The BizChix Podcast: Female Entrepreneurs | Women Small Business | Biz Chix · Natalie Eckdahl, MBA

621: Moving Beyond Selling a Package of Hours

·33 min·2 clips

The clients that got you here may not be the clients that get you there.

1. BizChix Podcast episode 621, “Moving Beyond Selling a Package of Hours,” focuses on the retainer roadmap and the move from hourly billing to value-based retainers. 2. Natalie Ekdahl hosts, and Elizabeth joins as the coach discussing the retainer roadmap workshop and the four stages businesses move through. 3. The episode asks how consultants, marketers, and financial professionals can replace time-based pricing with deliverable-based pricing and still build a sustainable business. 4. Stage one is hourly work, where a client pays for 10 hours, 20 hours, 40 hours, or 100 hours of labor. 5. Stage two is a package of hours, where the client commits to a minimum monthly block of time instead of single hourly tasks. 6. Stage three is a package of value, where the client pays for the result, deliverable, and transformation rather than the number of hours. 7. Stage four is scale, which comes after a business reaches capacity with a package of value and needs more people and more systems. 8. Natalie says the roadmap is not linear and that some businesses enter at stage two or stage three instead of stage one. 9. She notes that copywriters, virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and some coaches commonly start by selling time and then get stuck. 10. Elizabeth gives a copywriter example where the offer changed from podcast show notes, email sequences, and articles to two pieces of pillar content per month plus a monthly strategy session. 11. Natalie says that writer later hired an assistant and then other writers after the offer became clear and repeatable. 12. The hosts use a sales-copy example to show how specialization can narrow a business toward one type of work, such as conversion copy for sales pages. 13. Natalie names scope creep as a common problem when clients keep adding revisions, new emails, or a video after the original agreement. 14. She recommends a strong contract, a what-to-expect document, and the boundary to say no when a client asks for more than the package includes. 15. Natalie says new value pricing often includes some mistakes, because some clients will be underpriced and others will be surprisingly profitable. 16. She rejects a “magic pricing formula” and says the business owner is selling value and transformation, not time. 17. The conversation also covers how easy work can still be valuable, even when it feels contrary to the old idea that work must be hard. 18. The tone is coaching-heavy and practical, with Natalie and Elizabeth trading examples, questions, and direct advice. 19. Women service providers trying to specialize and raise retainers will get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for a narrative story or entertainment-first show may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded look at moving from hourly work to value-based retainers.

The episode tracks a move from selling hours to selling outcomes, with Natalie Ekdahl and Elizabeth treating pricing as a business choice rather than a neat formula. That keeps the advice grounded.

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Why you'd press play

Ready to move from hourly work to a package of value?

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