Jim Connolly Marketing

How to get your fees right

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How to set your fees, marketing, fee setting

Photo: Karolina Grabowska Pexels.com

Jim, how do I make sure I set my fees right? 

I get asked that question a lot. So, I’m going to answer it today.

I’m also going to show you how to earn more than you’ve ever earned before, from clients who eagerly want to hire you.

Let’s start with a few questions.

  • Do your clients pay you what you’re worth?
  • Do your clients give you the freedom to produce your best work?
  • Do your clients respect you?

Even if you found yourself answering NO to all three of those questions, you don’t have three challenges to overcome.

You only have one. And it’s really easy

The news gets even better my friend. Because the rewards are far, far greater than you might think.

Overcome the fee setting challenge

Here’s why this is an easy challenge to solve.

  • You don’t need to figure out how to know in advance if a client will respect you.
  • You don’t need to be able to tell ahead of time, if they will allow you the freedom to do your best work, either.

All you need to know is that you’ve set your fee correctly and they’re happy to pay you what you know you’re worth.

Here’s why.

When a client pays you what you’re worth, you don’t have to rush. Your time is being rewarded correctly, so you’re free to consistently provide your very best work, on schedule. 

And clients who pay you what you’re worth, who rely on you for this consistently high-quality service, also greatly appreciate your contribution. 

They rely on the value you bring. They respect you for enriching them and their business. 

All this was built on the fee you quoted and their decision to agree to your fee. (relax, I’ll show you how to set your fee in a moment).

Why getting your fees right is essential to your success

When you set your fee, you set more than the financial return for your services. You set the whole framework for your relationship with the client.
And in turn, you set the rewards on every level of your business.

Here’s what happens.

You create a positive cycle. It’s a cycle where:

  • You’re free to produce your best work.
  • You’re regularly recommended by your delighted clients.
  • You’re respected in your market, because of what your clients say about you.
  • You’re paid accordingly by new clients, who value your excellent reputation. 
  • These new clients start that cycle all over again.


Here’s how to set your fee. It’s really easy. 

Decide exactly what your fees need to be, in order for you to provide your very best work, and smash your financial targets.

Then, make your services so good that they’re worth double (or more) your newly-increased fees. Remember, you’ll be earning a lot more for your time, allowing you to greatly improve the value you bring. This makes your fees extremely attractive to prospective clients, as you’re charging them half of what your services are worth.

Set your fees correctly. Earn more than ever. Work exclusively with clients who respect you and value you. 

Have a great day.

That’s it.

Go on!

There’s nothing more to see here.

Move along. 

Back to work.

Okay.

There’s one more thing.

Who do you think Jim Connolly is?

You’re wrong! Look.

Unproductive? You’re probably just bored

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It’s hard to be productive, when your work bores you.

It’s hard not to be productive, when your work inspires you.

Try this

When you’re feeling unproductive, look at your work and determine what part or parts aren’t inspiring you. That’s where your productivity answer is. Make it more interesting. Change or replace the uninspiring stuff, with exciting, engaging alternatives.

Sometimes it’s as easy as doing your work from a different location, using different hardware, using different software or using different pens, etc.

When work is inspiring, productivity is no longer an issue. Because inspiration brings it’s own motivation.

Give your best ideas away for free. Here’s why

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content marketing

What I’m about to share with you may sound a little counter-intuitive. It isn’t. In fact, it could help you achieve breakthrough results.

Allow me to explain.

I come across the following problem a lot. Mainly from service providers, who are struggling to attract new clients with their content marketing.

Their primary concern looks something like this.

I know I need to provide good, free advice via my content. But surely if I give my best ideas away for free, no one will pay to hire me?

I’ve already explained why you should be stingy with your time, but not your ideas. However, there’s another, excellent reason why you should provide outstanding, free advice.

And it’s this

Think for a moment about the alternative.

Imagine you publish newsletters, videos, a blog or a podcast. Now let’s also imagine that instead of sharing great advice, you share weaker information. Average stuff. Nothing special. Nothing that really stands out.

Guess what?

You’ve just given your marketplace a weak, low-impact insight into your work. You’ve painted a lousy picture of how good you are.

