Productized services are a new popular way of doing freelance work. In short, they are services packaged as products. A typical non-productized service would be “I design websites for 50$ per hour” and a productized service would be “I will build a one-page website in two days for 500$” Productized services have multiple benefits for both the freelancer and the client. The main benefit is that freelancers instead of getting paid for the hours they work, they get paid for the value they deliver. This way their work is more predictable and allows them to generate more revenue. A great example is
24slides.com, where you pay to have your powerpoint presentation designed by experts. Their pricing is based on how fast you want the presentation to be designed and on how many slides you need. Here is also a great list of
10 successful productized services I found.
When I decided to quit my agency, Befoolish, I said to myself that I won’t ever do freelancing again, unless if I truly need it. Last week I realized that they way I did freelancing was my main issue, and not the freelancing itself. Charging for my hours ended up being a terrible approach with lots of issues and a productized service could be somehting that would help me overcome all of them.
On top of that, one of the thoughts that have been bothering me the last weeks, is the risk of only focusing on building a product in these 12 months. I acknowledge that the chances of building a profitable product that can make more than 3.000€ profit per month, are limited. This is not a pessimistic way of thinking, but a realistic one. I am new into IndieHacking and managing the risk is super important. Maybe creating a productized service that will allow me to focus on building my own products would be a better strategy.
At some point while scrolling on my Twitter feed, I found
Josh Pitzalis a freelancer that provides productized
growth-related services to tech startups. He seemed to me like he knew what he was doing, so I decided to drop him a DM on Twitter. I made a quick intro of myself and explained him I am looking for a mentor on productized services. In my message I wrote him I would like to schedule a video call with him to get to know each other and get some advice. I also wrote that
“I would pay whatever he wanted for one hour of his time”. The problem with contacting people out of the blue is that it’s annoying by nature. Someone sends you suddenly a message without knowing you and asks for your time. Nobody wants that. Telling people that you are going to pay for their time, is a solid way to show that you respect them. The funny fact is that most times people won’t ask for that money. It’s enough for them to see that you respect them and that you are a gentle person.
That’s what Josh did as well. He told me to do a 30mins call for free and if I needed more advice we could discuss how we could do it in a paid way. During our call he gave me great insights on how to find and validate my productized services. He even made a google document template for me that I can use to create them. In return I gave him some ideas on making a course around the topic of productized services. It’s a hot topic and I am sure he could make a side-income from that. I told him to ping me if he ever needs any help on that. I focused on building a relationship and not just on getting some advice and leaving.
All I did this week was to message people on Twitter and ask for their advice. I had my first 30mins mentorship sessions with meetup organizers, a CEO of a milion-dollar company and a successful freelancer with an innovative business model. That’s the beauty of networking and that’s why networking for me
should be treated as a project. Meeting and listening to other people has many benefits and if it’s done right it’s a significant long-term investment. Networking is part of our roots. We are social animals that need and use each other to move forward. Building a strong network is a must-have and not a nice to have. It’s impossible to grow alone in a social world.