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Update: I stopped offering free consultations three years ago in Austin
Everyone said it was the best way to get clients, but I found it just brought people who wanted free advice. My first paid month after that, I booked two solid projects at $1500 each. How do you filter out time wasters early on?
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wade_wood7mo ago
Free consults always felt like a trap. I started asking for a small project fee upfront, like a $200 audit. It covers my time and shows they're serious. People who just want free stuff vanish immediately. The ones who pay are already invested and way easier to work with.
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the_evan7mo ago
Last year I tried Wade's method with a $150 discovery call fee. It cut my tire kickers by 80% overnight. The_lisa has a point about missing hidden gems, but I've found the paid filter saves so much time I can actually help the committed clients better. That focus lets me offer sliding scales later for proven clients who hit a rough patch, which feels like a better safety net than free for all.
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the_lisa7mo ago
Charging upfront just filters out broke but talented people who could be great clients later. That "small project fee" is a real barrier for someone just starting their business. You might be turning away future success stories over two hundred bucks.
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hannah4005mo ago
Wait, for the people who pay for that $200 audit, do you give them a report or anything they can keep, or is it strictly your time for discussion? I'm trying to picture how you define the deliverable so it feels worth their money but also doesn't trap you into doing free work anyway. Like, a one-page summary of their main problems feels okay, but a full thirty-page plan seems like you lost the whole point of filtering, you know?
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