179. Beyond Hourly: Creative Ways to Make Money as a Solopreneur - Sound Bite Episode

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.

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business.  So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Are you stuck choosing between hourly rates

(00:02):
and monthly retainers? Well,think again. In this episode, we
peel back the curtain on revenuemodels most service based
solopreneurs overlook. Fromproductized services to passive
income streams, we'll show youhow to think beyond the box
after you figure out where thebox is, of course. Whether
you're just starting out orlooking to scale smarter, this
is your permission slip toreimagine how you make money.

(00:24):
You're listening to the AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
those just taking the bold stepor even just thinking about
taking that step into the worldof solo entrepreneurship. My
name is Carly Ries, and mycohost, Joe Rando, and I are
your guides to navigating thiscrazy but awesome journey as a
company of one. We take pride inbeing part of LifeStarr, a

(00:45):
digital hub dedicated to allaspects of solopreneurship that
has empowered and educatedcountless solopreneurs looking
to build a business thatresonates with their life's
ambitions. We help people workto live, not live to work. And
if you're looking for a get richquick scheme, this is not the
show for you.
So if you're eager to gainvaluable insights from industry

(01:06):
experts on running a businessthe right way the first time
around or want to learn from themissteps of solopreneurs who've
paved the way before you, thenstick around. We've got your
back because flying solo inbusiness doesn't mean you're
alone. So, Joe, when I was firststarting off as a solopreneur, I
was trying to think I'm I'm amarketer, so I was trying to

(01:26):
think how to price my services.Was I going to do retainer every
month and just have that knownincome that I was gonna get with
that set price, and then I wouldjust do the services under that
set price? Or was I gonna gohourly and know that my hours
might fluctuate every month?
And because of that, what Ibring home would fluctuate every
month. And those were kinda theonly two options I was thinking

(01:49):
about. And now having been asolopreneur for, gosh, nine
years, I've realized there areso many other revenue models
that I just wasn't aware of. SoI thought we should talk about
some of those today. What areyour thoughts?

Joe Rando (02:03):
Yeah. I'll have lots of thoughts on that topic.
Believe me. So
here's a sad story.
Long, long time ago in a galaxyfar, far away well, actually,
1995 in Attleboro,Massachusetts, I created a
company that was using what wecall a SaaS model, software as a

(02:26):
service, which meant basicallyit was a subscription. And it
was one of those things where Ikind of fell into that model
because I was selling softwareand 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 thecustomers every year. So we

(02:46):
said, well, why don't we just dothe same with the software
instead of selling it for a lotof money, just package it in as
part of that, and it developedthis 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 well into,
low 6 figures per year. And Iwas like, yay. This is great.

(03:09):
And then we never got anothercustomer because the Internet
came along and people got theirattention elsewhere.
And I pivoted from that to aservice model, basically using
the software to help people makedecisions. So I create reports.
And it was a lot more work. Westill had to support the
software, but then we had tosupport the customer. We got the

(03:30):
customer that I make thereports, and we would collect
money once, and then we had togo earn lunch again.
And it was a lot harder. So Ivery quickly fell in love with
the concept of recurring revenueas they call it. Right? So the
idea of of selling somethingmaybe for less money, but having
a regular income. So yeah, thatwas my my intro into recurring

(03:52):
revenue versus nonrecurringrevenue, and I'm a huge fan of
recurring revenue.

Carly Ries (03:58):
Yeah. I mean, we've talked recently about like
subscriptions and membershipmodels, which certainly fall
under recurring revenue. Andjust the idea of passive income.
If you have a product, sellinglike having those physical
products or even digitalproducts that people can just
kinda access whenever theydesire. And I think it's hard
for service based businesseslike marketers to think that

(04:21):
way.
But productizing your serviceand figuring out how you can do
that, you can still do yourretainer. You don't have to pick
one. You can still do your oneon one coaching or your one on
one consulting, but then alsohave 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 (04:42):
Right. And it's not always a place to start.
Sometimes it's a place to gobecause, number one, when you
start your business, you mightbe good at something, but you
might need to learn some things.And working closely with
customers as opposed to maybethis kind of more subscription
model hands off or, you know,what we call kind of low touch
interactions or no touch. Youdon't learn as much as you do

(05:04):
when you're working face toface, and you can really craft
your offering as you go.
So you know, Reid Hoffman, oneof the cofounders of PayPal, I
think he founded LinkedIn, bythe way, or cofounded it. He
says something that kinda blewmy mind and made me really
rethink a lot of my approach,which is that in order to scale,

(05:25):
you need to do things that don'tscale. So as you wanna grow your
business, you start by doingthings that can't possibly grow
to the level you might wannagrow your business to. And then
you have to wean off of thosethings, but those things give
you the insights and and helpyou change direction in a way
that lets you grow a businessthat's really resonating with
your customer?

Carly Ries (05:45):
Yeah. I think the main thing that I wanted to get
out of this chat is just toencourage people to think
outside the box. And to notthink, one hourly, and this is
just gonna be my rate forever,but monetize courses, host
events, whether virtually or inperson that people have to pay a
price for, pay something for.There are just so many ways to

(06:08):
monetize what you do.
And I kind of am thinking aboutservice based businesses.
Obviously, are product basedbusinesses where, yeah, you have
you have like the variousrevenue models that come with
that, which would include likedrop shipping. Mean, they're
just using an online store likeEtsy. There are just so many
other things to do there. ButI'm more so targeting the

(06:31):
service based solopreneurs thatthink their only options are
retainer and hourly, which isjust not the case.

Joe Rando (06:39):
Right. No. Absolutely. And, again, even if
you start there, great. But asyou learn, you might find if
you're solving the same problemover and over again for people,
and especially if you've kindagotten sick of solving that
problem, maybe you could make acourse that you sell, and people
can sign up and take this courseand address the problem. or

(07:00):
maybe you do something thatstarting to do is to have the
course be recorded but then haveoffice hours. So they're
basically getting some of yourtime to come in and ask
questions if they need to. Butif they don't, they don't have
to. but you're adding more valuethan just here. Here's the
course.
Knock yourself out. So that's alittle bit of kinda giving your
time but in a much more scalablefashion than doing a one on one

(07:23):
solution for people. And you canreally if you do the math,
sometimes you can make a lotmore money helping lots of
people for less money than oneperson for a lot of money.

Carly Ries (07:33):
Yep. Totally agree. Well, any last thoughts before
we end this thing?

Joe Rando (07:37):
No. you know, I think you're right. Thinking outside
of the box is great, and I thinkit's a great way to to approach
it. And just a reminder, youdon't have to start outside the
box.
Figure out where the box isbefore you go outside of it.
How's that?

Carly Ries (07:52):
There you go. that's the way to end the episode.
Well, listeners, thank you somuch for tuning in. Please share
this with a friend. Like us onyour favorite or subscribe to us
on your favorite podcastplatform, but like us too.
And leave that five star review,and we will, see you next time
on the Aspiring Solopreneur.
You may be going solo in business, but that

(08:13):
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.