Any business people out there? I'm looking for some tips.
November 29, 2013 4:56 AM Subscribe
Hi,
I have been building up to launching a specialist coaching business in the new year for a long time. I have done a lot and learned a lot but there is still so much I'm unclear about...
If anyone had any thoughts on any of the below I'd really appreciate your insight.
1) Can I have a business card without a phone number? (I do have a website). My area is pretty niche and could potentially attract a lot of weird calls I don't have time / energy for. Also I have a history of being stalked. I'd rather avoid this if I can get away with it whilst still looking professional?
2) Pricing - to begin with I want to keep as simple a pricing structure as possible. I will be working in a very niche area and believe I will do a good job with a lot of passion behind my work. So how do I price myself in comparison to say my closest equivalents - higher because I'm niche? Lower because they are long established? Should I charge less in poorer areas people may need to travel to?
3) I am going from a 'trying to help people' focus to that and a money making mentality - for future security and in recognition of how I hard I've worked. How do I 'ok' this with myself so I have a chance of being financially viable/successful? In that.. I feel 'guilty' about making money, like I want to do everything on the cheap for others etc (which would probably meant I fleeced myself).
4) Copyright confusion. At what point do ideas become mine if I have had some specialist training from other people? When I put a slant on them/ tweak them culturally/ add/more stuff? I want to be ethical and non infringing whilst protecting my work in 'my' country.
5) Is there any kind of online business mentor system anyone can recommend? I'm in the Uk.
Ok there's me clearly trying to get 5+ questions in for the price of one ;)! I'll make it up to you Mefis Thanks
1) Can I have a business card without a phone number? (I do have a website). My area is pretty niche and could potentially attract a lot of weird calls I don't have time / energy for. Also I have a history of being stalked. I'd rather avoid this if I can get away with it whilst still looking professional?
2) Pricing - to begin with I want to keep as simple a pricing structure as possible. I will be working in a very niche area and believe I will do a good job with a lot of passion behind my work. So how do I price myself in comparison to say my closest equivalents - higher because I'm niche? Lower because they are long established? Should I charge less in poorer areas people may need to travel to?
3) I am going from a 'trying to help people' focus to that and a money making mentality - for future security and in recognition of how I hard I've worked. How do I 'ok' this with myself so I have a chance of being financially viable/successful? In that.. I feel 'guilty' about making money, like I want to do everything on the cheap for others etc (which would probably meant I fleeced myself).
4) Copyright confusion. At what point do ideas become mine if I have had some specialist training from other people? When I put a slant on them/ tweak them culturally/ add/more stuff? I want to be ethical and non infringing whilst protecting my work in 'my' country.
5) Is there any kind of online business mentor system anyone can recommend? I'm in the Uk.
Ok there's me clearly trying to get 5+ questions in for the price of one ;)! I'll make it up to you Mefis Thanks
For 1, you could get a Google Voice phone number and just have it go to voicemail, where you can screen it.
posted by xingcat at 5:44 AM on November 29, 2013
posted by xingcat at 5:44 AM on November 29, 2013
For 1) Could you have two sets of business cards? One for your business in general (business name, website address, general contact info) to give out to anyone you meet in general, and one for you (which can have a phone number), for more established clients/people who need your direct contact info?
Nthing the Google Voice. Makes it very easy to screen calls. You can set up rules for established clients to actually forward to your phone, and for unknown calls to go to voicemail.
For 3) One way to think about it is how much would you think is reasonable to be paid if you were employed to do this work. Whether that is a salaried amount, or an hourly amount, you then need to factor in an overhead cost on top of that, for taxes, health insurance, office equipment, etc. You deserve to be reasonably compensated for the service you provide (and it sounds like you will make a meaningful difference in people's lives!), and you need to be compensated adequately in order to meet your own expenses. Lots of people will try to negotiate for a lower price: you should expect this. Make sure that you know why you, and what you do, is valuable.
posted by troytroy at 7:17 AM on November 29, 2013
Nthing the Google Voice. Makes it very easy to screen calls. You can set up rules for established clients to actually forward to your phone, and for unknown calls to go to voicemail.
For 3) One way to think about it is how much would you think is reasonable to be paid if you were employed to do this work. Whether that is a salaried amount, or an hourly amount, you then need to factor in an overhead cost on top of that, for taxes, health insurance, office equipment, etc. You deserve to be reasonably compensated for the service you provide (and it sounds like you will make a meaningful difference in people's lives!), and you need to be compensated adequately in order to meet your own expenses. Lots of people will try to negotiate for a lower price: you should expect this. Make sure that you know why you, and what you do, is valuable.
posted by troytroy at 7:17 AM on November 29, 2013
2) Keep your rates as high as possible at first. Seems counterintuitive, but it is easier to lower prices (through sales, special offers) than raise them. Begin with a 'free introductory session' to generate interest while keeping overall prices where you ideally want them.
3) Don't feel guilty. You are providing a service and running a business. If you have happy customers it is because they accept your pricing in return for the service you give.
Both of these points concentrate on the value you offer before price. If your service is great people will pay more for it and eventually you'll see growth. The flip-side strategy is self-defeating by underpricing and undervaluing your service/business.
posted by 0 answers at 7:39 AM on November 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
3) Don't feel guilty. You are providing a service and running a business. If you have happy customers it is because they accept your pricing in return for the service you give.
