The free ebook Breaking The Time Barrier – Unlock your true earning potential
by Mike McDerment CEO of Freshbooks. This free ebook is a very quick read that answers the question, “are my services worth it?” The book features a few examples taking the reader on a journey between Steve and Karen who meet at a coffee shop and she spouts her wisdom and advice to Steve about pricing.
Listening to the lessons in this book really show that you are worth more than a dollar figure. Giving examples of services and what you can offer versus setting a firm price to your customers. This approach lets you better establish a relationship with your clients and connect on a personal level. The end result is that price is no longer the distinguishing factor and it becomes an emotional need.
The book has good stories and as it claims you really can finish it in about an hour. It’s 70 pages feels solid and gives you just enough to really get into the topics presented. The format is you sit down for a 1 hour meeting with a professional in your field giving valuable advice.
Being a former web designer, I could relate to Karen and Steve and how pricing shapes their relationships. Does this mean that I would recommend this to non-designers? I would say yes. The book might stick to the design field but it can apply to anyone in the service-industry. It does not fit for small business owners who own a cafe perhaps or other retail stores. The book would not fit medium -sized businesses or larger either. The examples best fit freelancers or business owners just starting out. Still, I found value in the book and I have had a few businesses under my belt with several years of experience.
I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. Although it is free there is a link to donate what you feel the book is worth to you. I recommend this book to freelancers, solo-preneurs, and business owners in various service industries. Although the lessons are brief, its moments of mindfulness set it a part from other reads. Toward the end of the book it mentions the story of Tara the dog walker who takes some time off to think about her business and services. This act of mindfulness helps to iterate the point of accepting yourself and your unique value you bring to your clients.
Although it isn’t stressed quite obviously, the book borders on meta and self-help. You can see this from the following sample:
“When you look inward, like Tara did, and pushyourself to come up with ways to serve your clients,you end up redefining what you do and expandingyour services.
The book is available for free from this link at Breaking the Time Barrier
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Lucky you Ted – I was super happy until they force transitioned me to the new ui and lost most of my historical data in the process but I have to admit that their support was super professional, helpful and courteous. Since then it has been a bumpy road to say the less but not bumpy enough to make us move somewhere else. As recent as yesterday, from a colleague: https://imgur.com/a/PFpFfXW
Oh my, yes that does happen to me often as well. I have had issues when clients pay using AMEX oftentimes. It might have more issues since the payment processor can show as an international company (Freshbooks is based in Canada) but the processor is basically Chase – WePay but issues do pop up. Now that you mention it it does happen during busy times when the system must be bogged down as people need to work on and get out invoices to get paid. Overall, I am happy with them but there are issues for me that I will have to call usually once to a few per month (varies). Again, their support is good so they help get things fixed.
“are my services worth it?” If he meant freshbook then no they ain’t. Freshbook has been utterly broken since they transitioned to their new ui/server. Especially on the 1st of each month where it becomes unmanageably slow.
Interesting, we have been using Freshbooks for sometime now and have not had major issues. There were some errors I remember back maybe over 1 year ago but since have been working well for us. I suppose there are some slowdowns sometimes now that I think about it when I try to access that you mentioned. I usually call them directly since they have good phone support and they are able to help me. There was one time that an issue took maybe 3 days which was disappointing but for our volume overall it works very well.