6 Income-Boosting Ideas for Service Providers!
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Not happy with how much money you take home every month from your business? Have a few personal financial goals you’re not able to reach yet?
#CanRelate
I am ALL FOR deciding on enough and not always moving the financial goal post, because I think honestly, that can be super unhealthy and then we’re always not satisfied.
But there’s other times where you really just do indeed need more money to do the things you want to do, like pay off debt faster, take the fam on a vacation, get that super cute new pair of shoes for a wedding you’re going to this summer, you know, the important things in life 😉
So today, I’m going to share 6 methods for upping your income, and for the examples, I'll use the field which was my service-based business, being a web designer, and then I’ll let you choose from the buffet of options which one you want to implement to make this your best financial year in business yet!
Oh and also, I’m going to rate each option on ease of setting it up AND income increase potential!
Option #1:
To explain this to you, let me first talk about the problem most business owners have. Time. Sure if you have unlimited time, you could serve 500 clients in a year and your revenue would skyrocket with all the people served. But I hate to break it to you, you’ve got 24 hours in the day, and until God or Elon Musk do something to change that, we’re going to need to work with what we’ve got, 24 hours a day. So if you can’t change the amount of time you have, you’re going to need to change something else.
Can you guess it?
Do more with the same amount of time.
That means overhauling your services, so you can make the same money, with less of your time needed, meaning you can fit in more projects and therefore revenue in the year!
This is perfect if you’re serving clients 1:1 because it requires the least changes to your current business model.
To do this you don’t need to build an audience or hire a team like some other options we’ll chat about later, so it gets a 5 stars in terms of ease of setting it up.
This one can have a MASSIVE impact on your income, but sometimes thinking up how exactly you can do more with the same amount of time can be a real challenge, that is, until you see someone do it.
In practical terms, what I’m talking about is often termed “VIP DAYS” or “DESIGNER DAY RATES” in the website design world.
This is when you sell 1 day of your time to a client.
I was chatting with a past student Katlyn about this and she’s currently charging $1.5k/day for these, granted I’ve heard of people selling these for $3k or $5k/day in other industries, so I think there’s a LOT of potential here and these can be incredibly lucrative.
They’re not just good for the designer though, these are ideal for clients too who want something done and they want it done fast.
It’s also perfect if you have a long waitlist to work with you 1:1 for a project that typically takes a few weeks, a lot of designers can typically fit in a day rate in the next week or two.
Alternatively, if you still have a 9-5 job, day rates are an incredible way to earn fantastic income in a short time frame, my past student Nadine explained how she had tried a few processes for serving clients, but VIP Days was the only one which really worked for her around her other job. In terms of income increase potential, this is still 1:1 services, so it’s not exponential, but it’s pretty solid still.
I’d give this a 4 our of 5 stars.
If you want help setting this system up in your business by the way, my friend Sara Masci has a 4 day workshop on this called Launch Your VIP Day which will help you create, launch, and land your first VIP day client.
It’s a ridiculously cheap price for what you get!!!
Click below to find out more and grab your spot!
Option #2:
This one you could literally set up today, and you already have the people waiting for this offer, so there's no more marketing to a cold audience involved. It does require some flexibility on your part though.
What is it?
Selling more to your existing audience or client-base!
For web designers this is typically offering say ongoing retainer work where maybe you do SEO work like content creation or link building for your clients.
Or I’ve seen brand designers and web designers offer 1 page redesign/update or 1 new branded collateral item created each month.
For example if your client wants slides designed to fit their brand or a banner created for use outside their shop, etc. Your client pays you monthly to have the ability to have you create them something quickly without waiting for your next available design date, potentially months down the road.
This scores super high on the ease of setting it up factor, I’ll give this 4.5 stars there, because it’s proven to be way easier to sell more to people who already know, like and trust you than it is to acquire a new customer.
Granted, I’ve seen people do this correctly and incorrectly. I used to offer clients who had booked projects with me the ability to hire m hourly later on if they needed site edits or changes.
And I’d say honestly this was the least profitable thing I’ve ever done in my business, being paid hourly is a terrible system!
There’s so much setup and communication and complication in what each person needs when the work they need is unique, versus having 1 process already set up, one contract that aligns with your 1 service offering, 1 timeline for your projects, etc.
BUT my past student Katelyn I think did something really genius, a client needed a whole laundry list of edits to their site and she wasn’t feeling estimating the time on each edit and quoting it all out and sending a proposal and all the rest, so she proposed her client just booked her for the day, arranged the list of edits in priority order and she promised to get through as many as possible in the day.
This meant easier booking and less time to set up the project and a very clear deadline for the client, so these edits didn’t keep dragging on and overlapping when she had work to do for other clients.
So def recommend that 4 day VIP Day workshop from Sarah, again!
In terms of income increase potential, I’m also going to give this a 3 ouT of 5 stars, it’s still 1:1 services so it can’t be a complete home run in terms of increase potential, but it’s about as efficient as you’ll get.
Option #3:
This one has massive income increase potential, doesn't involve any change at all to what it is you're doing or offering your clients and can also be done today. I did this, and instantly started making TWICE for every since project I completed. It mighttt however have you coming up against your comfort zone, so a word of warning, a few mindset books or affirmations might help you pull the trigger on this one?
Can you guess it?
Raise your rates!
I have news for you, which maybe... you hadn't fully grasped until now. If you're reading this, then you my friend are a business owner now, which means you decide when rates go up!
Now this took me a little while to figure out. I had been quietly frustrated that I wasn’t earning more, when a friend suggested I doubled my prices because the quality of the work and the process I was offering was worth way more than what I was charging.
I couldn’t believe it… then mulled over the idea for a day and decided, heck why not try.
I cracked open my laptop, opened up the editor on my website, and hands literally almost shaking, I doubled my rates.