So, not only will people be highly unlikely to hire you, they’ll also be unlikely to share your newsletters, videos, podcasts, blog posts or subscribe to you. 

That’s a huge lose, lose.

No. It’s actually a lose, lose, lose, because you’ll also be damaging your reputation as a knowledgeable professional. Ouch!

Here’s what really happens when you give great free advice

Firstly, we have the freebie hunters
Yes, freebie hunters will gobble up all your free advice. It’s what they do… acting like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up anything that’s free. 

But that doesn’t lose you a penny. 

Why? 

Because freebie hunters were never going to hire you anyway. These people are the dabblers. The DIYers. So, they were never a prospective client. 

Secondly, we have the givers
These are a subset of genuine, prospective clients. Yes, they’ll take your free advice and do the work themselves… but unlike the freebie hunters, they appreciate the value you bring. So, when they value your work. They will subscribe. They will share your work with their contacts. That’s how the most successful content marketing successful spreads. Also, I know from experience that many of them will later hire you.

Thirdly, we have professionals, who respect their time
They love the peace-of-mind that comes from getting expert help. They value professionalism. These prospective clients will hire you, so you can do the job properly for them. 

How do I know with 100% certainty that this works?

Simple: it’s how I grew my own business.

AI is wiping out your competitors. Now take their market share

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AI Marketing, AI mistakes, small business marketing

Photo by Tara Winstead

Today, AI is causing a lot of anxiety for small business owners. I’d like to help you eliminate this anxiety, and equip you to wipe the floor with your AI heavy competitors.

Here’s the thing: from a marketing perspective, where AI is useful, it’s useful. But where AI is terrible, it’s really, really terrible.

The useful: AI can write content for social media posts and LinkedIn that’s better than the average business owner. AI has made it quicker and easier to get an image for your marketing. It’s also very useful for making social media cards.

The terrible: AI has critically serious problems when it comes to marketing. 

How serious? 

This serious!

Any business using AI for all or most of its marketing, that doesn’t have an experienced marketing professional overseeing everything, is in danger of wiping itself off the map. And the heavier they lean into AI marketing, the faster it will happen.

In fact, that’s what inspired me to write this for you. Members of the newsletter community have emailed over the past month, wondering why AI marketing doesn’t work for them. It’s not a coincidence. Several said trialing AI marketing was a New Year’s resolution. This is about the time I’d expect them to start struggling. 

Here’s how AI struggles with marketing

AI has no intuitive understanding of the realities of the physical world, which humans take for granted

What does this mean? AI sounds like a world-class marketing expert. It will sound this confident, as it suggests a marketing tactic, that cannot work when it comes into contact with reality. It will then work hard to convince users it’s a great idea. And AI is trained to be very convincing. To a user with just a basic understanding of marketing, the tactic will sound like a winner. 

It will be deployed. 

It will fail.

Every day, people are losing their reputations, their clients, their businesses, their contacts and their money as a result.

AI gives you answers and ideas, based on biased training information

Why is that a problem for your marketing?

It’s a massive problem, because the training data always contains the biases and goals of the AI provider.

We’ve all seen examples in the news, of politically biased answers, especially during the run-up to an election. We’ve seen examples of answers that trend toward recommending you use a certain product or service. And examples where if you ask it about the CEO of the AI, it will provide a doctored answer, based on what it’s been trained to say.

AI is blind to all non-obvious marketing opportunities

As you know, the best opportunities are never obvious. The problem? AI can’t spot a non-obvious opportunity. Why? It cannot make a move that seems to go against the data. This inability on the part of AIs, means those leaning into AI for their marketing will miss all the biggest wins. 

AI can’t take ownership of the risk

This is something one of the newsletter community mentioned in their email to me. And it’s a big deal. AI cannot absorb financial loss, fix reputational damage, accept legal liability,etc.

As the reader discovered, when advice or recommendations fail, all real-world impact falls on you. She explained how AI talked her into a $200 Google Ads investment. It wrote the ad and explained exactly what to do. The ad failed. The AI immediately said this was useful feedback and it now knew exactly what to say to make it work. She tried another $200. Again, it failed.

