Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Dino,

It'll take you a while but you will find someone who needs your expertise. You'll be able to convince them of that simply through your discussions. That's how many people start.

When the time comes, the prospect should see your value and be willing to pay something up front. I would suggest on a project basis.

Michael

Ciao Dino, I would offer a standard fee on your brochure and possibly bring up the idea of commision with a smaller base fee as an incentive to companies that are not sure on whether to use your services. If you're worried about not having "success" stories, you can still have references on your previous work.

Good luck!

Marco

You say that you won't help small and midsize businesses, and certainly these businesses need help. But will they pay you a professional wage for your work? I would suggest that you also consider some projects for larger firms, firms which have a history of paying professional wages for professional work.

When I was initially growing my business, I basically had two rates. I had my standard rate for folks who would pay that, and I would take short-term projects at any rate I could get to stay busy. Very few, if any, of these discount customers grew into good paying customers, but I was able to gain a lot of experience and to develop procedures which were a great help down the road.

Eventually, I had to make a decision about whether to standardize pricing and payment terms or to work with individual companies on individual basis. I found a little flexibility here went a long way. If one company was happiest paying me every couple of weeks, and another company preferred to pay me monthly, and a third company wanted to retain me on an annual basis, I found it created less problems to take the path of least resistance, and let the company pay me in a manner which was comfortable for them. Of course, if I was unsure about a business relationship or felt I might not be making enough money, I would avoid long-term commitments and stick to short-term projects selected quickly replace the client if needed. Good luck.

Don't go the route of commission: You'll be depending upon your clients to provide you with accurate reporting long-term and putting you more in the collections business than the marketing business.

If you have no successes, then you need to create some. Work for free for well-known businesses (or not-for-profits) to get experience and contacts. Learn how long it takes you to achieve various goals so you can price your offerings better.

Ideally, price specific services at a set fee. Charging by the hour is bad for you if you're efficient/talented and bad for the client (since they're paying for time not results). If you don't know how long tasks will take, either charge by-the-hour (with a maximum do-not-exceed cap) or charge a set fee and keep accurate records of how much time you used to better estimate profit in the future.

Thank you so much friends for your help, i will read your answer all carefully you have make me have a better feeling that the right way is not only one but can be more and any direction can have danger and opportunities. Yes i feel that going to commission way can switch from consult role to a agent role so i will try to no go this way. Very interesting, Telemoxie, your say that little companies not understand the marketing consulting and don't want to spend in that, no matter they need it. Maybe little companies need to be object of different marketing approach. In this time i am in touch with few Italian, many Chinese and some other nationality. I am happy to tell you that a big multinational company asked me to send proposal to supply marketing consulting for trade in Australia. I think i will go on in following your talk in this nice community