When all else fails, blame it on the economy. Unstick.me gets new rates and more.

By Alex Hillman on Monday, January 26th, 2009 in business, coworking, indyhall with 6 Comments

Just under 2 months ago, I launched a micro-consulting effort that I dubbed “Unstick.me”. It’s premise was simple. Small problems, action steps, 1 hour or less.

As I said when I started, it is a work in progress. An experiment, like most everything else I do. That meant there would be changes.

First, the successes:

  • With $0 spent on marketing, I have had booked and executed successful unsticking sessions.
  • I launched a weekly ustream show, attended regularly by 25-30+ people. This has been a HUGE success, besides being a lot of fun. As long as I can, I will continue to grow this show.
  • I went on LuckyStartups.com, a show that highlights startups. I had a great interview with their host, and the chat room for the show was really engaging as well

Now, the problems.

In short, as the reality of our economy sinks in, the tighter people’s funds are getting. They’re not stopping innovating, but they still need help.

How Unstick.me got Stuck

Herein is the problem with this sort of work. The people who can afford it often take advice, and toss it out the window. The people who can really succeed with consultations like Unstick.me provides simply cannot afford $240. Or maybe even $200. I think there are people who I can really reach, but the…uhm…sticking point has been my pricing.

So there you have it. The United States has a new president, and you have a new pricing point for Unstick.me sessions.

Effective today, I’m reducing the price of the 1 hour Unstick.me consultation to $140.

Unstick.me <3′s Coworking

It’s no secret that my passion is coworking. I’ve been an active member and contributor of the Coworking community since late 2006, when i started getting noisy about IndyHall. As IndyHall has grown, I’ve shared countless hours worth of insight, knowledge, and experiences, and in return, have had the pleasure of seeing the community flourish and a number of other very successful coworking spaces grow out of the lessons that we were able to share.

Picking my brain about coworking seems to be of interest to a lot of people, which is why I’m now offering a Coworking Special. Same 1 hour one-on-one in a format of your choice, but so long as we stick to coworking-related topics, the price drops to a $100. If you ask any of the people I’ve spent an hour or less with talking about coworking, I firmly believe that they will tell you that this is the bargain of 2009. That’s not me being arrogant. I know what other consultants charge for their time and provide less value.

Paypal baked right in

I’m also taking a new reservation system for a spin. This one requires payment in order to confirm an appointment, and is hooked right into paypal. It’s easy as pie to reserve your hour, for a coworking session or the straight up Unstick.me consultation.

So if you’ve been holding out on the Unstick.me session that you think you need, maybe now’s your shot. Have a friend or loved one who’s stuck? Sign them up. I’ll toss in something special for gifted Unstick.me sessions, just make sure to make a note in the “special comments” field of the reservation.

But what about that early adopter tax?

Steve Jobs can get away with it. I don’t think it’s fair for me to assume that I can. If you scheduled an Unstick.me session prior to Monday, January 26th 2009 and paid the full amount, please contact me for a refund of the difference. Seriously. All you need to do is ask.

Tags: , , , , , ,
  • http://poptent.net Mark Schoneveld

    Great self-analysis, Alex. I like that you’re brave enough to put it out there. Kudos.

  • http://poptent.net Mark Schoneveld

    Great self-analysis, Alex. I like that you’re brave enough to put it out there. Kudos.

  • http://markjaquith.com/ Mark Jaquith
    But what about that early adopter tax?

    If they thought the price was fair when they paid it, there is no reason to expect a refund. You didn’t twist any arms. They came to you freely.

    If you had raised your prices, would they have gone back and retroactively paid you the difference? :-)

    That’s the basic philosophical level. Of course, that doesn’t account for the cost of whiners. If people are going to be so personally offended at you lowering your prices that they’ll refuse to do business with you in the future, then yeah, it’s worth it for you to bribe their fragile egos. But I’d wait for them to come to you. If you advertise a refund you get both the whiners (who you have to coddle) and the regular old cheapskates who didn’t require a refund for emotional reasons, but will happily take your money.

    The $100 price for co-working consulting is genius. The “whuffie” you earn from being a co-working influencer and mentor is worth so much more than the $40 you’re not making. There’s a good lesson there: don’t be afraid to accept non-monetary compensation.

  • http://markjaquith.com/ Mark Jaquith
    But what about that early adopter tax?

    If they thought the price was fair when they paid it, there is no reason to expect a refund. You didn’t twist any arms. They came to you freely.

    If you had raised your prices, would they have gone back and retroactively paid you the difference? :-)

    That’s the basic philosophical level. Of course, that doesn’t account for the cost of whiners. If people are going to be so personally offended at you lowering your prices that they’ll refuse to do business with you in the future, then yeah, it’s worth it for you to bribe their fragile egos. But I’d wait for them to come to you. If you advertise a refund you get both the whiners (who you have to coddle) and the regular old cheapskates who didn’t require a refund for emotional reasons, but will happily take your money.

    The $100 price for co-working consulting is genius. The “whuffie” you earn from being a co-working influencer and mentor is worth so much more than the $40 you’re not making. There’s a good lesson there: don’t be afraid to accept non-monetary compensation.

  • http://www.dangerouslyawesome.com alexknowshtml

    @Mark, That’s why I said “all you have to do is ask”. My hope is that, for the people I’ve provided value for, that they feel that they got the value they paid for. I could have automatically distributed those funds. But I chose to go the route of asking the customers to reach out. Ideally, in my mind, I’d also get an opportunity to get feedback from them on the pricing point.

    I don’t think I’m bribing any egos. I think I’m offering a fair opportunity in the event that the service was mis-priced, which I’m comfortable admitting here. The results are still yet to be seen, and I’ll be sure to report back on how that goes as well.

  • http://alexhillman.myopenid.com Alex Hillman

    @Mark, That’s why I said “all you have to do is ask”. My hope is that, for the people I’ve provided value for, that they feel that they got the value they paid for. I could have automatically distributed those funds. But I chose to go the route of asking the customers to reach out. Ideally, in my mind, I’d also get an opportunity to get feedback from them on the pricing point.

    I don’t think I’m bribing any egos. I think I’m offering a fair opportunity in the event that the service was mis-priced, which I’m comfortable admitting here. The results are still yet to be seen, and I’ll be sure to report back on how that goes as well.