Both of these points concentrate on the value you offer before price. If your service is great people will pay more for it and eventually you'll see growth. The flip-side strategy is self-defeating by underpricing and undervaluing your service/business.
posted by 0 answers at 7:39 AM on November 29, 2013 [2 favorites]
1. It's understandable if you don't want to give your cell number. But as others mentioned, you can get a backup business number or an answering service to take messages. You can even have a recorded "answer" requesting only messages about topics X or Y, and say that due to the volume of calls you can't respond to anything except those subjects.
2. I would recommend you write down the best price you hope to be getting for your services in the next 1-2 years. So if want to get $500/hr, then that's the price. But...if you are willing to start working for $250/hr, then offer everyone a 50% discount. When you invoice them, list the full price, subtract the discount, and give the balance owed. That leaves you room to go up on your pricing -- you just shrink or discontinue the discount. You can offer discounts for any reason -- new customer discount, referral discount, senior discount, regional discount, etc. One man I know has his "in town" and "out of town" price, and it has to do with the overhead. Be creative.
3. In my opinion, to be self-employed you are going to be working twice as hard and with twice the risk of a standard salaried employee. So, if you execute things right, you need to be shooting for two to four times your current salary. If you presently make $75k, then you need to have the mindset of needing to make $150k to $300k per year. Because there will be downturns, setbacks, lawsuits, etc. It depends on the risk and the challenges you expect to face. Even if you don't mind working twice as hard (in exchange for autonomy and freedom), you have to at least mitigate the risk of ending up busted.
4. Maybe record yourself giving a speech at a small meeting? That will serve as proof of a unique performance of your "material". Or...see an attorney.
5. I would say SCORE for the USA. They have webinars on the more niche topics. Sorry, not sure about UK.
Good luck!
posted by 99percentfake at 7:40 AM on November 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
2. I would recommend you write down the best price you hope to be getting for your services in the next 1-2 years. So if want to get $500/hr, then that's the price. But...if you are willing to start working for $250/hr, then offer everyone a 50% discount. When you invoice them, list the full price, subtract the discount, and give the balance owed. That leaves you room to go up on your pricing -- you just shrink or discontinue the discount. You can offer discounts for any reason -- new customer discount, referral discount, senior discount, regional discount, etc. One man I know has his "in town" and "out of town" price, and it has to do with the overhead. Be creative.
3. In my opinion, to be self-employed you are going to be working twice as hard and with twice the risk of a standard salaried employee. So, if you execute things right, you need to be shooting for two to four times your current salary. If you presently make $75k, then you need to have the mindset of needing to make $150k to $300k per year. Because there will be downturns, setbacks, lawsuits, etc. It depends on the risk and the challenges you expect to face. Even if you don't mind working twice as hard (in exchange for autonomy and freedom), you have to at least mitigate the risk of ending up busted.
4. Maybe record yourself giving a speech at a small meeting? That will serve as proof of a unique performance of your "material". Or...see an attorney.
5. I would say SCORE for the USA. They have webinars on the more niche topics. Sorry, not sure about UK.
Good luck!
posted by 99percentfake at 7:40 AM on November 29, 2013 [1 favorite]
One quick recommendation re: phone #- I have a google voice # and it redirects to my cell. If I want to pick it up, I can. If not, not only does it take a message but it transcribes it and sends me an email with the transcription and the voice message. I LOVE IT!
posted by Mysticalchick at 12:31 PM on November 29, 2013
posted by Mysticalchick at 12:31 PM on November 29, 2013
You can also set the google voice number to automatically send callers to voicemail unless they're already in your contacts.
posted by Salamandrous at 12:34 PM on November 29, 2013
posted by Salamandrous at 12:34 PM on November 29, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks a lot for your helpful suggestions :) I sense there will be more questions.. !
posted by tanktop at 3:46 AM on December 3, 2013
posted by tanktop at 3:46 AM on December 3, 2013
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(2) Pricing is going to depend heavily on your specific service and market. Starting out you're likely to have to go cheap, simply to encourage people to hire you rather than your competitors. But without more information about the service you're providing it's impossible to give much in the way of concrete advice here.
(3) Feeling guilty about making money is something you're just going to need to abandon/bury as quickly as possible. If that's something you're dealing with, you seriously need to consider whether you're personally/emotionally/constitutionally cut out for running a small business. If you think you're offering a service worth having, charge accordingly. Trying to do it on the cheap is basically saying that you don't think you're offering a service that it makes sense for other people to pay for. If that's true, why are you offering it?
(4) Ideas never become yours. They're not subject to any kind of IP protection. Copyright only applies to "works of authorship" which are "fixed in a tangible medium." So if you write something down, you can copyright the resulting document. But that only means that people can't copy what you've written. It doesn't mean they can't read what you've written and do whatever the writing describes. From the way you're talking, I'd be very, very surprised if there was any kind of IP law in place which would protect you (or which you might infringe) other than actual printed materials, websites, that sort of thing.
The UK does have something called a "business method patent," which might theoretically be in play here, but I highly doubt that's something it's going to be worth your time to explore.
(5) The US has something called SCORE, which is a business counseling/networking outfit frequently connected to small business development entities. This might be a good place to start in the UK.
posted by valkyryn at 5:25 AM on November 29, 2013