Optimizing Your Services and Making More Money Through VIP Days with Jordan Gill
Episode 501: Show Notes
Today on the show we have Jordan Gill. Jordan is an operations consultant and the founder of Systems Saved Me. She helps overwhelmed, one-woman shows become streamlined solopreneurs and her jam is creating a cohesive operating system for managing your tasks, files, and inbox. But today we are actually talking about something that could really change the game for you if you are running a service-based business. If you are the type of service-based babe who resents client workloads and is not a fan of the lengthy, back-and-forth communications, and is thinking about changing your entire business because you are almost on the brink of burnout, we encourage you to listen to this episode first!
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What we are sharing today is all about VIP days. With VIP days, you’ll create an amazing, lengthy, costly, profit-inducing service for your clients that also leaves them with a great impression of you. VIP days will also help you to free up your time for the rest of the year so you can do other things in your business. Jordan shares all about how she structures VIP days, how they changed her business, the lessons they taught her as a creative, and how you can implement them in your own business. Spoiler alert – in part of this episode we are talking about using a system that is going to make your VIP experience even better. And that system is Dubsado!
What VIP Days Are and How They Could Save Your Service-Based Business
What switched Abagail off her service-based business was the client process – all the back-and-forth that stretches a job out and often ends up piling extra work on the service provider. If she knew about VIP days she might not have been so switched off this business model. But just what is a VIP day? Jordan explains that a VIP day is a four-figure service offering that lasts between three and eight hours, where you help your client through a transformation in the most efficient way possible. VIP days should start at a flat rate of $1,000 or more. Jordan explains that VIP days fit into a service offering model that appeals to people who prefer to pay more to wait less. This is why you don’t charge for them using an hourly rate. Typically, a VIP day should last from three to eight hours, which eliminates any ask me anything sessions and back-and-forth emails. Lastly, the central idea is that the client goes through a transformation process in the allotted time, which takes away typical service-based processes where clients have shower idea sessions, pick your brain endlessly, or change their mind about an idea last minute. So basically, VIP days squeeze the entire client process into a single day, saving you many headaches and earning you a ton of cash!
How To Brief Your Client About Prep Work and Expectations Before a VIP Day
VIP days require clients to show up. For a service provider to truly be able to take their client through a transformation in such a short space of time, the client needs to do some prep work geared toward giving the service provider everything they need. This prep work can be done on the fly and Dubsado can help out a lot, allowing you as the service provider to automate your communications with a client during the process. Because prep work is so important, problems in the VIP day can arise if it is not done properly. Also, just based on the nature of the offering of a VIP day, if you are not upfront with your clients about what they should expect from you, you could end up in a conflict. Thus service providers need to be upfront about what exactly they are providing before working with a client. Jordan gives us some advice on what to think about in this respect. She says that you can consider forfeiting a VIP day if you don't have a client’s prep work within 72 hours of the deadline. She also suggests that before agreeing on a VIP day with a client, you should inform them that you don’t offer refunds – if a client agrees to work with you, they are making a commitment! Another suggestion Jordan makes is to stipulate in your contract that you will not have your entire client management process completed within the VIP day. This is not what a client is paying for – they are paying for your time. All in all, the people who get into trouble by offering a service like this are those that are not stern enough from the get-go, so book a session with a lawyer and make sure you word some of these Jordan’s suggestions into your contract.
Why You Shouldn’t Get Intimidated By The Idea Of Offering A VIP Day
While VIP days are a little scary because of how much you charge and what can go wrong if you don’t have a solid contract in place, if you can get them right you could literally only do three or four a month and still make an excellent living. All the time this frees up could allow you to focus on other sides of your business too. Jordan explains that for about two years this is exactly how she lived, making 6 figures a year and spending the rest of her time as she pleased! The thing is that in today’s world, people want instant gratification, and they are willing to pay for it! Another thing service providers might get scared about regarding VIP days is how much work it might be to take a client through a transformation like this, but Jordan’s response to this is that if somebody gave you a check for $10,000 for a day’s work, you would figure out how to give them what they wanted! Whatever the service you provide, you could definitely translate it to be compatible with a VIP day. It is an opportunity to condense what you do, charge a lot more, free up your time, and offer something great with a neat bow on the top!
How VIP Days Can Level You Up, and What Jordan Learned By Offering Them
As a creative service provider, VIP days give you a massive opportunity to exceed what you thought you were capable of and streamline your systems at the same time. Jordan is the systems queen and we ask her what she learned after she took the leap of faith to offer VIP days. Firstly, Jordan learned that she was capable of a lot more than she thought. She tells a story about when she was offering a conventional, service-based offering and got burned out. When she engaged in a VIP day as a client, she decided it was something she wanted to offer and never looked back. One thing to remember is that people often need things they don’t even realize – think Uber – and this can help you feel more confident offering a service like this to people. The second thing Jordan learned was that your VIP day offer won’t be perfect out the gates and this is OK. It is perfectly acceptable to see your VIP day offering as something that you are iteratively perfecting, so give yourself permission to pivot and iron out the kinks as you go!
How Dubsado Can Help You Automate Your Back End, Saving You Even More Time
It’s easy to look at the way our competitors promote their businesses on the front end and then infer that they have it all worked out on the back end too. Of course, this might not be true, so it is not necessary to be so hard on ourselves if we haven’t got the back ends of our businesses totally figured out. That being said, having a streamlined back end will do wonders for you, and Dubsado can help with this immensely. Dubasado helped Jordan in this way – she explains that it was like her personal assistant for the two years she was mainly offering VIP days. One of the things Jordan loves about Dubsado is the functionality it gives you to qualify your leads using a lead capture form. This form allows you to ask your prospects some questions to see if they are a good fit. Dubsado also allows you to automate the next steps in the qualifying process. If they are not a good fit, you can set Dubsado up to send them an automated email that makes some suggestions about other service providers who are a better fit. If they are a good fit, you can automate the process of sending them an invoice as well as the back and forth that might be required to remind them to get their prep work done on time! Dubsado helped Jordan so much that she calls the services it offers her 5-minute onboarding process!
Quote This
VIP days are a four-figure one day service offering in which you help your client through a transformation in the most efficient way possible.
—Jordan Gill
Highlights
What VIP Days Are and How They Could Save Your Service-based Business. [0:05:21.1]
How To Brief Your Client About Prep Work and Expectations Before a VIP Day. [0:10:47.1]
Why You Shouldn’t Get Intimidated By The Idea Of Offering A VIP Day. [0:17:39.1]
How VIP Days Can Level You Up, and What Jordan Learned By Offering Them. [0:27:21.1]
How Dubsado Helps You Automate Your Back End, Saving You Even More Time. [0:31:23.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:39:36.1]
Use Instagram story polls to market your VIP day service
Warm up your leads in DM conversations that the story polls spawn
Limit the type of transformation you want to offer but still charge full price
If a transformation is too big, offer it over multiple VIP days
Offer transformations that require skills you don’t have, then outsource
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Jordan Gill
Systems Saved Me
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Jordan Gill is an operations consultant and the founder of Systems Saved Me. She helps overwhelmed, one-woman shows become streamlined solopreneurs and her jam is creating a cohesive operating system for managing your tasks, files, and inbox.
With 5 years of experience, she has produced operational strategies for multi-million dollar companies to consistently ensure peak efficiency with remote teams. Previously, she established quality control with contractors across 4 different continents with minimal management necessary. In a nutshell, she likes to give people back the freedom to work in their zone of genius as much as possible. So if you're struggling to manage your team or clients, Jordan Gill is the woman for you!
KEY TOPICS
VIP days, Elite offerings, Saving time, Dubsado
