Consulting vs Digital Product?
I have a good problem...
I run a newsletter for a niche audience and is growing fast (700 subscribers now, 100 this month). I provide free information; no subscriptions. I use the Substack platform.
My problem is an issue with creating a product (one-time fee structure) vs hourly consulting
People know my skillset and want a piece of it. They want 1-hour of my time as a consultant to review things. I initially charged $125, then $150 and now just did one for $200. No one batted an eye paying that. Success!
I can package this knowledge up into a digital product (e-books, some videos, checklists, etc) so people can do my skillset on their own. Albeit not perfectly but at least somewhat.
For the product, I could probably charge around $50-$150 one-time.
Pros of consulting:
- Exclusive skillset. A few in the industry can do it right. I am one of them.
- High hourly rates
- Ongoing opportunities as my list grows
Cons of consulting:
- Trading time for money
Pros of digital product:
- Set and forget marketing
- Scalable
Cons of digital product:
- One-time fee
- No recurring element. A single customer may hire me multiple times for 1-hour consulting but with the digital product, try to learn themselves
What would you do? There will be a subset of people who will always hire me because it's not easy. But a large group will buy my product and try it themselves.
Life is good with a bit of both, imho.
By doing consulting you keep on top of your game.
By creating digital products you make it affordable to those who can't hire you, but maybe one day they will.
Very good point! Thanks!
I'm torn about this as well. I agree with @rosiesherry's points about addressing multiple price points, but I also fear that I'd be cannibalizing my own consulting if I did my digital product too well.
I've taken on consulting as my main source of income right now, and wrote a bit about the business model behind it. Trading time for money isn't necessarily a drawback, if the business model works for you.
https://adrukh.medium.com/the-economics-of-mentoring-debb2f315f70
I'd say do both as well!
Consulting work can bring in direct revenue now. Also you may get some more ideas/case studies/ etc for your digital product.
Work on your digital product as well!
This is fantastic progress though, so congrats on your hard work! What's your newsletter about?
Excellent points. Appreciate it. Time is money so have to maximize what I can. I like consulting because it gets me closer to my audience and has more partnership opportunities down the road.
I run https://thewebsiteflip.com/
I've been buying, growing, and selling website assets since 2008 as a side gig. This is a conglomeration of my active case studies, dealflow that I get via my network, etc. I would like to say I am well-known in the space since the early days so I've been since June 2020 documenting what I do.