I’m going to preface this by saying that we don’t call people out here.

That’s scary, right? Like, seriously, where is this going?

We don’t call people out.

We don’t take it personally. We don’t shame you. We don’t criticize the parts of your business that you already feel crummy about. We don’t do it.

In that same breath, we’re an open book. We share what we know. We’ll tell you every damn secret. Because, at the end of the day, we’ve been in this business for 20+ years and we know we can do what you need better than absolutely anyone else.

And if you find someone better than us…and you can afford them too…then you should 100% go use them. No hurt feelings whatsoever. We’re happy you’re growing your business.

That’s the key right there: we’re happy you’re growing your business.

Growth often comes down to very few key metrics. One, in particular, is cost. Cost relative to revenue, that is. You have to be making more than you’re spending. (Usually.)

Acknowledging this fundamental rule of building a healthy business means that we know precisely when our marketing isn’t in your budget. Often, we know well before we talk to you. But, we’re happy you’re growing your business. We want to help if we can.

We want to talk through your goals and hurdles. We want to share ideas that can help. We want to talk with you about your future. Even if you can’t afford it today, we want you to know what it takes to jump into this next stage. Know the costs. Do your research. Pick our brains. Get tips for how to handle your marketing on your own – for now.

Our help comes in the form of no-offense-taken, no-shame-given, no-shade-thrown genuine tips for how to take your next steps without us.

And it has to be without us.

Understand that we are a small business too. We are a pair of entrepreneurs trying to make more than we spend too. We have a bottom line. We don’t have huge margins. So we give what we can give without putting our own business at risk.

Sadly, what we’ve found is that the no-offense-taken, no-shame-given, no-shade-thrown approach is rarely returned. Even when we offer a “let’s meet again next week to talk through some ideas for you – no charge,” the response is stone cold. The late-notice out-of-kindness meeting cancellation is…ok, now I’m a little offended.

We jump through hoops to be helpful. So that burns a bit.

Repeatedly, though, we’ve seen that small business owners are offended if they come to us at a stage in which they can’t afford marketing services. Not just our marketing services. Any marketing services. They shame us for charging more than they have the budget for right now. They tell us we’re not worthy of our prices while simultaneously telling us they don’t know how to do what we do.

Talking about money is hard. It sucks for pretty much everyone. No one wants to say they don’t have enough of it to get what they want. No one wants to ask more than what someone can afford. However, the reality is that this is a very standard business conversation.

Talking about marketing is hard. Sometimes, owners think they know everything and believe that somehow we won’t need to work as hard to promote their brand because of all they’ve established – so they expect us to adjust our strategy and rates. Sometimes, owners don’t know anything about marketing, so it’s harder for them to understand the substantial amount of work we’re taking on.

Talking about money and talking about marketing are both hard because the cost matters. The cost is critical for success in your business. The cost is critical for success in our business. The cost may not work with your budget. But, the cost may not work with ours as well.

What do I mean by that?

What most of these owners haven’t realized when they speak with us is that every single client we take on has a direct overhead in our business. We don’t just take a photo and create a social media post for free like you do on your personal profile. We have computer and camera equipment, tools that we use to design, platforms that we license for you to see your content, files that we store and exceptional amounts of time that go into planning, communications, strategy, content creation, designing, launching, reporting and more. All of those things have costs tied to them. So, when you approach us asking for a project quote – we’re taking into account the many, many costs we have to cover to be able to break even.

When you say “I need this done for half this price” – please know that we don’t double our rates. There simply isn’t that much margin.

When you say “I was thinking more like $50” – please know that that offer is less than 15% of the actual rate we charge. Fifty dollars doesn’t even scratch the surface on covering the cost of the software we purchase to do the work you need.

When you say “this price won’t work for our budget, but I think we can cut this” – now we’re talking. We can chop up your proposal. We can take elements out. Put must-haves back in. We can customize, cater, delete and redefine to arrive at something we can both grow our businesses on. We do that. We love doing that.

Because we’re truly happy you’re growing your business.

Please understand that we’re growing ours too.