When your target market is in a Downturn
A guide to staying afloat when your customers need you, but can't afford you.
In honor of this month’s theme, pursuing Passion, Purpose and Priorities, I’m dedicating this newsletter to those pursuing it all while pursuing another P — Profit.
It’s a conundrum of many a small business owner, startup advisor, or career coach seeking to help others in times of economic uncertainty and transition: How does one generate revenue helping others who need your career and company building services but cannot afford them?
The demand for these services certainly exists: A 2023 report from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) noted a 33% increase in demand for career coaching services post-pandemic, driven by job dissatisfaction, layoffs, and remote work shifts.
Hourly rates typically range from $125 to $500+, and packages for a structured career transition coaching program (usually 6–12 weeks) range from $1,500 to $5,000 depending on the coach’s experience and specialization.
That can be quite rich for someone in between roles, but consider the typical rates for corporate coaching, which are significantly higher, often $300 to $800+ per hour, with full programs ranging from $7,500 to $25,000.
Fractional executives, who provide senior advisory and management in a more affordable, part-time capacity, have proliferated. According to Axios, the number of professionals identifying as "fractional" on LinkedIn surged from 2,000 in 2022 to 144,000 by December 2024, indicating significant growth in this sector.
But as a startup advisor and fractional executive who has formally supported more than 30 early-stage companies, I can attest that often the greatest need for experienced, strategic support is at a pre-funded stage, when founders can least afford it.
For professionals focused on segments that are inherently cash-strapped, our intentions may be admirable, but are they sustainable?
These strategies can help you rethink your solo business model in tough times, enabling you to stay connected to supporting cash-strapped segments longer.
Check your mindset.
Perhaps the most challenged independent professionals at this moment are the ones who never before experienced the pain of layoffs or slow business cycles, who invoiced like it was 1999 and who are now wondering why the checks are not clearing, or their contracts are abruptly canceling.
I don’t believe people who tell me they never faced this kind of adversity, though I have to acknowledge they might exist.
The first step for these unicorns is to change their mental frequency from “Why am I not getting my due rewards?” to “How can I maintain a consistent state of value-proving?” You may find the momentum you generate maintaining this baseline of helpfulness can buoy you at all times.
I work closely with someone who is a virtuoso at this. In the past I hired her and her firm to support my company’s work, but even when I am not a retained client she sends me speaking opportunities, clients, contacts she has a hunch I would enjoy meeting, even a place to stay during a conference where hotels were fully booked. She does this, not to win my business but because her ecosystem of value IS her business. When you hire her firm, you hire her ecosystem, and that ecosystem refers new business and loops her into opportunities. She’s practically downturn-proof now (not to jinx her).
It may seem counterintuitive to offer up more of your valuable time, expertise, and network, unpaid; but in times like these you are “buying” priceless goodwill that can support you in tough times.
At the same time, be OK with not being a charity.
While this may sound bonkers to some of us, I suspect it’s more true than untrue among soloists of the female persuasion: It’s OK to expect to be paid, even by those who have limited fiscal capacity.
I have a story I’ve told many times of meeting with a founder of a pre-seed-funded startup who needed my advisory support, but who insisted that I work full-time at a pittance or not work with her at all. Her lack of resources was a factor, but not the ultimate reason why I walked away from the opportunity. It was a comment she made that my success as an exited founder somehow morally obligated me to donate time and money in unpaid hours to her.
Here’s the REALLY bonkers part: up until that conversation I had been doing just that, working with unproven founders, who asked for hours of my time, unpaid, out of a subconscious obligation of paying it back, building goodwill that would never be recompensed, burning out and neglecting my own personal affairs. It was hearing the ridiculousness of this belief said aloud that helped me to break the cycle.
Ask yourself if the time you are putting into something gratis or at a highly discounted rate will ever reasonably be recompensed, if not in currency, then in purpose, learning, or opportunity.
Discount, and Diversify.
I have a male peer who supports PE-backed, high-growth organizations as an advisor who has a hard and fast rule: Don’t work with companies “below Series B” who likely can’t afford his rate. Companies in earlier stages, he argues are too risky–the juice is rarely worth the discounted squeeze.
I understand his rationale, but I see risk differently: If it can be managed with a diversification strategy, lower-paying early-stage companies (and coaching prospects, for that matter) can present amazing opportunities for sustained, career-building growth. For instance, I took on an early-stage equity-only advisory role nearly 10 years ago, when I started exploring blockchain technology and wanted exposure to the industry. Through that role I landed an high-level role with a blockchain company a year later.
I propose a middle ground: Consider offering a sliding scale that incorporates a mix of client types, budgets, upside, and soul-fulfilling projects.
For instance, when I first started advising and realized too much of my time was being spent on unpaid, early-stage clients, I built a sliding pay—and time—structure: Equity-only agreements were limited to 20% of my time, giving higher-rate work a larger piece of the pie.
I’m very selective about the 20% piece, ensuring there’s mission alignment with founders, and the company understands my superpowers and plans to use them in the future, ideally in a paid capacity if I am available.
