The Locked Door Experiment
If you’re constantly working, constantly pitching and constantly providing support, advice and general magical stuff to your clients 24/7, then you’ve probably got a decent head on your shoulders.
You might be doing something wrong though.
If you’re a beginner, then my advice is to absolutely and unreservedly follow the above approach. I did it, most people I know who are successful did it, and most biographies of people far more awesome than I am followed the same approach. Work hard, work smart and most importantly outwork your competitors.
But if you’re spinning your wheels, you could probably do with taking your foot off the pedal.
(***Note – this article is about an experiment I’m currently running. Follow the advice at your own peril, and expect a follow up blog post in the future about terrific success or catastrophic failure.***)
On Being Too Available
Back in 2009, before I was a writer and in an entirely different field, I decided I wanted to be self-employed.
I didn’t want to live a digital nomad life and I didn’t want to be the next Richard Branson. I just wanted some money and didn’t want a boss.
Anyway, I’ve never really been a “half a job” person; when I say I’m going to do something, I at least try and be good at it.
So it was with self-employment. I tried to help my customers. I went out of my way to give them the best service or product imaginable, and I gave them countless of hours of extra support – all for the grand cost of nothing.
In fact; my first ever customer got a month’s worth of work for the actual total of nothing, because he refused to pay and I never had the balls to do anything about it.
Sob-story delayed, let’s move on. I’ve kept that same basic human tendency throughout the various schemes and years. Part of my problem is that I actually like helping people out. (I know – shoot me.)
Anyway, I’m a freelance writer sometime in 2016, and I’m pretty fed up with the fact that people expect me to work many hours for not many gold coins.
On the other hand, I talk to people and say, “I do this” or “I’m a copywriter” and they say, “Gee… that must be nice. You must get paid a lot and get to pick your own schedule.”
The first time somebody said something like that, I thought , “Oh… wouldn’t that be nice.”
After a couple of times though, I thought, “Hang on a minute… what does everyone else seem to know that I don’t?”
What Did Other Companies Have That I Didn’t?
Realising there was a world of highly paid copywriters who set their own schedules and lived lives that made mine seem miserable in comparison, I set out with a goal in mind: Finding out what these companies had that I didn’t.
The results weren’t what I expected.
Sure, there are tons of people out there who are better copywriters than I am.
There are people who know more about writing particular things – emails, web content, direct copy – and there are people who have bigger brains for business than I do.
But there are also tons of businesses that are more successful than mine despite being pretty poor. I’m not talking subjectively here; there are marketing agencies that cost thousands a month yet don’t guarantee any return on investment. There are web design companies that charge tens of thousands to install a WordPress theme. There are people selling copywriting services who can’t spell or construct sentences.
I’ll admit, I was pretty naughty here; I posed as a potential customer for some of these places. What I found exasperated me.
- Bad customer service (even before the sale)
- High, unjustifiable prices
- Sales reps (I hope) who didn’t know what they were talking about
- A general “vague” feeling about what I-the-customer would be getting.
This isn’t a moan-session, but it really shocked me. How do other businesses behave like this and charge several factors more than I do?
Quality aside, the prices they charge don’t come from results delivered – they get those prices because they command them and because people are willing to pay.
Again… not a moan-session. Let’s get to the point. I decided upon an experiment, which brings us to the present day.
The Power Of a Locked Door
I’ve mentioned on the blog before that I compete against myself. So, whilst I’m available and friendly about my freelancing stuff on this site, on another site I present a more professional image. The general stuff… refer to myself as “We” and all that.
Well, on this other site, I decided to pull it down as it was and redesign it. The goal in mind is to do the opposite of what I’ve done in my various businesses and freelance career thus far: I’m going to become less available and less active. Oh, and I’m going to start charging more.
The experiment is in its beginning stages, but here’s the gist of it:
- I’m only going to take on a handful of clients
- I’m going to flip-the-script (in appearance at least) and choose who I work with
- There’s going to be a waiting list
- Potential clients are going to have to jump through some hoops
- For these lucky people, they’re getting what they pay for and extras are going to be, well, extra (No midnight phone calls or “Could you do it by tomorrow?” freebies)
… And a range of other things. It’s worth saying that the quality of my service isn’t going to decrease and I’m not going to be a dick. I’m just going to be more selective and less available and see what happens.
There are a few other things that I’ll mention later on, and I’m interested to see what works and what doesn’t. The next section will detail what I’ve found so far… bearing in mind I haven’t officially “relaunched” the project yet.
What Have You Found Thus Far?
I’m officially launching the new site on March 1st, and to this point I’ve only spoken to a handful of clients and potential clients. Here are my findings thus far:
- Nobody has called me a “dick” or anything like that… probably the biggest fear people have when they do something like this.
- There’s been more interest. Tell someone they can’t have something, they’re suddenly interested. Tell them there’s a waitlist, they want to be on it.
- I feel I don’t know whether this is because I’ve written down what I’m doing and the price I feel I should be charging, but it’s a weird sensation.
- People actually do what you ask. This is the weirdest thing.
I also feel better about marketing the service. This is a topic for another day, but there’s a difference in sensation when you do these two things:
- Put yourself out there selling your service. “Buy my stuff.”
- Put yourself out there and say, “I’m here but I’m not selling my stuff… you can’t have it.”
One of those things makes you feel as though you’re being a silver-tongued slime-ball, and the other doesn’t. Also, it’s a defence against the dark-art-accusation that every sales guy fears: People can’t say, “You’re only here to sell your stuff” if you aren’t actually selling your stuff.
It’s a weird sensation. Like I say, more to come on that topic.
Final Thoughts
It’s early days for this experiment, so it seems weird to try and conclude anything. If you’ve experienced anything like I’ve described above, then let me know in the comments. Genuinely interested to hear what people have to say.
For now, it might be worth thinking about whether you’re making yourself too available and how you can go about split-testing what’d happen if you weren’t so available.
I’ll let you know how I get on.