Welcome to the ever-evolving DIY mini-course! Pick an area and explore, try out what works for you, then come back - new things get added every week. If you complete this course, you will be able to improve what you can charge.
If you spend a lot of resources on producing something, that makes it more valuable. Sounds reasonable, and I’m sometimes told it’s the only way to generate value. I disagree – a private island is valuable without any effort being Read more…
If you met me four years ago and asked me what I did, I would have said “strategic marketing”. It was true then, and it still is. The problem was, potential clients frequently thought that was interesting, but also it Read more…
If you are (or are thinking about becoming) a self-employed expert service provider finding the lowest price you can offer can be done in 10 minutes. _Step 1: Take the total number of weeks in a year (52) and subtract your Read more…
Not everyone wants or needs your 100%. I know that’s true, and yet I struggle with it because it hurts. It’s more fun to give yourself room to dig into the hard cases, improvise, and be creative. A surgeon friend of mine Read more…
If I wanted to promote you, tomorrow, to some likely clients of yours, what exactly would you like me to say about you? You are good at your job? Do you have a lot of years of experience? All good, but Read more…
We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem. Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy It may have happened to you, or to a colleague that you Read more…
I admit, going rates serve one important role in pricing: they signal the average price, and thus set the expectation about the connected level of quality. Average quality and average price go well together as a message. Offering a lower, Read more…
“Clowns to the left of meJokers to the rightHere I am stuck in the middle with you” Gerry Rafferty / Joe Egan, Stealer’s Wheel (band) Like it or not, your service is usually seen as a part of the context, Read more…
Industries are diverse, and their local variations are even more so. Each of these is likely to have many unspoken rules and conventions, signals of being the “real deal”, “in the know”, or some other expression of belonging to the Read more…
When American president Woodrow Wilson was asked how much time he spent preparing his speeches he said: That depends on the length of the speech. If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; Read more…