The well worn 100% Money Back Guarantee is a powerful signal that you completely back yourself to do the work you’ve said you’d to, the the level you’ve promised. While it’s your job as The Best Supplier This Client Will Ever Work With™ to shoulder a big chunk of responsibility, 100% money back can be nerve-shredding… especially if you’ve never offered a guarantee before. And anyway, you can do better than that. I’m fascinated by the psychology behind guarantees so will definitely go deeper...
8 months ago • 1 min read
When you’re constantly chasing new ideas by forcing yourself to think “outside the box”, you could be throwing out some useful, proven, reliable stuff that is always found inside the box, like: Reliable customer service Repeatable systems that all you to get more efficient Standardised or fixed prices that help people make buying decisions Boring services everyone always needs Skipping over those things and always looking outside the box could lead to: Customer “service” that’s trying to be...
8 months ago • 1 min read
3 ways that fixed prices make life simpler: No more estimates or quotes Get paid at the start via a buy button on your website, rather than at the end via an invoice Avoid sales calls by putting everything a buyer would need to know on a landing page Does it work for everything? Definitely not. But it works for simple, repeatable services you perform all the time. And buyers will appreciate knowing what they’re in for without needing to contact you, or send an enquiry, or wonder what happens...
9 months ago • 1 min read
There's a good chance that you have a "thing" people know you for. Or ask you about. Or know you can do really well. It might be right inside the wheelhouse of what you do for a living; it might be just adjacent to it; or it could be outside of your line of work altogether. Eg: When I was a brand designer, my mates and colleagues would refer people to me who needed logo. It wasn't my bread-and-butter (it was adjacent), but it was something people knew me for. I'd do a good enough job pretty...
11 months ago • 1 min read
If your income each month is erratic - meaning it's sometimes what you need it to be, but sometimes below what you need... If you find yourself spending the majority of your month on one client or project, while other clients and projects wait until your time free's up... If you have so many offerings, or things-you-can-help-with, that it feels impossible to build any kind of marketing plan... Try this: Pick one product. Set a price. Multiply by how many you need to sell (to meet your income...
11 months ago • 1 min read
Think about the work you've done in the past week or so. Is there something you delivered for a client that you did in less than a day? Maybe it was some "hands" work; Or some quick research you summarised in an email; Or "checking" something they asked you to cast your eye over; Or a phonecall where they "picked your brain". What'd you charge for it? Couple hundy? Couple grand? A 1-day-able service is a beautiful candidate for a fixed-price product... 😉 Speak to you again soon. Danny. . . ....
11 months ago • 1 min read
This was inspired by subscriber-friend Rod, who asked his list their opinion on doing work for free. I feel pretty strongly about this, so I replied. For clarity, the context of my response is within your business - you know, the one where you're a solo creative pursuing a career that supports you, and perhaps a few other people. It doesn't include helping a friend move house, tending the garden at your community centre, or anything else that you do for love or enjoyment. So, TL;DR: Never...
12 months ago • 2 min read
One of my promises with this newsletter is no doom and gloom, but I think I'm skirting that today... One of my goals is to encourage business owners to be early adopters of climate action—while it's still 'early'—to not just be awesome custodians, but also for the unique marketing advantage it brings. So I hope you'll bear with me on this one... Targets: Halve current emissions by 2030. Half that again by 2040. Net zero emissions by 2050. Thoughts: Any progress we make on climate,...
12 months ago • 1 min read
I'm like, a super lazy dude. If there's a quicker way of doing something, I'll probably find it. A good portion of my life is disorganised. Lazy people like me tend to grab piles of clothes and stuff the tshirts on the tshirt shelf, the socks in the sock drawer, and to hell with folding and pairing. Obviously, this means I burn more time finding a matching pair of socks - I know this logically, but my brain hasn't learned the lesson yet. On the flip side, work-wise, I think the laziness pays...
12 months ago • 1 min read