A member asked a great question today. I thought I’d share it here as well since it’s excellent food for thought.
This member has been asked by clients on occasion if she would come to their offices and teach them how to do this or that so they can do it or manage it themselves.
She wanted to know if this was a good opportunity or something to avoid, and if she did offer it, should the rate be significantly higher. Here’s my advice to her and you:
First, you want to decide if training is the business you want to be in.
It’s one thing to be in the administrative support business; entirely another to be in the training business (as well as going onsite, for that matter).
I’m not sure why any client would assume that, and even if they do, you get to decide whether you are or not. Don’t let clients try and twist you into any pretzels they please.
Know what business you specifically intend to be in and then keep your focus there because if you let yourself be led down every rabbit hole that anyone can take you, your real business and other clients will suffer from your distraction and the time they eat up.
Of course, if you do decide to provide training for this client, I advice you to offer it at a substantially higher fee due to the on-site, personal one-on-one training and attention.
Anytime you have to leave your office, it puts stress and strain on your normal systems and operations, especially if that’s not the thing you are normally in business to do.
That time and energy away creates a significant expense for the business and takes away from other work and clients: time-wise, availability-wise, space-wise, energy-wise and money-wise.
So yes, I would definitely offer that at a considerable premium fee to make it worth your while.
Doing so also creates an additional layer to your top-tier offerings and signifies to clients that this is a special, premium service.
Whenever you get into work that takes you out of the office, it creates significant impact on your profit margins and to the time you have left available to you and your other clients.
As solopreneurs, this is a particularly important consideration for us in the administrative support business.
What you might want to consider offering instead are online training classes (webinars). That way, you can conduct them from your own office (thus reducing the expense to produce and conduct them) and teach several clients all at once, thereby making more money.
That is, IF it’s something you want to be doing/offering. It’s perfectly okay to tell clients, “that’s not what I’m in business to do.”