Now I am not suggesting you go hide behind a curtain or under your desk when a client comes near you, or shut the door to your 'shop', but I am suggesting you are not 'always available'.
If you are a supermarket then opening 24 hours can be a good business move (people need groceries all times of the day afterall), but being an entrepreneur, business owner, or especially as 'solo'preneur an open all hours set up is totally exhausting! And also doesn't allow you to do your best work and offer your best service. Unless you're part cyborg :) then you need downtime, rest time, play time, creative time, work on your business time, and preparation time alongside client time.
You need to make yourself scarce!
You should be available some of the time of course BUT not all of the time for calls, emails and meetings.
Even if you do have all the time in the world (and are looking at an empty schedule) then don't feel you have to fill it wall-to-wall with client time as the work comes in. Because as soon as you do, you realise you don't have gaps in between to learn, grow, relax, enjoy, create and be attentive.
Also if you're 'always available' you are not placing the value on you that you deserve. If you are running around all day working working working then you're not seeing what your focused time is worth. And actually as you do that you're getting more tired so will be less valuable.
Why the waiting time?
Now I am not quite at the stage of having a mile-long waiting list (and that's not my plan either). Yes, sometimes you have to wait a couple of weeks to get a call with me, but I have a strict block on times in my diary where I am focused on all the aspects of my business and clients so I know that's a small compromise. If I tried to 'pack in' back-to-back calls then I can't allow the time that's often needed to get where I need to get to. And if you've had a call with me you know that I'm no clock-watcher :)
Also know that whether you want to admit it or not, scarcity works. It's a principle of Influence (Cialdini) and it makes people take action.
If you are scarce (or perceived as) then your value rises. I could go into a very complicated economics lecture now to pretend I didn't waste 3 years on my degree (don't worry, I won't!) but the rules are that if you decrease the supply of anything and keep the same demand then the price or value goes up. Simple example is anything that is 'limited edition' has a higher price or value.
Make yourself into a 'limited edition'
If you sell your time (and I know you know to have more than just this in your Star Plan and that's why 'you' start at the higher-up pricing) you need to make sure you have limited availability. You need to 'only' offer a set number of days and hours where clients can work with you. When your slots are full they are full. This is how you make yourself scarce.
And the same goes for products too
You can offer bundles or offers that are limited in either amounts or time (available only for a certain amount of time).
It might seem a bit 'mean' to offer a limit but really you are helping people to decide to take action (or not). While someone is 'interested' in what you are offering they may well continue to be 'interested' and not take action for ages... but when pressed to make a decision yes or no, they will. We all know if we want something and we're told it's the last one, or we can only buy at this price, or this offer until a deadline, we'll make a decision.
The most important decision you can ever get a client to make is one
A 'No' is just as good as a 'Yes' as you and your client knows then if they do or don't want what you are offering. Obviously we all like a 'Yes' , but either way a decision is the best result you can give a client and then everyone knows where they are.
So by making yourself scarce you can sell more. Sounds like it doesn't make sense but it works.
Go hide now and see what happens! :)
Want to talk more about this?
Insightful and relevant as always. Thank you Lucy. My VIP days have strictly limited numbers.