My Market Won’t Pay

Today’s question comes from Evan, and he asks:

“I think what’s holding me back is gaining small businesses as clients. Right now all of my clients are running solo businesses and can’t afford websites at a high price I’d like to charge, which is $200/month. How do I turn small businesses into clients?”

I hate to tell you this, but this question shows that you’re focused on the completely wrong thing. You’re trying to turn people who can’t afford your service into people who can. Not only will that be incredibly hard but also it’ll be incredibly frustrating.

A much better way to think of it is to say: “Small businesses are typically struggling or just getting started. They don’t have lots of clients yet…so what if instead of targeting them, I found people who had the ability and willingness to pay — people who have the cash and want their problems solved right now.”

When you only think about serving people at the bottom of your market, you stay stuck down at the bottom and stagnate, trying to serve people who don’t have money. And even if they did have money, they wouldn’t be looking to invest it in your business.

Those people — at the bottom — will try to cut corners on everything just to save a few bucks.

On the other hand, there’s an entire community of people at the other end of the spectrum, who are desperately looking for someone to solve their problems.

Those are the people you should focus on. So that’s the first thing I’d recommend. Reframe who your ideal customer is.

Secondly, I think it’s interesting that you said you only want to charge $200/month. The fact that you’ve picked such a low number is really revealing to the way you value your work and are limiting yourself.

For example, do you know how much I’ve paid for website services in the past? I’ve paid $2,000, $10,000, and more just for one firm to optimize a small part of my website because I knew the value that would add.

When you’re only charging $200/month, you’re attracting the worst type of customer. You’re only getting people focused on the price and not the value you add.

My recommendation to you: Move up market. Find people who have the ability to pay, which means they have the cash, and the willingness to pay. That means they are willing to invest. Right now you’ve found people who have neither.

Now if you’re curious about how to grow your business, click below.

I’ve put together a special field report on one of our students who took her idea — very much like your idea — and she slightly repositioned it into a successful online business.

Create your business breakthrough

Learn how to guarantee your business idea will be a huge success with just a few, subtle tweaks in this free guide, Positioning Breakthroughs. ↓