This vlog is ALL about simplifying the packaging process for you…. starting from scratch with the types of services that both and not work when leveraging your income by packages!
Watch and read along below and let me know your thoughts.
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I’m sitting at my desk here and I’ve been watching this debate happen in a Virtual Assistant Facebook group about the struggle a lot of you are still having around packaging your services up. Now, if you’ve been following me for any time you know that I’ve been preaching about packaging and services for a long time now because it makes your business far more commercially savvy, make more money, work less hours, the whole shebang. You know I’m all about that, but people still seem to be struggling.
I’ve recorded a lot of videos about packaging your services up and I’ll include a list below, you know things from what kind of questions to ask a potential client when you want to design a package for them, why you’re struggling packaging your services, packages vs retainers, how do I convert my existing offering into a package, and more. But today I want to talk about something really simple, really simple that I think might help a lot of you out and that is the best and worst services when it comes to packaging. Hopefully this will shine a light on you and help you get over your struggle around packaging.
So let’s start with the worst kind of packages, or the worst kind of services you can package. One of the key elements to packaging your services up is the fact that it needs to be repetitive work. Something you need to do on a repetitive recurring basis that has clear parameters. That happens every week or every month for example, enables you to group tasks together and have a set fee.
In order for packaging to work it needs to be a consistent, reccurring service. So the worst things that most virtual assistants try to package that don’t work is:
Adhoc.
If you do a lot of adhoc work, like a lot of five minute jobs, general administration, things like that where people are just sending you lots of tiny little tasks, you cannot package that up because there is no consistency and there is no reccurring nature of that work. So does that mean you can’t offer that as a service? No, of course you can do that. If you enjoy it and you make a lot of money from it and it’s pleasurable and your clients love doing that with you, whatever works in your business that’s fine. It’s just not a packable service on its own. If you want to know how you can package it up let me know, there is kind of a loophole that you can get around, but contact me and I’ll show you how it works. But if that’s the only kind of work you do, it’s really impossible to package. So general admin, you can’t package.
Transcription
Now for the most part, people that specialise in transcription simply transcribe a document or an audio file and send the document over and that’s it. Unless the transcription is combined with lots of other tasks, like a bigger procedure, possibly you might be able to package it up. Like if the transcription is one element of a bigger reoccurring procedure. For example you might transcribe a video for a client once a week. So the reoccurring nature of that is there, the transcription is just one element of it. That’s packageable. But if it’s stock standard transcription alone, like medical transcription for example where it’s literally a revolving door of MP3 files coming in and you transcribing them and a word documents going out, if that’s all you do, you can’t package it up. Simply because it’s not a reoccurring, consistent service that has the capacity for people to offer or charge more than the standard transcription rates that are out there in the industry. The transcription industry is like a micro-industry within the VA industry and everybody is already used to paying per audio minute. That’s the standard, that’s the rule; no one would pay $500 a month, for example, for a certain number of transcription files. It just doesn’t work. So I always say to virtual assistants if that’s the only service offering that you do, you’re really going to struggle packaging your services. Is it impossible? No. I guess you could add other services to your business and try and create some kind of reoccurring task like I mentioned earlier, but it’s very very difficult and something that I don’t necessarily encourage.
And the final service that you can’t package up is….
Project Work
If you are a website designer and you create websites, once it’s done, its done. Like you create a website, it’s finished. Clients don’t need a website every month, hopefully. So if you are really on project work where you’re just doing one big thing for a client, that’s not necessarily packageable. Are there things that you can package that are associated with the website? Yes, of course. So things like reoccurring backups and stuff like that. So anything that’s reoccurring in nature you can do, but the actual website design component is not packable; as an example.
They’re the ones that you want to avoid if you’re trying to create packages. Are they services you want to avoid if that’s what you’re currently offering? No! If you love them and they bring you money and you enjoy them, good. If you only want to concentrate on packageable services, then they’re not the ones for you.
What is packageable?
Remember I told you is consistent reoccurring services or tasks or things that need to happen in a client’s business. So it would depend on the clients business, however things like; social media is the big obvious one. People need to reoccur and consistently post on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on Twitter, on Pinterest, on Instagram. Anything that needs to happen all the time on a reoccurring basis perfect for packaging. Another great one is obviously communications. Newsletters because we need to communicate with our clients on a very reoccurring, regular basis. So newsletters are packageable. Blogging and Vlogging; if your clients do videos or text blogs, that is definitely reoccurring work that needs to happen and consistently in their business. So yep, we can package that one up. Anyone that runs a regular event like a networking event or a regular webinar or a regular workshop, or anything like that, if it happens on a reoccurring basis, say monthly, yep, totally packageable. If a client has a membership and they need to give out to their members a regular once a month or bi-weekly or weekly resource, like a cheat sheet or a template or a document or a workbook or something like that, yep, totally packageable. Even reception support can be packageable. So if you are a phone answering service and you’re answering client’s phones, you totally can package their service because they need it week in, week out.
Has this been helpful? Remember, the most important thing is reoccurring, consistent tasks that need to reoccur in a client’s business is what’s packageable, things that happen ADHOC once off with no defined parameters, or transcription which is a very unique sub niche; really difficult to almost impossible to package up.
I hope this has really shined the light on there for you because I know a lot of you are struggling and if you struggling and you want me to help, I’m happy to design a package for you based on your current service offerings.
If that’s something that interests you, register yourself for a session where I’ll actually design a custom package for you in your business. I’ll be happy to do it and show you how it works, but remember the key points- It needs to be consistent, reoccurring, clearly defined parameters, a service offering task in order to be packageable. That’s the most important thing. Are there other things you need to consider? Absolutely and I’m happy to share them with you, if you want, if you have the questions, but really it comes down to that. That is the most important thing to consider that a lot of people forget.
Got any specific questions around packaging? Then leave a comment below so I can create some more videos for you and I hope you have a glorious day.
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