What would you/or have you charged a monthly fee of $50/$100 for?

This is one of the things I'm doing in terms of researching more ideas. I'm going to websites like entrepreneur.com and finding the top ten things business need. I'm going to make a list of all of them and just create a bundle to market to small business in my area. I may raise the price a little, but I want to make it affordable to $500 a month may be a little too much,.



10 Web Marketing Trends for 2010 - Internet Marketing Trends | Entrepreneur.com

I'd say what is your time worth? If it is $20/hr this is soemthing that would take about 5 hours. If it is $100 it would be 1 hour.

Now what can you do in that amount of time that you can show to a client and get them excited about.

For each of us this will varry what I do or what someone else does may or may not work for you.

I could see myself offering to manage someone's Facebook page or twitter in a minor way for that amount. i'd be willing to put in an hour or two a month for $50 to $100 bucks.

Also remember that marketing a product like this to very small businesses may be good but for a larger business used to paying $500 a month for services it may seem to low to them. In that case I would recommend a menu of offers where you make it clear how each is better than the others. Depending on the business you may want to aim low or high to get them in the door.

"As you see I have packages for the needs of all my clients. Based on your business I believe the $500 package will work best. Let me tell you more."3

Or for someone you think has a smaller budget(never assume they do so present all but make it easy for them to choose the lower package without losing face)....

"Here is a menu of the packages I offer. Let's go over a few of these and how they can help your business grow."

This is true for all sales you have to know when to go high and when to go low. And $500 a month may be low for some businesses so remember that as well. And of course make sure you are charging enough for your time so it is worth doing. Depending on your skill level and where you are at in your career you may be $20/hr or you may be $1,000/hr. Myself I would figure about $100/hr since that gives me money to cover my unpaid time to sell to get the clients.

Remember when you are self employed you have to make more per hour to cover your down times(unpaid work) and your extra expenses and taxes.

$20/hr would be similar to minimum wage. $100/hr would be someone mid career($50k to $70k/yr in corp world) and on up.

If you under charge for your time you might as well be working at McD's. I think a lot of IMers don't put a good value on their time and try to low ball on prices. But low balling hurts you by not paying you well and making the clients think you are cheap and therefore not good at what you do.

Of course if you can get $500 for set up and $100 a month and you spend only a few mins a month on the client that is a win win if they get value from it. But if you spend 10 hours a month on it the client is getting value but you are making less than minimum wage.

Hope my little mental exercise helped you figure out what you are worth and what you can offer to clients.