It’s only $400, you might say.

But $400 when her business is fighting for survival is a lot of money. 

Your opportunity today is huge

Right now, a lot of your competitors are wasting a lot of their time and missing a lot of new customers or clients. They’re gifting you a rare opportunity to own their share of the market. 

How? 

By not reacting to AI as a threat. 

It isn’t a threat to you. 

It’s your friend.

Yes, if you have a good eye, use AI for graphics.

Yes, if you need research for your marketing, let AI handle it. [Important: make sure you insist on a checkable source for everything, and tell AI to avoid anything on Reddit].

Yes, if you find writing for social media challenging, tell AI who you’re trying to reach and what you want your post to achieve; an enquiry, to subscribe to your podcast, to book a discovery call with you, etc. And let AI do it!

Your big win in May 2026 comes when you get smart!

Use actual, real world, proven, trusted, skin-in-the-game marketing. It works better today than at any time in my business’ 30-year history. 

Think about it: without even knowing it, lots of your competition is self-sabotaging today, to leave you with doors wide open all over your marketplace. How exciting is that! (no that’s not supposed to be a question mark, it’s supposed to be a motivating exclamation mark!). 

I’m really excited to help readers wipe out their competition. Not all of it, just enough to improve your life. So, what are you waiting for?

Jim, why are my sales numbers down?

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my sales numbers down, sales figures down, fewer sales, less leads

Photo: Shutterstock

I get asked that a lot right now.

Have you noticed an unexpected drop in sales or new clients? If you have, you’re not alone. It’s a challenge, which small business owners are struggling with. Their sales numbers are down, but they haven’t changed anything. And they’re looking for answers.

If this is happening to you, or you want to stop it from happening to you, today’s post contains a few of the most common culprits, along with some ideas on what you should do next.

So, what gives? I’ll explain in a moment.

But first, let’s address…

The elephant in the room

The economy is highly-volatile and has been for some time now. However, it’s in bad shape for all your competitors, too. And as you probably know, there are businesses in every sector, doing really well right now. Many have turned the economy to their advantage.

Here’s what we know. When times are rough, people think a lot harder before they spend their money or their budgets. They spend it were they see the greatest value. This means that today more than ever the most compelling provider wins. And they win big.

Now, let’s look at some very common reasons for an unexpected drop in sales.

Advertising roulette

This is becoming a huge problem for small businesses.

Someone is out-bidding you for online ads (GoogleAds, Facebook Ads etc.). So, the prospective clients who would have clicked on your ads are now clicking your competitor’s ads. You can also experience the same drop, if a competitor has created a more compelling ad. Many who used to rely on writing their own ads, or simply kept using the same, very average ad copy (wording), now use AI. While AI has limitations, in 2026 it will write a better ad than an amateur copywriter.

In either case, they get your buyers or client enquiries. Right now and for the foreseeable future, advertising is a spectacularly risky way to grow a business. It requires constant monitoring, eats into an increasing percentage of your yearly profits and is extremely volatile.

It’s one reason why I haven’t paid for an ad in almost 30-years. It’s also why I guide my clients not to buy ads, either. There are massively better ways to attract your ideal prospects, which cost you nothing and work in every economy.

Better competition

A new, marketing savvy competitor has arrived, or an existing competitor has hired professional marketing help. In either case, your clients and prospects are now being expertly marketed to. So, their attention is being grabbed by a competitor, and converted into paying clients.

As a result, a number of the sales leads or client enquiries that would have been yours, are now theirs.

A well-funded competitor

A well-funded competitor is targeting your clients and prospects, offering very low prices. The new competitor usually commits to losing money, or operating on wafer-thin margins, for 6 to 24-months, to gain as much marketshare as possible. They bank on a number of their competitors going broke, and selling to them for peanuts or simply leaving the market. The well-funded competitor is left with a valuable chunk of the market. Then, they gently increase fees/prices. When handled correctly, this strategy is extremely effective. 

Well-funded businesses, ranging from independent coffee shops to international service providers, are increasingly using this ‘last one standing’ approach.

