Beyond Hourly: Creative Ways to Make Money as a Solopreneur

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Tired of trading time for money? Think your only pricing options are hourly or retainer? Think again.

In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly Ries and Joe Rando are breaking open the revenue model box. From subscription models to productized services, online courses to scalable solutions, they’re sharing the creative—and often overlooked—ways solopreneurs can make bank without burning out.

Carly reflects on her early pricing struggles, Joe takes us back to a pre-Internet SaaS story that flopped (then flourished), and together they dish out practical advice for building income that doesn’t rely on nonstop hustle.

If you're ready to reimagine how you make money, this one's a must-listen.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: Are you stuck choosing between hourly rates and monthly retainers? Well, think again. In this episode, we peel back the curtain on revenue models most service based solopreneurs overlook. From productized services to passive income streams, we'll show you how to think beyond the box after you figure out where the box is, of course. Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale smarter, this is your permission slip to reimagine how you make money.

You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Reese, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of one. We take pride in being part of Lifestar, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you.

So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. So, Joe, when I was first starting off as a solopreneur, I was trying to think I'm I'm a marketer, so I was trying to think how to price my services. Was I going to do retainer every month and just have that known income that I was gonna get with that set price, and then I would just do the services under that set price? Or was I gonna go hourly and know that my hours might fluctuate every month?

And because of that, what I bring home would fluctuate every month. And those were kinda the only two options I was thinking about. And now having been a solopreneur for, gosh, nine years, I've realized there are so many other revenue models that I just wasn't aware of. So I thought we should talk about some of those today. What are your thoughts?

Joe Rando: Yeah. I'll I'll have lots of thoughts on that topic. Believe me. So here's here's a story. Here's a sad story.

Long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away well, actually, 1995 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, I created a company that was using what we call a SaaS model, software as a service, which meant basically it was a subscription. And it was it was one of those things where I kind of fell into that model because I was selling software and data together, and the data needed to be updated, like, every year. So we had a they had we had to rebuy the data for the customers every year. So we said, well, why don't we just do the same with the software instead of selling it for a lot of money, just package it in as part of that, and it developed this what we call a SaaS model, but really a subscription model. So every year the customer would pay the same amount.

And we did this, and we sold. Our first deal was was well into, you know, low 6 figures per year. And I was like, yay. This is great. And then we never got another customer because the Internet came along and people got their attention elsewhere.

And I pivoted from that to a service model, basically using the software to help people make decisions. So I run re create reports. And it was a lot more work. We still had to support the software, but then we had to support the customer. We got the customer that I make the reports, and and we would collect money once, and then we had to go earn lunch again.

And it was a lot harder. So I very quickly fell in love with the concept of recurring revenue as they call it. Right? So the idea of of selling something maybe for less money, but having a regular income. So so, yeah, that was my my intro into recurring revenue versus nonrecurring revenue, and I'm a huge fan of recurring revenue.

Carly Ries: Yeah. I mean, we've talked recently about like subscriptions and memberships model membership models, which certainly fall under recurring revenue. And just the idea of passive income. If you have a product, selling like having those physical products or even digital products that people can just kinda access whenever they desire. And I think it's hard for service based businesses like marketers to think that way.

But productizing your service and figuring out how you can do that, you can still do your retainer. You don't have to pick one. You can still do your one on one coaching or your one on one consulting, but then also have a platform that people can access and pay for at any time. And when I was getting started, my brain was not there.

Joe Rando: Right. And it's and it's not always a place to start. Sometimes it's a place to go because, number one, when you start your business, you might be good at something, but you might need to learn some things. And working closely with customers as opposed to maybe this kind of more subscription model hands off or, you know, what we call kind of low touch interactions or no touch. You don't learn as much as you do when you're working face to face, and you can really craft your offering as you go.

So I'm not opposed you know, Reid Hoffman, one of the cofounders of PayPal, I think he founded LinkedIn, by the way, or cofounded it. He says something that that kinda blew my mind and made me really rethink a lot of my approach, which is that in order to scale, you need to do things that don't scale. So as you wanna grow your business, you start by doing things that can't possibly grow to the level you might wanna grow your business to. And then you have to wean off of those things, but those things give you the insights and and help you change direction in a way that lets you grow a business that's really resonating with your customer?

Carly Ries: Yeah. Yeah. I think the main thing that I wanted to get out of this chat is just to encourage people to think outside the box. And to not think, one hourly, and this is just gonna be my rate forever, but monetize courses, host events, whether virtually or in person that people have to pay a price for, pay something for. There are just so many ways to monetize what you do.

And I kind of am thinking about service based businesses. Obviously, are product based businesses where, yeah, you have you have like the various revenue models that come with that, which would include like drop shipping. Mean, they're just using an online store like Etsy. There are just so many other things to do there. But I'm I'm more so targeting the service based solopreneurs that think their only option, their only options are retainer and hourly, which is just not the case.

Joe Rando: Right. No. Absolutely. And, again, you know, even if you start there, great. But as you learn, you might find if you're solving the same problem over and over again for people, and especially if you've kinda gotten sick of solving that problem, maybe you could make a course that you sell, and people can sign up and take this course and address the problem.

And or maybe you do it something that that we're we're starting to do is to have the course be recorded but then have office hours. So they're basically getting some of your time to come in and ask questions if they need to. But if they don't, they don't have to. And you're but you're adding more value than just here. Here's the course.

Knock yourself out. So that's a little bit of kinda giving your time but in a much more scalable fashion than doing a one on one solution for people. And you can really if you do the math, sometimes you can make a lot more money helping lots of people for less money than one person for a lot of money.

Carly Ries: Yep. Totally agree. Well, any last thoughts before we end this thing?

Joe Rando: No. No. I think, you know, I think you're right. Thinking outside of the box is great, and I think it's a great way to to approach it. And and just a reminder, you know, you don't have to start outside the box.

Figure out where the box is before you go outside of it. How's that?

Carly Ries: There you go. That that's the way to end the episode. Well, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. Please share this with a friend. Like us on your favorite or subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform, but like us too.

And leave that five star review, and we will, see you next time on the aspiring solopreneur.

Carly Ries: You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At Lifestar, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestar.com.

That's community.lifestar, with 2 r's, Com.