Any consultants managed to "productise" their service?

[the_r_sole]

Been trying to look at ways of developing a different types of income and/or passive income streams?
Basically all of our service at the moment is do something for x amount of times and then get paid once the work is complete, which is pretty awful for cash flow when you get one or two late paying clients and the wages still need to get paid, just wondering if anyone has managed to move away from that type of model and how they did it...

 

[AHarvey]

Can't you switch it round?

Lots of IT companies sell support packages, they looked at one in my last role and it was one of the reasons I wanted to leave. They paid £780 for 10 hours of support from a local IT company for when they needed help with their main router/server, that money could have trained me.

Those hours sit in their support bank and are used up.

Ask clients to pay for the X jobs up front and then they can use them as and when they like until they run out. You get the cash up front and the client still gets the support they need.

Without knowing more about what exactly it is that you do/provide it's hard to give any concrete advice.

 

[the_r_sole]

If you switch it round it just means that money = time rather than time=money and there's a finite amount of time so it doesn't really help to diversify the income - although it would help with the cashflow if you can charge enough and then spread the time over a longer period

 

[AHarvey]

As I said though, without knowing what services you offer we can't really offer advice on products.

It's more than possible, you only have to look at plazes like Moz that started with SEo and now sell services to other SEO'ers, or personal trainers that become a brank with online academies.

 

[the_r_sole]

I was just trying to keep it general to hear what other had done and what they have done with their service rather than asking for specifics about how to do it with my business

 

[OspreyO]

Been trying to look at ways of developing a different types of income and/or passive income streams?......

I've been looking at how other people do this. What I've realised its usually not the core business that can be switched to a passive stream.
But spin off business. For example you might give instructor led training. You could create training material guides, and merchandise that brings in a passive income stream.
The main business continues to be instructor led train, as its till probably 85% of income.
Also the passive income might be 5% so you have to work to grow it. Often its a full time job in itself.


Depends what the product is though.