I've been offered fees for consulting businesses on their Internet marketing. I'm kind of new and although I'm having some results, it's not super fantastic that I can charge exorbitant fees. Besides these businesses are usually run by my friends, or my friends friends.
I have a few concerns
1. Inability to deliver results. So far I have been delivering but I don't like being paid and not doing the job fantastically
2. Inability to commit. That's why I'm here in the first place. I'm not spoon feeding anyone and helping them to set up servers and entertain calls to upload a lander.
3. Fees that limit my capability to charge higher next time. Charles ngo mentioned that one of the purposes of his free content is so that he can demonstrate value to his readers so he can charge a much higher fee than the market. Besides my skills are still learning in progress.
4. Helping them in in fact helping myself, because I use their budget to learn a new niche which I can collect data on. And they also have to participate by doing their part while I have access to the data. In fact they are going to do 95% of the work. Which means I'm willing to do this for free
Business 1 - new recruitment firm seeking consultation on how to find job seekers. They have offered me a fee which I rejected. They counter offered free labor in exchange of consultations
Business 2 - life insurance consultants seeking to gather leads online.
Business 3 - event planning firm holding parenting talks, buffet catering etc
Im thinking a of striking a balance where I help for free, keeping my commitment to a minimum and keep them talking about me. And I can test my "consulting model" which is essentially everything I learnt here packaged into a 7 day test which should show conversions. And then after the business achieves success I'm betting on them coming back and then I take a % share of their company equity. No fees will be collected at all because I don't want commitment..
I don't mind helping for free since they are my friends and I trust them. But again I estimate that 70% of the people I help are not grateful. I already know who are the good 30% so this does not apply to them. Some of them are going to walk away and then I receive no benefit. Is there a way I can monetize this traffic while keeping to what I want?
Or should I simply see this 70% as click loss? The 30% pays for itself over and over. The payout for the 30% is very very high.
Hmm, if you aren't that experienced then I wouldn't try to "fake it" and charge consultancy fees for advice that, for all you know, may just spend their money with little returned value - or worse, serious repercussions.
An example would be advising the life insurance consultants on advertising methods that then backfire and get them in legal hot water with the local bodies that regulate those industries.
I would offer free help as you said, work with their marketing team member(s) and use it to "build street cred".
You could always negotiate a spit-shake deal where you help for a trial period and if they see traction and are happy with how things are going then they can bring you on board with a monthly fee and/or retainer.
For the life insurance industry there are many compliance issues and I won't be surprised if I break a few rules and damage their reputation. Which is why I designed the outline of the ad but left them to write what is appropriate for the headline.
Sounds like free help is the way to move ahead. It's kinda fun. Let's see how the conversions come in.
Rather than doing it for free, if you're not comfortable charging an hourly rate, perhaps pitch them on a % of the upside from your free consulting. Some businesses are willing to do this, especially if you put a cap on the earnings.
For example, where you might normally charge them $5000 for the consulting, instead tell them the consulting is going to be free up-front if they
1) agree to recommend you to their friends if you do a good job, and
2) pay you 50% of their profits on the ad campaigns you help with, up to $5000
That way, if you don't perform, you don't have the guilty feeling of them paying you for nothing. If you DO perform, you make your money, they get a cheap ad campaign that's making dough, and you get a good recommendation and potential future business.
I think at this point in time I need the recommendations to collect more data and at the same time want to limit potential reputation damage from failed campaigns. Profit from campaign sounds interesting since I'm already taking an interest in the project, yet they I will not be at their Beck and call and they still do 95% of the work