Setting Fees

Stop Leaving Money on the Table: 3 Tips for Setting & Getting Maximum Fees

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Set your fees like your life depends on them. Because it does.

Here’s how to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table when working with clients:

1. Relentlessly build your visibility and authority. Your authority and visible expertise create more leverage than you may think when setting and getting fees.

Publish authoritative content. Be seen associating with (and working with) other respected authorities. Collect and showcase great testimonials.

2. Working with the “right” clients has a bigger impact on fee acceptance than almost any other factor.

You can get paid 10X more just by working with a client for whom it makes sense to pay well.

For example:

It doesn’t make much sense for a client to pay a copywriter $500 per email if he’s selling a $7 ebook and only has 100 people on his email list.

On the other hand, a client with half a million subscribers and product funnel with higher-priced upsells, it doesn’t make much sense to pinch pennies when hiring a copywriter.

No, he knows he needs to hire the best copywriter he can find… because weak copy will cost him a FORTUNE.

Adopting a rainmaker mindset can help you negotiate with these potential clients. In this livestream recording, I explain what I mean by that and how you can install the rainmaker mindset to set you up for success:

3. Try to find out the value (financial, emotional, time) of getting the job done right — and the cost (financial, emotional, time) of allowing the job to remain undone or to be done poorly.

Then set your fees boldly, understanding the true value you bring.

How valuable is it to the client to:

  • get the job done well?
  • get it done quickly?
  • find a provider he can trust?
  • begin a relationship that can last over the long term… instead of needing to start working with a new stranger in 30 days?
  • be able to move forward confidently?
  • get outside perspective that can help create even better results?
  • to finally have some peace of mind?

It’s worth a LOT.

Much more than the “sticker price” of the deliverable itself.

There’s a number where the value perceived by the client overlaps with what you feel it’s worth to you to invest your time and brainpower to the project.

Your fees should land somewhere in that overlap.

That’s how you can maximize your revenue per project and feel good about it in the process.

It works whether you quote a set fee or performance-based fee.

Hope this has been helpful. Took me YEARS to learn some of these lessons!

Should You 100X Your Fees?

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Do you ever pause and think about how far you’ve come?

Yeah, me neither ?

Okay, I’m half-joking. Between my present work and future goals, I don’t spend a ton of time thinking about the past… unless something prompts me to do so.

I stumbled across something the other day that jolted me back to 2011, aka my scraping to survive days.

Check this out…

In case it’s not clear what you’re looking at, that’s a check stub from a client. For this particular project, I wrote 20 blogposts for $250.

DANG.

I remember accepting microscopic fees in my early days… but I forgot how many different ways I ripped myself off back then.

You’d have to write 8,000 blogposts at that rate to hit six-figures. And there are only 8,760 hours in a year.

Double DANG.

Thank God things have changed.

Today my fees are 100 times bigger (and it’s about time for them to go up again). Instead of scraping to survive, I turn down practically everyone who tries to throw money at me.

What made the difference?

Developing visibility and authority in the marketplace (which, if we’re honest, is only partially about results or ability)…

Working on the right projects for the right people…

And the confidence to ask for more (based on a proper understanding of how much value I bring to the particular project).

None of these are easy. But if I can do it, you can do it. Probably a lot faster than I did.

What would it be like finally charge what you deserve? To do the work you LOVE to do… with people you actually want to work with? To stop having to play by everyone else’s rules?

That can be your reality, and I encourage you to start today.

1. Work on building your visibility and authority. Publish authoritative content. Be seen associating with other respected authorities.

2. Get as specific as possible about who your perfect client is. Then determine what’s the most profitable result you can provide for that client.  

3. Try to find out how much impact you’ve had on those you’ve already helped. Find out the value of getting the job done right… and the cost (financial, emotional, lost time) of allowing the job to remain undone or to be done poorly. Then set your fees boldly, knowing the value you bring.

Today’s a good day to get started. Make it a productive one.

P.S. Whether you’re selling a product or service, this is possibly the quickest way to multiply your income.