When it comes to building an online service business (for example selling marketing, advertising, SEO, websites, design etc.), there’s three different ways to ask your service client for money.
1) Ask for the full amount up front
If you have a client who is already sold and trusts you, I recommend asking for the full amount up front. This can be done for one-time projects but also for retainer clients. If you’re working on a retainer basis, you can ask for the full first month’s payment upfront.
In some cases prospective clients will ask you if they can pay half of the amount upfront and the other half once the project is done.
In that case, you can use this next payment model.
2) Ask for a 50% downpayment to start
If a client is not fully sold, doesn’t completely trust you yet and still has the need for some security, ask for a 50% downpayment to start the work and then let them pay the rest once the project is done.
I wouldn’t do this when it comes to retainer clients.
This payment model is more suitable for one-time projects.
3) Work for free for a month, then ask for money
In the past, when I really wanted to win over a client, I worked for free for one month in order to prove that I can get them results.
This is a high risk and high reward approach. I once wrote a sales letter for free for a client, it took me about half an afternoon. The client didn’t expect anything from me, it was a total surprise. He then used the sales letter and hired me for other marketing projects.
Over the period of half a year, that client paid me $8,000.
So was it worth to kick-start the relationship with some free work?
Absolutely.
In fact, I believe doing free work is one of the most underrated ways to gain clients if you want to build a service business. Just surrender and stop holding back your value. The more value you give people, the more you will get paid by them and other people down the road.
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