Do you price by the hour? Or do you price based on your hourly rate?

Pricing by the hour really undermines how efficient you are and how quickly you can get a result. If you can get the same result in less time, why should you be paid less for it?

You have to work out what the value is to the client of your work. For example, if you are in HR, can you deal with employee disputes quickly and efficiently with minimum stress on each side? That's worth a lot of money to a client.

Are you saving someone time, money, or providing peace of mind? An accountant might save all three, but the main pain is making sure you are paying the right tax and not missing anything.

Think about the problem you solve and what results you get for the client. Why should they hire you and not someone else?

Ask clients different questions when you talk to them. Not about what they want doing but about why they need it - why now? Why you? What are they looking to get?

This is tricky to start with but with ex...

I talked in my previous blog about productivity and in this one I want to talk about more tools you could use in your business to make you more productive

Toggl - perfect for tracking your time on projects and knowing how long things take you to deliver a project or retainer. The free version is fine, but I use the paid version to give me billable vs non billable amounts.

Asana - I have everything in Asana these days - documents, workflows, projects and I love it. I can set due dates, share information and tasks with people and generally organise my life. Amy Mitchell has a great free training on getting started. Get it here.

Kajabi - I love Kajabi because it houses my website, courses and email marketing in one place. When I was looking at it, I thought it was expensive (I pay around £130 per month) but because I was paying for web hosting and an email list separately, plus having somewhere to host my courses, it wasn't much different in the end. It's easy to use and there...

We all want to improve productivity in our business but how can we do this? It's so easy to get overwhelmed in your business (it happens to me at least monthly!) but I've been putting in some things to help

1. Use the right tools

2. Outsource some of the work

3. Use workflows & canned emails

4. Time blocking

5. Boundaries

Tools to use

Having the right software tools in place in your business makes a huge difference. I recommend the following ones that I have used successfully in my business

Toggl for time tracking

Asana for task and project management

Kajabi  for email lists, membership sites

Smarterqueue for posting to social media

Xero for your accounts

Canva for social posts

Calendly for getting people to book with you.

Zapier for linking up different apps

More on this in next week's blog post.

Outsource the work

Another thing to do is to outsource the work. The easiest way to do this is to outsource part of the client work you have. Or outsource a smal...

How to look after yourself, especially when you have no time.

Time for me?  How will I manage that?  This is a subject close to my heart, as we all get wrapped up in our work, family life, commitments, appointments, and we end up feeling as though there isn’t’ any time left for us.  

I have definitely struggled in the past with trying to meet everyone’s expectations resulting in feeling burnout and being over stressed.

And I know I’m not alone.  This is something I hear a lot from my busy mums’ community. 

So how do we make simple adjustments to our lives that we will stick to? 

Whenever I find myself feeling overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’ve over committed, and I haven’t been managing my time effectively.  This inevitably means there’s “no time” for self-care in amongst all the other demands of the day.

Recognising what changes to make isn’t always easy when you feel tired, and your head is spinning with your dreaded ‘To Do’ list.  But here is something I want you to try th...

So today I want to talk to you about five ways to avoid discounting when talking to a client. 

Picture the scenario, you send a proposal to a client and the client says they can't afford that. And the And you immediately offer to discount with no reason to do so.  Instead, take a deep breath and do one of the following 5 things:

1. Ask the client what the most critical thing that they need doing is.  If they are a new client, it might be that they haven't seen what you can do yet, they might be worried that they're spending money they won't get back. And so ask them what their most critical items are, and which ones you can start with. You could also start with what the budget is, and this would guide you as to what to start with and how they can get a result with a smaller budget.
2. Packaging your services.  I believe this gives people more options, plus makes it clearer.  It avoids awkward pricing conversations before they even start, so having conversations about discounting becomes...

Growing your business into a six or seven-figure business is something that takes discipline, focus and boundaries. The problem is COVID came along and changed our working habits, our routines and our focus! So do you still have good boundaries in place, or is it something you need to work on a little more?

Those good boundaries have become a little blurred!

COVID has really blurred the boundaries between work and home for many of us. It’s something that many initially saw as a short-term problem, but the reality has been quite different. For parents, in particular, childcare plans have changed or been interrupted, as you are now seen as being ‘at home’. This means you’re often seen as available and able to juggle work and home life.

Working from home often means it’s tempting to be always in work mode. The boundary between your working hours and downtime has also blurred, further compounded by the changing environment and working patterns of others.

And with COVID still impacting ...

Black Friday sales have been around since the 1960s. But it wasn’t until Amazon bought it to the UK in 2010, that it really took off. Although Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) sales do lead to an upsurge in sales, many online business owners are asking if they should run Black Friday discounts too.

Because a lot of smaller businesses tend to only take part in Black Friday, through a fear of missing out.

And personally, I don’t think you should run Black Friday discounts.

As a business owner, you’re not going to lose out on anything, by not having a Black Friday discount. And let’s face it, there’s no need to discount for the sake of it. 

Know when Black Friday discounts work for your business

Black Friday discounts can work if you have something specific to promote. Your customers are primed to go shopping during Black Friday, and many will hold off until this day, to ensure they get the best deal.

And this is good news for you if you want to promote something specific and want th...

What are your financial goals for 2021? Do you want to earn more money? I know, for many that seems a bit of a silly question - after all, who doesn’t want to earn more! 

No matter what type of business you have, the easiest way for you to earn more money is to put up your prices. But for that to happen successfully, you need to have a plan. And that’s something that will take time.

Your prices are only part of the equation

It’s relatively easy to take what you already have and simply increase the price. But what if you haven’t set up your package correctly in the first place? What if you realise clients want something that isn’t in that package? And what if you were already underpricing or overpricing - what then?

If you want to earn more in 2021, you need to ensure that your foundations are correct first. You need to understand how to price in a way that includes your financial goals, your business costs and your desired profit margins. You need to know your existing financial ob...

Do you have a plan for 2021 yet? Of course not, it’s too early! But with just a month left of this year, when is it a good time to start planning 2021? And are you someone who will usually plan in advance, or are you more of a spontaneous, in the moment kind of person? 

I think, as a business owner, it’s incredibly important that you get into the habit of planning ahead. Not only does it reduce stress, but it also helps increase your chances of success - and this is especially important if you’re looking to increase your prices in the year ahead.

Plan in advance to give yourself time to plan out your strategy

Because if you’re looking to hit a revenue goal, you need to know how you’re going to get there. It could mean you need to increase your prices, but it’s also about getting clear on what you have available and how many services you need to sell, to reach your revenue target.

Putting prices up takes time and care. You need to look at the structure of your business and the packa...

It’s safe to say that most businesses want to be financially successful. I’m sure there are many who want to be earning more than £85k per year, right? Well, not necessarily. There are an awful lot of businesses that want to avoid getting near that figure - simply because it’s the threshold for VAT registration!

Don’t want to pay VAT? That’s understandable, but having that artificial ceiling in place is stopping you growing your business further.

So it’s time to stop letting that artificial ceiling stop you. It’s time to realise that paying more tax is a good thing - and here’s how you can pave the way for that transition into VAT registration.

Start increasing your prices before you hit the VAT registration threshold

Look ahead and start increasing your prices. This is especially relevant if you are a B2C (consumer) business or are a business that sells to people who are not VAT registered. Most B2B (selling to businesses) customers will expect you to add VAT to your prices and th...