Page 175 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

Alternatively, if you operate a service-based business, consider how you can
introduce a “productized” version of the service. My designer, Reese
Spykerman, does work that is so great that when word got out, a lot of people
began noticing and asking her for quotes. It didn’t take long for Reese to have
far more inquiries than she could handle. Reese’s husband, Jason, manages the
inquiries that come in every day, and he noticed that they fit into three
categories.

Category 1: Prospects with significant money to spend who would likely be
good clients. In these cases, Jason consulted with Reese, agreed to accept
the clients if they still wished to proceed, and issued them a quote for the
requested work.

Category 2: Prospects who didn’t have any money to spend (designers
receive a lot of these queries, unfortunately) or people who just weren’t the
right fit for Reese’s work. In this case, Jason politely declined the request
and encouraged them to look elsewhere.

These two categories were fairly straightforward, and as hundreds of inquires
came in over the course of an average year, Jason became astute in telling right
away which group someone was in. But there was another, third category that
was more complicated.

Category 3: Prospects who had some money to spend, were nice people
with interesting projects, and didn’t need a completely custom solution.

The third category was complicated because Reese and Jason didn’t want to
send them away, but they also didn’t want to take on an excessive number of
projects, thus limiting Reese’s design time for key clients. They did some careful
subcontracting, but they didn’t want to become a low-end provider or farm out
much of the work to others.
After considering different options, Reese and Jason decided to create a series
of “themes” and website headers that customers could purchase for a flat rate.
These options weren’t the same as a genuinely custom-crafted site design, but
they were a lot better than everything else on the market.
Providing both a product and a service helps with your marketing as well. You
can say to prospects, “Hey, my service costs a lot of money because everything
is customized. But if you just need a general solution, you can get this version
for much less.” Some customers will still want the customized solution, but this