There are times when my “mix” gets out of whack, like when a paid engagement started to monopolize my entire time portfolio and I risked burnout from squeezing in unpaid passion projects; or when a paid project abruptly went away after a management turnover, and I found myself with a range of very promising, but as yet unfunded, startups. Still, knowing my ideal mix of paying versus promising projects helps me justify saying “no” to an opportunity, just as it empowers me to say, “I love what you are doing and am glad to help. Here’s what I charge...”
Break it down.
I’ve been a subscribed member of my local yoga studio for ten years, but before I opted for a membership I opted for a single class, then for a pack of four, then for a pack of ten, then for a monthly membership. Other members have opted into unlimited-class memberships, single-day workshops, and retreats at resorts around the world. When I had surgery and could not attend yoga classes I paused my membership and was not charged during six weeks of recovery time.
My point: The studio makes it easy to dial membership up or down, based on budget, availability, and need. All members can tap into membership in a way that makes most sense to them. By being flexible the studio leaves no money on the table from folks who don’t want to pay for what they don’t need.
At Optionality, we ran a member survey to help inform membership pricing. We found that members who had opted into the Premium membership tier were obtaining value from these services, but we also found that some Free tier members needed more exposure points to Paid tier membership to justify paying for it, especially those in career transition. And some Free tier members were open to paying for individual Premium tier benefits, such as a workshop or master class that met a specific need. We’re adjusting accordingly, thinking through a paid model for single networking events and master classes.
Likewise, you can consider a Freemium model that enables members to get a taste of what you typically offer on a paid basis to help them justify spend: a group workshop that attendees can opt to extend for a fee; an online diagnostic that can help potential clients pinpoint their specific need before buying a session package; an email newsletter or LinkedIn publication that exposes the public to glimpses of your thought leadership and paid offering; targeted, unpaid speaking opportunities in front of potential new clients.
Build your “Success Stories.”
One of the biggest learnings from my work in the enterprise: Customers need more than claims that your product or service will help them. The most effective sales tool is an applied example from an actual customer of how your service was used and the impact that it had — in as measurable a way as possible.
Success stories, also known as case studies and customer references, or their more piecemeal counterparts, verbatims and testimonials, are most effective in convincing new customers to invest in you. However, these can be hard to accumulate for a number of reasons. Some companies simply won’t allow their brand to be used for any endorsement; or a client may simply wish to maintain their privacy. While named, branded case studies are the gold standard, anonymizing case studies, or referring to a client in a non-identifiable way (with the client’s permission), can be effective. For instance, using a descriptor like, “Global marketing executive, Top 10 automotive company.”
If you are building a new service that hasn’t been significantly used yet in your target market, or is unproven, consider offering your product or service at a discounted, “early adopter” rate, or invite them to a limited Proof of Concept (POC) program, where they can use the product on a limited basis at a lowered cost. Smart entrepreneurs I’ve worked with build into their POC service contracts explicit permission to use a customer’s brand and endorsement in terms and conditions, should the customer opt to continue using the service.
Partner Up.
Partners can provide access to new customers, new markets, and powerful value adds when done right. One particularly enterprising client of mine, a pre-funded upskilling platform for Global CHROs, teamed up with a professional networking firm focused on HR and Talent leaders to provide a free POC experience to 750 corporate executives, generating 250 verbatims, and even some paid contracts—all of it incredibly valuable in validating the company with investors during its seed fundraise. And the partner generated more membership upgrades and conversations with new members.
Think about what you can offer: A value-added benefit to a company with customers in your target market? Smaller, solopreneurs are agile and can easily plug into a larger, non-competitive organization easily and have access to potential, paying new customers.
Get real with yourself.
This is one I personally struggle with: My visionary eyes are often larger than my reality stomach. I have big ideas that I want to pursue and justify as business generators, but my marketing operator knows better.
Ask yourself the hard questions: Is this really the time to invest in a shiny new podcast? Or attend a four-day conference in Barcelona for the potential of meeting new customers? I find this tendency especially common among people more used to working from corporate budgets, who still got a paycheck when these tactics yielded a big, fat goose egg. Of course building a clientele requires investment, but also understanding the economics and likely ROI of these tactics is critical.
Using the podcast example: I worked with an early stage client and numerous solopreneurs who have launched their businesses with what they thought would be game-changing podcasts, not understanding that successful, high-quality podcasts, while potentially brand building and prestigious, are very difficult to scale and very costly to produce; they are more engagement generators for building on existing customer loyalty than they are new lead generators. If your goals are more short-term and new, paying clients is the priority, it may not be effective.
Using the event example: Perhaps a follow-up question to ask yourself could be, how can I de-risk the investment of going to the conference by reaching out to potential customers and partners in advance, or by securing a high-visibility speaking slot?
Jory Des Jardins is a fractional executive, startup advisor, and startup founder who has worked with B2B, B2C, and B2B2C companies on go-to-market, scale, and exit strategy. She founded Candor Partners, a go-to-market, growth, and exit advisory for startups, scale-ups, new ventures and impact organizations. She is Co-Founder of Optionality.