Five Ways to Tell if You are Charging the Right Amount for Your Services

Money tree made of dollar bills and with trunk made of golden coins

As a service entrepreneur, you need to determine the correct fees to charge your clients. This calculation is trickier than it may appear. Although to be successful, you must look to ways to leverage time, minutes and hours often remain as the most significant component of your “inventory.” And unlike the local hardware store that can simply order more faucet washers when supplies run low, there is only so much time you can sell. Therefore, maximizing revenue from that time, achieved by matching rates to a desired number of clients, is key. Here are five ways to help determine the right amount to charge for your services.

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The 5 “E’s” of Engaging with Your Ideal Customers

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One of the keys to success for any business is attracting and retaining the right mix of clients or customers. Conversely, one of the keys for the consumer or business that wishes to transact business is to ensure that the right firm is engaged to provide the product or service desired. In simple terms, the “fit” must fit. [Read more…]

Wrap Yourself Around Your Product or Service and Watch Your Business Succeed

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As a small entrepreneur, you can sometimes be overwhelmed by the amount of competition in the marketplace. How do you make yourself and your company stand out? This is especially problematic if what you are selling is a fairly common product or service. Experts tell us that when people purchase from smaller businesses, they do so because of the brand. What exactly does this translate to? In the case of a small entrepreneur, the brand is you.

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Free Writing — no strings attached!

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Need a blog post written? How about an article? A free report you intend to give away to potential clients? A smashing love letter to your best girl or boy?

E-mail us your proposed title and a brief description. If you are one of the first three responses to this offer, we will contact you and create your written piece for you — absolutely free of charge!

Here’s the fine print of this offer:

The written content is limited to 1200 words in length. Sorry, we are not writing a book for you!

Content is limited to non-fiction. And no erotica please! (Isn’t erotica all fiction anyway 🙂

You must be 18 years of age or older.

Your submission or your desired written piece cannot infringe upon or encourage the infringement of any third-party rights, including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, or participation in any unlawful activity.

You will own all of the rights to the piece that we create for you.

Don’t ask us to write something for you if it would violate any applicable federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations.

This offer is limited to the first three responses only! After we receive three responses, or midnight, July 24, 2015, which ever comes first, this offer is withdrawn.

And it’s free — no strings attached — no purchase required.

To Worry or Not to Worry; That is the Question

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We urge you to worry.

Global warming or that funny looking mole on your shoulder? Terror plots to blow up the next flight you are on, or yet another loss by your favorite baseball team? Trillions of dollars in federal debt or your five grand credit card balance?

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This “F” Word Can Add Years to the Lives of You and Your Business

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Putting the “FU” in FUN!!

“Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.” Thomas Carlyle.

The Academy of Leisure Scientists, a group of academics who study time use, has determined that we get the most satisfaction from leisure activities that are difficult and challenging. It’s best for us to put our time into activities requiring high levels of physical and intellectual energy.

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Annabolic Times-Excuse Me, You’re Fired!

I hope this finds you very well and enjoying your summer.

As solopreneurs, we don’t often have the experience of hiring employees; more often subcontractors.  However, there is an important lesson below should you ever decide to go down that path.

Enjoy the below video!  You may recognize someone in it.

CLICK HERE:  REASON 29:  VIDEO 

Excerpted and adapted from “Seventy Reasons Not to be an Entrepreneur (and why I wouldn’t do anything else)”  Copyright 2013 by Michael A. Babiarz, all rights reserved.

Reason Number 29: Hiring is a &**& and firing is a bigger *(**.  Hiring is not a fun process. For the small businessman, if the size of the company mandates employees, it is a process that will need to be repeated, time and time again. Your employees will quit. When they quit, replacing them means going through the painful hiring process all over again. But what if an employee needs to be let go?

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Annabolic Times-Excuse me, the direct approach is the best approach….

Have you experienced:

  • The person at home or at work that makes you feel like you are riding an emotional roller coaster. You know the one, he is friendly one day, but sulks and withdraws the next (and you, being the conscientious person you are, are wondering what you may have done to cause such behavior).
  • Someone who might appear to agree―with enthusiasm―to your request. Rather than completing the task, however, he or she might express anger or resentment by missing deadlines, showing up late to meetings, making excuses, or even interfering with the task.
  • Someone who pays you a “comp-insult” (a compliment and an insult in the same sentence). Something like, “Darling, you look fabulous in spite of your new hairstyle.”
  • The ex-spouse who, knowing his ex-wife is allergic to cats, buys one for their child.
  • The co-worker who engages in the crime of omission by choosing not to share a piece of key information that could or would have prevented a problem. For example, the jealous co-worker who fails to alert his colleague about a mandatory meeting and excuses it by saying something like, “I thought you knew.”
  • The individual who have caused you to be so frustrated that after your interaction you scratch your head and ask, “Am I crazy?”

If you answered yes to experiencing any of the above scenarios, you may be interacting with a person engaging in passive aggressive behavior. If you see yourself as the purveyor of this type of chaos, you may be the one engaging in it.
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Annabolic Times May, 2013-Excuse Me, You Need to Go!

The Solopreneur and the Traveling Gnome

Welcome to this month’s first blog post!  I hope everyone is enjoying some wonderful spring weather (I know, earlier this week, not so much)!

First off, I think it’s important to define “solopreneur.”  A solopreneur is an entrepreneur who works alone, “solo,” running his or her business single-handedly.  While he or she might have contractors for hire, the full responsibility for the running of the business lies on his or her shoulders.  I also believe that folks who are employed by a company, but working at home or outside the office most of the time, also fit into this category  because they face a lot of the same issues as solopreneurs.

[Read more…]

Annabolic Times-April, 2013 Excuse me, my eyes are up here!

An E-Challenge

Picture a couple, if you will, at a restaurant. They could be sharing a bagel and a cup of coffee at a Panera. Or, perhaps they’re enjoying grilled fish and fresh vegetables at an outdoor patio of a restaurant by the water. What are they doing? Are they gazing longingly into each other’s eyes? Are they toasting some good fortune with a glass of buttery Chardonnay? Are they brain-storming how to buy their dream home over that cup of steaming Java? No! Both are sitting, heads down, staring into — you guessed it — their smart phones.

[Read more…]

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