Keep Left on the Service Spectrum

There’s an elusive line that many business owners never cross, and as a result, never get the see the rewards that are waiting on the other side. I think of it as the Service Spectrum.

It’s the line between being  a service provider, and an expert. Imagine a horizontal line, and at the far left is the pure Subject Expert, sought out for knowledge and unique expertise or message. This person probably spends a lot of time speaking, often doing short term consulting, perhaps is also an author or a popular media source.

At the far right is the Supreme Doer. She is the go-to person to get “it” done; the worker bee who excels at a particular skill, and works with one client at a time. This person spends most of her time on project work for clients, and often approaches her work with clients the same way she did as an employee in her career days.

There is nothing wrong with being a Supreme Doer, but here’s the rub: most Doers make less money, feel more overworked and discouraged, and enjoy less flexibility in their business, because they’re so busing doing the work, they don’t spend time on growing themselves or their businesses. These are the business owners who most often under-earn, and become disillusioned.

The biggest mistake (and recipe for heartache) is to be a Supreme Doer, and offer the complete, done-for-you service as your base, most common, and lowest priced service .  Or  worst of all, to have it be your ONLY service and have it be underpriced, to boot.

My goal for you is that you take the time to consider what you want, and how you want to work. You will know in your heart if you are a happy Doer or a dissatisfied Doer. If you are a business owner who feels stuck, take a look at where you are in the service spectrum and migrate left!

If you are like most Doers, you hesitate, even feel adamantly opposed, to seeing yourself as a Subject Expert. You don’t know enough, you haven’t been around long enough, and besides, there are already lots of them, so who do you think you are?

If you feel that way, go for the middle. There are lots of ways to add services to your business that move away from one-to-one, doing it all for each client. You will also make more money, feel more in control, and have the time to enjoy the work and your clients more.

Here’s one example of a favorite approach I like to recommend to clients.

• Create a choice of three levels of service for your clients.
• Charge the most for the complete, done-for-you solution, and have this be the most hands-on service you provide. Charging more for this allows you to take on less clients and have time to work on other areas of your business. At this end of the spectrum, you may choose to offer more than one package, and that’s ok, as long as the choices you offer have enough of a margin between them that it makes good sense from your perspective as well as your clients (tip: a great way to do this is to offer a-la-carte choices as add-ons, and let your clients custom design what they want, of course, based on the choices you give them).
• Have a mid-level solution in which clients receive a done-with-you level of service. Get creative with this. This could mean training or coaching them through while they “do” the work themselves, or it could mean you project manage them after you complete the project to a certain point. Depending on the kind of business you have, it may also mean working with clients as a group.
• Have an offering that is purely content and subject driven. For example, you could offer training classes, workshops, or do-it-yourself resources on the topics that you get the most questions about when working with your clients. Or, you could provide short term consulting like providing an audit or expert opinion (tip: this is a great follow-up to clients for which you have provided “done-for-you” services).

This is just one approach to look at ways you can offer your services, there are many others. The point is, think beyond the traditional, single transaction, single client approach we have grown up conditioned to associate with providing a service or product. Think about what your clients most value, and other ways you can share your knowledge and expertise with them. Get creative, and remember to keep left!

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success SystemTM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.