Cats out of the bag. You can’t build a brand that sets you up for profit and freedom if you’re a service provider.

But why do I say that considering I also work with 1-3 person service-based businesses. Hang with me here…

A “service provider” is someone that does tasks for someone else. They have skills but the person who hired them ends up telling them what needs to be done. They ultimately become an employee of the person who hired them. 

Our goal is not to become an outsourced employee but to provide our knowledge and expertise to solve the clients most pressing problems. And in turn, build a more profitable brand and have more freedom.

In contrast to a “service provider”, experts lead the clients through their proven process. Not only executing the work to be done, but sharing their insights and knowledge on what needs to be done and why. You know the best practices because you have done it many times before. This makes the client respect your knowledge and get more value out of the experience.

It’s a small but critical distinction. In short, it’s how you position yourself and approach clients, how you charge and the processes you create.

Let’s discuss the critical distinctions.

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Experts Own a Process

Far too many service providers never create a process. With every new client, a new way of working emerges, slowing down their work and leading to unprofitable clients. Take a web developer, for example. Asking “How many pages do you need?” is a perfect example of working as a service provider.

From the very first conversation, your job is to figure out the most pressing problem your client faces so you can fix it. The questions to be asked should revolve around figuring out “what goals the client needs to achieve” and “what challenges they face”. Then using your expert knowledge, provide a solution to address the clients needs with a proven process.

If your income is based on charging by the hour you would need to work too many hours and with too many clients. Furthering you away from the freedom you want to have in your business. 

Instead, your income isn’t tied to time but the value you provide. Having a clear cut process allows your work to be efficient. You can focus on increasing the value you provide and not the time you spend doing it. Eventually, once your process has been tried and tested to provide value, you can start streamlining it. By providing more value and having streamlined processes you can command higher prices while reducing the time it takes to do work. Resulting in increased profit margins and freedom. 

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Experts Charge Flat Rates Based on The Value They Provide

Many service providers charge by the hour. This creates a tension between the client and the service provider. The client will always be doubtful if the work is being efficiently done or are they being ripped off. No one wants to get into the hassle of filling out timesheets or being answerable for every day/hour of work. It just wastes time that could be used elsewhere to grow your business. Charging by the hour also puts a cap on your rates. People who can’t transition from the hourly rate will never be able to raise prices more than $200-300/hour.

The way you charge says a lot about the value you bring. You aren’t charging by the time you put into the project, but the value you bring to the table. The benefit is that you can keep raising your prices because money isn’t tied to time. 

If you currently charge your customers hourly and want to switch on to a flat rate, take your current hourly rate and multiply it by the estimated time. So, if you charge $40/hour and it takes you 5 hours, tell them it’s $200. But stop quoting hourly rates, it is a subtle shift in mindset but it will make you start thinking differently about your pricing.

Experts work with their ideal clients

Let’s face it. Whether you are a marketer, blog writer or web developer, we all have had nightmare clients.

...Maybe it’s the client that never marks the work as “complete” and drags the project

...Or the client who takes forever to get back to you

...Or the client that wants more work than the project scope and doesn’t consider paying extra for it

...It’s the client who doesn’t know what they want and keeps making changes

A service provider is always in a position to please clients. That is why they accept these demands even though it takes a huge toll on their time and profitability. 

But how to turn this around?

The realization that it isn’t the nightmare clients whose at fault here, but the service provider. Transitioning to an expert means communicating clearly, setting and managing expectations and managing the process like the leader. There can only be one captain of the boat. Either you or your client.

Experts take control of the project from the first conversation. Experts lead the client and are respected for their opinion, even if it’s the hard truth. Scope creeps can not create a mess because the goals and outcomes of the project are communicated clearly. 

The transition to an expert is the key to eliminating nightmare clients from your life forever.

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What Does It Take to Gain Expert Status?

Don’t feel bad if you are a service provider right now. This is the “default” model, that everyone starts their journey with.

And why not? Taking people through our own process and leading them makes us fearful of losing clients. Instead, most of us choose the easy route and let the client make the decisions and we try our best to please them. Losing sales and clients is a nightmare for service business owners. And we aim to avoid that nightmare but actually fall into a worst one by becoming a service provider instead of aiming to become an expert.

You end up drawing in the very clients that make you go crazy and scaring away the clients who really need an expert and will pay for that worth.

As a service provider, the only way to earn more is to work more and give more of your time to your clients. But our aim of doing business was to achieve freedom, not to become more occupied by our “job”.

Yes, being an expert isn’t something you can fake when starting out. It requires expertise, experience and process. But what you can do is start positioning your business as being more than an outsourced employee for your clients. 

This means finding your niche and working with your ideal clients. Recognizing your value and charging based on the value you provide and staying adamant about it. Understanding what part of your work is the same for each client and which parts can you streamline to make your business efficient. Creating processes for your clients to follow and making them go through it instead of the other way around. By the time you build credibility and experience, you will gain traction faster as your business will already be set up as an expert and not a service provider.