Value proposition jump

A competitor has found a way to significantly increase the value of their products or services. And it’s selling like crazy.

So, even though your quality or range of services is just as good as ever, it’s no longer as compelling, when compared to the newly-improved competitor.

What’s the answer?

The threats I’ve just shared with you are only a few of the more common ones. The key is to do some research. Identify what’s happening, then put a strategy in place to overcome it. 

The best advice here is this: be proactive.

For example.

  • Massively reduce or eliminate your reliance on paid advertising. You don’t need it. It’s essential that you regain control over getting your sales message out there and acted on.
  • Don’t wait for an marketing savvy competitor to turn up, before you seek to increase your value to the marketplace. Do it now. It’s easy. And you’ll win big. I usually find at least half a dozen ways in my first meeting with a new client.
  • Adapt fully to whatever challenges the economy is throwing at you. When you do, you’ll not only grow your business, you’ll have a bigger slice of the marketplace. Why? Because your fearful competitors will be hiding from reality in their comfort zones. Scared into inaction.
  • Get a marketing strategy for your business, which a well-funded competitor can’t penetrate. Then, build a wall of financial security around your business, which a well-funded competitor can’t penetrate. Grow your business. Get stronger financially. Repeat. 
  • Become an engaged observer, so you know exactly what you’re competing against. It’s never been easier. Social media lets you see what your marketplace is saying about your competitors. Competitor websites and competitor social media accounts show you what you’re marketing against. In the past, business owners had to guess. You can just take a look and see what’s going on!

In business, everything happens for a reason. If your sales numbers are down, or your business isn’t growing like it was, once you identify why, you can adjust accordingly and turn things around.

This holds true in every economy, including this one . It also holds true for every small business owner, including you.

The secret sauce you were looking for, is here

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Secret sauce, secret sauce success, secret sauce business, what is the secret sauce

Photo by Walls.io on Pexels.com

A while ago, I was hired by the owner of an office supplies company. He told me that for years, he had been trying to figure out why his main competitor was so successful. He wanted to know what he referred to as their secret sauce: the secret ‘something’ that led to their ongoing success.

He found it. And I’m going to share it with you. Why? Because it applies to all small businesses, including yours and mine.

After years of wondering what his main competitor’s secret was, he discovered it by accident! One of his small team retired, and was replaced by a guy who used to work with his super-successful competitor. He then discovered the root of their success. It wasn’t any one thing or secret sauce, which made that competing business so successful.

No.

It was the combination of lots of little things, which prospects were attracted to and customers remained loyal to. Small adjustments in important areas. Minor differences that compounded to create a major impact.

As he said at the time, ‘Jim, I wasted years looking for a mountain, and totally missed the molehills that made them successful’.

What can we learn from this?

We live in an era, where success is marketed to be just one hack or AI prompt away.

We have influencers selling the dream of a tactic that they claim earned them (for example) $100k in 30-days. Often more. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to know what that magic is? In the current economy, these $100k in 30-days type videos are watched by millions of small business owners looking for hope. After all, even if it was possible for the hack or AI prompt to make $20k or $10k fast, that would be very useful for many of our fellow small business owners right now.

The core lesson here is that real, genuine success isn’t the result of a trick or secret tactic. It comes from doing lots of small things, correctly. Doing lots of small things correctly IS THE SECRET SOURCE.

What next, Jim?

Bear with me. Every edition of this newsletter is read by thousands of people in almost every industry, and its readership is worldwide. This means as always, I am forced to answer using broad brushstrokes.

This is a basic, almost universal framework you can use.

  • List every element of your sales, marketing, customer service and other key areas of your business.
  • Select the first one that you believe can be improved. Even if it’s only a small improvement. This is really important. Minor improvements of only a few percent, applied to multiple elements of your business will have a compounding effect. Think of it like compound interest. The returns on that compounding is what causes the kind of top competitor effect, which I mentioned earlier.
  • Then, look for the next, and the next, and the next, applying an improvement to each one. Repeat the process.

Don’t let the simplicity of this idea cause you discard it. It isn’t buzzy. It doesn’t promise you a fast fortune. But it is logical. And it is proven.

As always, I hope you find this useful.