Let’s play a little game…
Few years back, a meme exploded on Money Twitter, way back when X was still Twitter, and Money Twitter wasn’t an absolute cesspool of fake gurus and agencies tweeting out the lamest advice in the world.
The meme was a simple one, which is why it stuck in everyone’s crawl like it did:
It was the notorious $500 vs $5000 client meme, explaining how difficult cheap clients were, how little they valued your time (let alone their time), and why working with higher paying clients just puts your life on “easy mode” for reasons that have nothing to do with getting a fatter paycheck.
So, I wanted to play a little game today where I describe two of my clients to see if you can pick which one pays me more (i.e. the $5000 client) vs which one pays me less (i.e. the $500 client).
Ready?
Set.
Let’s goooooooooo:
We’ll start with Client A (for obvious reasons).
Client A wants to schedule an hour-long meeting with me every month. He frequently shows up late, and sometimes doesn’t show up at all. While he mostly pays me on time, he doesn’t always.
He comes from an education background, which means I’m not allowed to do certain things in my copy, like start too many sentences with “and” or end sentences with a preposition. (Both of which aren’t even technically considered grammatically correct anymore.)
And he often needs to send me certain things… but completely forgets and sometimes it can take months in order to get whatever he’s supposed to send (whether specific lists, education resources, etc.)
You probably already have a guess into which client is which by now.
As for Client B?
Client B pays invoices mere minutes after I send them. We meet a few times per quarter (and sometimes per year). He gives my copy a quick look over, may make a few small tweaks but nothing major. And oh yeah, I him make waaaayyyy more moolah than Client A.
Can you guess which one pays me more?
If you guessed Client A…
…
…
…
…
you’d be dead wrong.
Yes, Client B pays me more, is less of a headache as a client, and as a result, I make him tenfold more moolah than Client A.
Moral of the story?
If you’re looking for clients, it’s literally in their best interest to pay you more—so long as you can back up your claims. (Something a shocking amount of freelancers and agencies can’t do.)
If you have a business and are looking for freelancers or agencies, it’s literally in your best interest to pay them more—so long as they can back up their claims. (Something a shocking amount of freelancers and agencies can’t do.)
The bad news here is obvious:
There’s a shocking amount of freelancers and agencies who can’t back up their claims.
The good news here is (hopefully) also obvious:
If you need a respectable freelancer who not only can back up my claims, but has done so repeatedly over the past four years and counting, let me let you in on a little secret:
If you reply to this email, I’ll reply back and we can set up a call to optimize your email marketing strategy from the ground up.
Not only will this allow you to make more cashola every time I hit “send,” but it’ll also slowly turn ice-cold people on your list into red-hot brand loyalists that you could lead into war. (This will cause a few of the ice-cold people to unsubscribe, but that’s okay. More room for your soldiers.)
Just hit reply and see what happens.
(It could be the single most profitable email you've ever sent…)
John