It's often tempting in today's world (especially after the year we have had) to think that you have to have an online course or membership.

But they are a lot of work. Memberships are a long term thing and you need to have fresh content to keep members once they are in. Courses are a lot of work up front, and you still have to promote them and decide about live elements.

There can, shockingly, be easier ways to make money in your business. And you need an audience to sell to. So there is a lot to consider.

In this episode:

1. Creating online products – what to consider.

2. Courses or membership?

3. Pricing strategies for online products.

Janet discusses what factors you should consider before deciding to create and sell an online product, is it worth your time and effort? 

Janet advises selling before you create anything to test the market and demand. Starting small will help maximise the use of your time and help you decide if online is for you.

We discuss the...

In this week's podcast, I talk to Amy Mitchell about how to be more productive and streamlined with your time. Areas we covered included:

1. The importance of time-tracking

2. Centralising tasks

3. Identifying opportunities for systems

4. What to outsource

5. Setting business boundaries 

6. The pomodoro technique

Amy is an online business strategist that develops systems to ensure a business’ day-to-day actions align with their big dreams and end goals. We discuss the importance of time tracking to tackle endless to-do lists and incorporating this into your pricing strategy.

Amy encourages centralising to-do lists for better prioritising, identifying areas for systems and batching or time-blocking tasks to create boundaries in your business.

We chat about what business boundaries we put in place ourselves to help manage distractions and maximise use of time to ensure you’re always present and at your most effective.

Selected links from this episode

Blog - 5 ways to...

All our friends and family expect special treatment don't they? Even though they don't really know what you do or how to run a business, they all want a deal!

Do you discount for friends and family? I think the answer is no, you shouldn't discount for friends and family, particularly if they're taking up space that another client would be taking and a paying client. And there's a whole thing about whether you should work with friends or family anyway.

You could say I'll do it for you for free or I don't do it at all. Because they are still a paying client and they want the same level of service. If you're entering into professional relationship with a friend or a family member, you want to keep it on a professional footing.

There is always a risk that as a friend, they push the boundaries, and it is always a bit muddy.

I have a general view that you shouldn't discount anyway, if people can't afford you offer them something like a Power Hour, where they're...

In this episode:

• Becoming a business owner not an employee
• Imposter syndrome
• Increasing your pricing
• Pricing blocks

Osmaan Sharif is a business and mindset coach who works with ex-corporate professionals to help them overcome obstacles and grow their own business. Osmaan talks to The Pricing Queen about his rapid transformation formula which involves focussing on the big picture of your business by understanding three fundamental foundations:

Design (includes business model, vision and goals.) 

Mindset (overcoming your internal beliefs and understanding your value) 

Strategy (or, as Osmaan refers to it, your entrepreneurial superpower.)

Take Osmaan’s free quiz so you can see how strong these foundations are in your business in less than 2 minutes. Sally and Osmaan discuss understanding your upper limit to overcome imposter syndrome and what you need to consider when looking at setting and increasing your prices. Also, why you should be wary of competitive...

Episode 3: Pricing strategies and packages 

In this episode:

• Why you should price with packages
• Why you should have prices on your website
• Avoid discounting
• Pricing strategies for up-sales and down-sales

Sally explains how creating packages for your services can make a big difference to your business. Using pricing packages ensures you know what to charge every single time, removes difficult conservations around prices, reduces discount requests and makes the charging process simple and easy. Sally suggests listing costs on your website to help reduce timewasters, making it a clear and simple decision for your customer. Consider offering pricing tiers to ensure you have something for every budget. This helps keep customers interested and encourages them to keep working with you. Want help creating your pricing packages? Check out Sally’s packages masterclass.

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Book Sally’s...

Episode 1: Meet your host, Sally Farrant, a.k.a. The Pricing Queen

In this episode: 

Sally is an accountant with 25 years of corporate experience working for organisations such as Channel 4, Guinness World Records and Philips electronics. But she is a far cry from your typical boring bean-counter! A lover of high heels, diet coke, chick lit and dark chocolate she also has a fantastic track record for helping companies get a head around their numbers. 

Over the past five years she has focussed on helping small businesses with their pricing strategies, customer journey and product offering to improve profits and business growth.

Subscribe here:

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In November 2020, I attended Janet Murray's annual event 2021 Sorted. Colin Gray talked all about how to start a podcast and it really appealed to me. With some pushing from Janet, I agreed to start a podcast.

Today (17th March) marks the launch of my new podcast "The Pricing Queen". I have 11 episodes all ready to go and I'm so excited to be out there with it.

For me, a podcast is perfect. I don't have to put on any makeup, I can chat away (I love a chat!) and I can choose when I do it. It can also be quite casual in style, as I don't have to be too corporate about it.

I have also loved having loads of guests for my first season. I've chatted to Osmaan Sharif (mindset), Janet Murray (online courses and memberships), Amy Mitchell (systems and productivity), Amy Caiger (niching) and Rob & Kennedy (email marketing).

It's a great way to show your authority in your chosen niche, and also to invite people you admire so you can chat to them. It should also open out my audience (I...

Episode 2: How should I price my services?

In this episode:

• Why you shouldn’t price by the hour
• Your pricing personality
• How to get started with pricing

Learn how pricing by the hour punishes efficiency and ties you to time for money. Sally’s pricing personality quiz will show if you’re running a business or a hobby; are you an Underpricing Una, an Overpricing Orla, a Discounting Donna or a Generous Gina? Learn how to do a reality check on your business and discover an easy start to pricing strategies with her pricing calculator. How do you talk about your business to clients? Sally asks you to consider the language you use and the transformation that you are offering.

Subscribe here:

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More info in this blog post

Selected links from this episode

Take Sally’s pricing personality quiz

Sally’s pricing calculator

Connect with Sally on Instagram LinkedIn

Like what you hear? Don’t forget to rate and leave a review to...

What even is a CFO? A CFO is a Chief Financial Officer or Finance Director (FD).

Every big business has a finance director or CFO and they are needed to keep the financial affairs of the business in line and to provide valuable financial management information to the business. They are your trusted adviser and translator of the numbers!

In small businesses you don’t need a full-time FD/CFO but you do still want to know what your numbers look like on a monthly basis and have someone checking on a regular basis.  People often think that they can’t afford to have finance support in a business.  This is very different from a year end accountant where they are producing the statutory returns for your business.  They are not there to analyse your business and understand your business in detail but merely to submit the tax and legal requirements.

If you just have a year end accountant, this can mean that you only look at your accounts once a...

Everyone's selling an online course or membership these days aren't they? They are the best way to make "passive" income in your business, right?

I think it is something to think about, but it's not for everyone. There are a few things to consider first.

Is it right for you?

Do you want to run your business online? Or are you likely to run your business in person (once we can)? Do you want passive income in your business?

We all think a course or membership will boost our income, but it's generally not a short term fix. If you do most of your business via referral or word of mouth, you likely don't have a big email list to sell to, which will take time to build.

Do you enjoy creating content or do you find it a chore? Some people would rather do 1:1 coaching and not have the hassle of creating something and having the tech to go with it. Although it can be low tech to sell a course (you just need a PayPal button), over time you might need to have a website for them to go to.

...