How to manage billing in the modern age
You know me; I usually like to say it as I see it. My issue at the moment is that with all this AI lolling around, I’m having trouble deciding how to manage my billing in this modern age.
The trouble is, I suspect I am not alone.
As computers truly do take over actual work (I have an SEO audit running as I write this), my job is veering from doing to managing. And I’ve never been very good at that.
We’ve prided ourselves on being doers; if a task needs doing, I’ve always stressed to my staff that it should be done the long way. No shortcuts to doing a job properly.
At this point, I could go off on a tangent suggesting that I am in the minority and all the lazy people have clubbed together and are making sure anything done on a computer can be done more quickly and easily. I.e. my whole ethos is being undermined. What used to take 3 hours now takes a few minutes with AI.
I’ll try to avoid the tangent.
How do you charge for management?
I think this is the crux of the issue. I have an additional caveat: I’m managing very few people. People think of management as in employing people; they do the work, and that is their job. I’m a manager of people and direct my subordinates to do their tasks.
We are just not in that realm. We manage websites; replace the word people with websites. Around 162 at the last count. But here is where things become a little unstuck. Clients don’t seem to mind paying for ‘tangible things’ like widgets needed to make something. Nor do clients seem to mind paying for people. It’s an accepted part of life today in the modern world. People are expensive, and if you run a factory, it is expected that you need people, and they must all have health care insurance, etc.
Not our game.
I’m a Referral Engine
The issue has become critical, as I spend more time than ever going through ideas and question/answer sessions with clients. A phone call here, an email there. Little happens; much needs to be checked or verified. So actually doing something becomes rare,
It’s deeply frustrating for someone who prides their ‘job’ on the basis of doing work, rather than billing people for all the phaff that can so easily surround actual work. I’ve never billed for the planning or managerial time on a ‘task’. Just the actual work of getting it done.
In theory, I should be able to bill more; all my ‘tasks’ are quicker, and I can now build a fully fledged, SEO-friendly 10-page website in less than 2 hours. I can fit more tasks into my day. In truth, though, I seem to spend more time answering questions that would be better put to ChatGPT.
In fact, I am increasingly being emailed extracts from ChatGPT, wanting my opinion on ChatGPT’s answer; I am becoming ChatGPT – ahhh!
Client Support
At this point, I have to thank you. I write these blog posts for my clients, and I hope from time to time my clients read them; they are available to all and sundry, but aimed at our clients.
So thank you. Why? Because right now, it is regular clients that are supporting our existence. Sure, we have new clients from time to time, but without the regulars we wouldn’t be here. I’ve always believed in recurring income, maintenance plans, monthly fees. And now more than ever, this is helping us to get through this current AI situation.
Because I am aware this is a journey that is nowhere near complete. There will be much more to come on this AI journey in the next few months.
Billing by Credit
In the old days, ‘credit’ meant you owed someone something. Today, you buy credits, pre-payments for future services. Not to many mind, you don’t want to owe someone something forever.
We could switch to a Credit-based billing option. This is what many AI companies do. And credits can be rather willy-nilly; answering an email could be worth 0.5, 1, or 5 credits depending on how comprehensive the email is.
The real con on credits is that the client has almost no say in how they are spent. Instead of suggesting a ‘task’ is worth £20, it could be worth 1 credit this month and 5 credits next month. There’s no fixed price. Perhaps this will be the future for businesses like ours.
Conclusion
Right now, no change. However, this article serves as a warning; I suspect change is coming. Never have I relied on existing clients for my revenue while fielding so many non-clients who have approached me for non-financial work. The balance is out of order.
I will need a way to fund my time and my expertise on a much wider set of criteria than just websites. Although we manage websites rather than people, eventually we have to understand that websites are things worth managing.
It was only after I wrote htis piece that I realised that I had already written on this subject just two months ago. But it shows the desparation of this issue. It’s becoming harder than ever to bill clients.