project manager and developers for example.
So how could you work up three different levels for your product or service, and give people what they want, what they need, and what they can afford?
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