Читать книгу What Business Should I Start? - Rhonda Abrams - Страница 24

Getting paid for your time instead of your value. Most Advisor/Counselors charge on an hourly basis, but how do you price your services to appropriately reward you for the value of the advice you provide? After all, you may spend only a short time with a client, yet, because of your expertise, provide highly valuable insight and direction. It’s almost impossible to charge based on your years of education and experience rather than just how many hours you spend with a client. One way is to consider flat-rate or project fees.

Obvious (and Not-So-Obvious) Business Choices for This E-Type

Management consultant

Clinical social worker/therapist

Home inspection service

Education selection advisor (college, boarding school, troubled teens, etc.)

Employee assistance resource advisor

Attorney

Financial planner

Public relations consultant

Substance abuse counselor

Personal or business “coach”

Mediator

Diet counselor

Accountant

It’s difficult to know the going rates. This is especially true when you’re first starting out. Unless there are established industry standards for prices, your prices can turn out to be way too high or way too low. You’re going to have to be very competitively priced until you establish a positive reputation. Remember, most Advisor/Counselor businesses are built by word of mouth.

How quickly bad economic conditions can affect your business. When times get tough, many clients find it easy to cut back, or cut out, spending on Advisor/Counselors. After all, they still have to pay the rent, but they can quit going to a therapist or eliminate the marketing specialist. Of course, some Advisors (management consultants specializing in company turn-arounds, for example) may actually have more work when times are hard.

You sell your time. When you’re an Advisor/Counselor, you often charge by the hour. But even when you charge on a per-project basis, once a job is done or a client has left, you’ll have no continual ongoing source of income. You are the company’s “product.” Once you’re gone, so is your method of generating income, and it’s difficult to build—and sell—a company of any worth without work.