Is the glass full?

One of the first questions I ask potential clients is ‘what is your capacity?’    Are you half-full?  Close to full?  Closer to empty?While this might not seem like a typical marketing question, it does give a lot of insight intohow to move forward with the marketing effort. For most solopreneurs who offer services, the maximum number of billable hours is approximately 20 to 25 hours per week.     The rest of their work time will be focused on running their business: the accounting, marketing, selling, etc.    For product-oriented companies or larger service organizations, themaximum will vary of course.  For all businesses, understanding the maximum revenue if everything goes well and they sell out is a good first step to deciding how to get there (or close to there).

There are both product and pricing implications to the maximum capacity question.   If you are trading hours for dollars and the maximum possible revenue doesn’t meet your income goals, then we need to add some ‘product’ (or product-like) offers to your portfolio.    For example, a workbook, an audio file, an e-book – something you produce once but can package with your hourly services to charge more and gain more income.      If you’re selling product and your capacity limits the revenue, then it might be that we add services to the offers- think warranties,  maintenance programs, etc.

Of course, other ways to address the capacity constraint might be to raise your prices or change your target segment.   Or decide that you should partner to increase your capacity.   I’d love to schedule a free 30 minute consult with you to talk about your capacity and your marketing!