Loading...
Answers
MenuFor consultants / agency principals: How is the best way to scale your agency while your clients expect 'face time' from you - the owner?
This question has no further details.
Answers
I advised a local UX agency owner here in Austin to charge a lot more for her personal time. In this case, $500/hr. She balked, and I pointed out that if it didn't make sense for a certain meeting or certain customer, she could always just discount it on the invoice. That way the baseline is still established and now the customer believes they were given a gift! Even better.
But the larger customers -- or just the ones you don't want to spend that time with -- will have to pay for that.
The high price tag wards away a lot of time -- good! -- and the time that remains is extremely profitable and more likely to actually be needed.
Another thing you could do is have a true partner in the agency, so that you share that title and hopefully share the trust of your customers. Of course that's another can of worms.
If your customers are *wrong* that they need the face-time with you, it's incumbent on you to figure out why they're not trusting your own employees, and whether that mistrust is misplaced.
If they're *right*, you need to ask yourself why you're not employing people who are ask good -- or in fact better -- at their individual jobs than you are (including account management), so that your time can scale.
P.S. The UX consultant make an extra $250k in profit this past 12 months due to this technique.
If you are able to get projects which could be executed with resources outside the client premises that could be a good start. You can also try resource intensive transactional work This could bring some maturity to the client. We cannot sell time and earn money. It was vague when I started but there's a great improvement.
Hi!
I will try to create an alternative training product (course, software) and slowly try to transition the business model to online training. I have a consulting company and "face time" is essential for us. Consultancies are hard to scale because of that. Thanks! Laura
Related Questions
-
How do I come up with a unique value proposition (UVP) strategy, when my website has similar services as my competitors?
Hey there; I've helped quite a few tech startups (mostly in travel & SaaS) nail down their value propositions, especially as it relates to copywriting & conversions. Just a guess, but could it be that you're focusing too much on differentiating based on your website's "features" or what it does? If the core of what you offer isn't all that unique, try looking at other ways to differentiate. For example: - customer service (Zappos) - world view or business POV (Tom's one-for-one strategy) - personality (Mailchimp) - product design - the audience you serve (niche out) - how your website is created/run Not all of these type of differentiators will be "game-changing." But if what makes your service/website unique resonates deeply with your target audience, maybe you don't have to be a "disruptor" like Uber or airbnb. Tough to say without knowing what industry you're actually in. If you want to chat, feel free to contact me. Hope this helps. DustinDW
-
Suppose today you started with no money in your pocket because you spent it all on product development. How would you market it with zero budget?
Either find a partner with money to help you out or use services like Kickstarter.com If it was me, I would first learn everything I need to know about launching a transactional website (if you are able to sell your product online and ship it ). Websites like Shopify.com make it possible for anyone to get their product online. From there, if you do not have any money for ad spending, start using social media and other sites where your target clients hang out. Get involved in those communities. This will help you get discovered. I would try my best in selling the product within my network first so that when I decide to raise money for marketing, I actually have some numbers to show for it. Hope this helps.AH
-
How did Clarity get initial traction?
Try with http://mattermark.com/ they have a great list already compiledHJ
-
How to turn a niche seasonal business into a all year round business?
Thanks for reaching out. Do you want to meet in person? I am in San Francisco/San Mateo location. Best, SeanSP
-
If Facebook were starting today would it be a better strategy to sign-up one college at a time or sign-up collages across the country?
Think big. Start small. You should always think of the bigger picture (i.e. Facebook for everyone in the world), because you want to make sure that you enable yourself to grow towards that point. Using Steve Jobs' analogy, it's about anticipating where the dots will be. Or as Wayne Gretzky puts it: skate to where you expect the puck will be, not where it is at the moment. Having this bigger vision in mind, will help you move forward. That said, always start small. If you can make your product or service valuable for a small group of people (that are also representative of a bigger population), you can definitely figure out ways to reach those people. The initial challenge though is to make those first 10 / 100 / 1000 people really use your product or service (and preferably pay for it).AP
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.