How I Stopped Custom-Scoping for Every Client
(And stopped feeling like I was trading time for money.)
Happy Friday, friends!
It seems like one of the trickiest parts of building a fractional business is scoping the work. So often, we don’t know exactly what needs to be done until we’re actually in the work. Because of this, I was really reluctant to productize my services - how could I have standard offers when every client’s needs were unique?
It took me a while to finally figure it out, but once I did? I never looked back. Creating custom proposals for every prospective client was a pain, and having established offers makes it so much easier for me to talk about pricing and work structure with leads.
Before I share where I’ve landed, let’s talk about the path to getting there.
The Early Days: All Custom, All the Time
When I started my business, all of my work was on a project basis. Each project had a custom scope, and I struggled to accurately forecast the time each would require. That made scheduling a mess, and meant that at times, my effective hourly rate was way lower than it should have been.
I also felt like I was on an endless hamster wheel of needing to find new clients and projects. That changed when a few clients asked for ongoing support, leading me to shift to a retainer-only model relatively early in my journey.
Scoping Retainers: A Step Forward, But…