From Big Business to Solopreneur: A Success Story
Starting Off
Like all good infopreneur stories, Janene Liston’s starts in the middle: after a successful career working for top international companies, she was burned out and decided to step back from the corporate world to heal and reassess. This was her opportunity to figure out what she really wanted to do. Like other solopreneurs, she found standing at the edge of her own new business to be scary and exciting.
That is the time we take stock of what we know and love, and of who we want to help. After 15 years of helping big companies get bigger, Janene wanted to help more people in a more significant way. She started with a couple of clients, consulting and coaching with a focus on pricing strategies. One of her first clients at a university needed help pricing lab mice. This was a fun challenge that helped her realize the breadth of things that need prices, and it led to finding her next client and more clients after that.
The Pricing Lady
Over time, she developed a reputation among small businesses for solving their pricing challenges. As Janene says, “What I love about pricing is how it ties together all the different aspects of your business. It’s one part logic, one part creativity, and one part psychology. It’s all about understanding the marketplace, the value you deliver, and your business goals and profits, but also your unique talents and your clients’ needs.”
She loves the challenge of working with clients to help them use pricing to become profitable. During her corporate years, she stepped into meeting rooms to kick off a pricing project and introduced herself: “Hi I’m Janene. I’m here for the pricing project.” Frequently someone would say, “Yeah. I know you. You’re the pricing lady!” The name stuck when she started her own business and now she’s known as “The Pricing Lady.”
Pricing Tips for Infopreneurs
Janene is honored to work with a variety of businesses whose pricing challenges keep her on her toes. She helps her clients address decisions that many choose to avoid.
Some of her top pricing tips for infopreneurs and other solopreneurs include:
- Don’t let your customer attach your value to the amount of time you spend working for them. Your pricing should be based on the value you bring and your ability to deliver results.
- Hourly pay reduces your value to a commodity. The more efficient you are, the less you get paid because you can deliver faster. Don’t be a commodity.
- Because everyone is different and is delivering something different, there are no standard market prices for consultants. Don’t compare yourself to others.
- Start with WHO you are targeting when setting prices, rather than WHAT you are offering. People who want to know your rate right off are focused on cost and not on quality.
The Pricing Lady and Associates
Even though Janene is the sole owner of her business, she’s not managing her entrepreneurial path alone.
Janene has a virtual co-working group to keep her on task and help her feel less lonely, similar in nature to AIIP’s infopreneur support programs. She is involved in the group Femme Founders in Zurich; the members spend half a day co-working each month. This valuable resource helps her make new connections and come up with new ideas, and it gets her out of her office in Basel to go to a bigger city.
Janene offers a podcast that serves as a great way for listeners to talk to lots of entrepreneurs, learn about other businesses, and build a support system of like-minded business owners. It helps a growing number of business owners improve their pricing.
She even has a “disconnect buddy” who reminds her to stop working and find time for fun. Now that’s an idea that needs to be spread to all infopreneurs!
Note: AIIP members, mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 19 at noon EST, when Janene will host a virtual event to talk more about pricing strategies for infopreneurs. She will introduce some key concepts about pricing and address your questions and concerns. Learn more about Janene and her services at The Pricing Lady.
Kelly Berry is the interim Chair of the AIIP Virtual Events Committee. Her business, ResourceAbility, has been providing secondary market research for small businesses since 2005. She is now developing a new business called Learn Start Grow geared to helping small businesses expand through courses, consulting, and community. Kelly served as Director of Professional Development for the AIIP Board from 2020 to 2022.