What happened next however was the REALLY interesting bit.
I was ready for people to come at me with pitchforks and the world to end, what would others think about me literally charging twice the amount from one day to the next?!
... But what happened next shocked me, I saw NO decrease in the number of people wanting to work with me, meaning I was just making twice what I was the month before.
This took me a while to really grasp, that I was no longer an employee waiting for a raise, I was a business owner who had to decide when to up my rates and therefore take-home pay.
I was lucky the friend suggested I up my rates, but really as a business owner now, I shouldn’t have even waited until the friend suggested I up my rates, I should have done it myself.
This experience was key to remembering, I’m no longer an employee who waits patiently until someone else decides I make more, I am the business owner who decides when I make more and it’s up to me to make that decision, it’s no longer a boss’s job to make that decision.
In terms of ease of setting this up, I’m giving it a 4 stars, it’s super easy to go tweak the pricing on your site, that’s the easy bit.
The only reason it doesn’t get a perfect 5 stars from me is because raising rates genuinely does mean getting better at your craft and being in demand, which takes more work.
AND income increase potential, I’m giving this a 4 stars. If you do it like I did, you could genuinely double what you make from one project to the next, it’s still not exponentially scaleable like another option we’re about to discuss, but it’s pretty good!
Want to raise your rates, but still struggling to find clients?
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Option #4:
When you do this one, a few things happen.
1. There’s likely not a lot or any competition. And
2. You become the expert at that thing, meaning a question a client has you’ve probably had 100 times before, and you know the answer in a second, versus someone else who doesn’t focus on that niche offering might take hours or days to figure out.
Both of these things mean you can earn more.
What is it?
A super niche offering!
In terms of practical ideas on this for web designers, I think of sales page design and funnel building, and specifically in the Squarespace world right now, a service of moving a site with a lot of blog posts or content from Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1.
This is just an example, and these super niche offerings, like moving a Squarespace site from one version to the next, only crop up every once in a while, so it’s worth keeping your eyes open for these opportunities when they come along.
In terms of ease, I’m giving this 4 stars, it’s basically just packaging up a service on a super specific topic or niche, so really, this is exceptionally easy to do.
The thing which is a bit more work is learning how to offer the thing, whether that be sales page design or moving sites or whatever you choose.
In terms of revenue potential, this again will get 3 stars. Decent income potential, not exponential.
If you’re REALLY hoping for that exponential income however, the next two are for you!
Option #5:
This one is perfect for you if you’re booked out and a lack of time is keeping you from earning more. It does involve growing a team and in this model, you spend less time doing the work and more time managing projects and people, so if your people skills are stellar and you’re uber organised and love creating processes, this could be the model for you!
You might have guessed it…
Turning your business into an agency.
This is where you would for example hire on designers, either for one-off projects or as long-term contractors or employees, they build the sites, you maybe have oversight and give feedback to ensure it’s up to your standard and fits the vibe of your agency and is what the client wanted, and with this model you have basically built a client site, without ever going into the website editor yourself!
In terms of ease of setting this up, I’ll give it a 2 out of 5.
It takes time to find and hire and onboard people, so it’s a bit more time intensive than the others, but once you get that going, you’re off to the races and can really take on SO any more projects, and honestly there’s not a lot which needs to change about your internal processes, you can basically just teach your new hire how your business runs and they take over doing the steps in a task or project, probably with some added check-ins from you.
In terms of increased income potential I’m giving this a 3.5 out of 5 stars!
This has MASSIVE income potential, just do know in terms of profit, paying someone to do creative work like this isn’t the cheapest in the world, so income will definitely be up, but do be conscious of the fact that your expenses will likely also be up by way of you paying the team member, so profit will be lower than with some of the other options we’re discussing.
Need to get your client processes ducks in a row before hiring a team?
Grab my free client process template for web designers & get ‘em whipped into shape sharpish!
Option #6:
This one is the dream I feel like everyone online is talking about these days, and for good reason, this model really is as close to a dream job as it gets. You create something once and sell it unlimited times, often with automatic and instant fulfilment.
What is it?
Saleable products - templates, courses & digital products.
This is the ultimate scaleable business model so it gets 5 stars for income potential
Case in point… my friend Erica from Big Cat Creative who made over $1 million, selling Squarespace Website Templates - seriously cool!!!
BUTTT on the ease of setting up, we need to talk about the reality of why most people who foray into this world don’t make it. The lack of an audience.
To make $10,000/month from a $250 template, you’ve got to sell 40 per month.
Versus with website design projects you could do 1-2 clients and make that much, so this is definitely more of a scaleable model and requires a lot of eyeballs to make the numbers worth it.
The other thing I think most people don’t realize is that this business model has a lot of similarities to the agency model… you basically don’t spend your time doing design work anymore, you spend it on something very different.
Unlike an agency you’re not managing people, instead you’re spending your days doing some sort of scaleable marketing strategy.
Like content creation or speaking or PR or managing affiliates or running ads. Which, honestly for me, I sell courses, I LOVEEE creating content.
This is both my marketing strategy and a true joy to my life, so I don’t want to at all frame that as a negative.
But do know I will give this a 2 stars for ease of setup because of these considerations!
Thinking of launching your own online course? Check out if it has potential before you start with my free quiz!
Now before you go hightailing it outta here to build your new idea, there's one last thing I need to be honest with you about...
Just adding income increasers to your offerings isn't going to work if you don't already have an on point, productive work routine.
I completely overhauled my work routine last year because no matter how hard I tried, I just never seemed to get any closer to my goals, so if that's you too, watch this video next.
It'll show you the steps to creating a hellah-PRODUCTIVE work routine, so when you go to implement this new income increase strategy, you actually have the time available to complete it and will be successful with it!