Expanding Value

You probably don't need to re-invent yourself if you already have a few customers who find value in your service. But there are probably a few opportunities for you to round out your overall service to expand your value proposition.

Take initiative

Instead of waiting for your customers to tell you what they want, you should try to look at ways that they could have something even better. Sometimes clients don't know they need something until you suggest it. Perhaps they've struggled with something and simply don't know that it could save them time, headaches, and money.

For example, for all of my clients, they generally know that they want a new web design. But they don't know that there are better ways to make the content management easier. So instead of only selling them on a flashy new design, I make all the content super simple to create and maintain. They love this because it keeps their website looking good and they save time and money on training their team to update their website. 

Your customers will appreciate that you take an interest in improving their business and it's an easy way to upsell your services.

Empower your client

Even when you're not delivering the goods, you can provide a lot of value by simply being a resource for your customers and making their jobs easier. Here are some simple ways to do that:

1. Being available to answer questions - even ones that are not in your field of expertise
2. Suggesting options on how to solve problems
3. Writing documentation so they can always refer to your expertise when you're not around
4. Teach and mentor so they are more self-sustainable

People who empower other people are incredibly valuable because they increase the value of other team members.

Build your skills

It's so obvious and always easier said than done. But there are probably a ton of little skills that are in the periphery of your current offerings that are simple and valuable. I started out and worked mostly as a front-end developer for most of my career so far. But realizing that my work is so closely tied with design and programming, I started to learn both UI design and a bit of C# Razor templating. My clients who hire me mostly for front-end development get the added bonus that I can handle a bit of design or something like PayPal payment processing when needed.

If you're a web designer, maybe even learning a bit of copywriting might make a big difference to your service. Or as a programmer, learning the basics of UI design could go a long way.

When you start to build out your skills like that, you become a more valuable resource your customers can rely on because you're then the person who can fill in the gaps.

Takeaway

The name of the game in business is to bring value to your customers. Your work and your service should provide them with more value than the cost to them. In business, things will always be changing. As long as you constantly find ways to bring value by considering what they value and expanding on your offerings, your customers will not only want to work with you, they will need what you provide because it makes perfect business sense.