Offering services for free or discounted

[fourseasons]

Hi Chaps

Newbie... I would like to know if anyone else when starting up their company/business either offered their services for free or at a discount in order to get new clients and to get their name out there.

I am launching an event management company and would like to be able to spread the word quickly.

I would be interested to know if anyone would consider using a professional event management company to assist wth either the planning or management of their event, parties, launches etc.

[openmind]

Personally no. Although the first few clients are always the hardest I wouldn't see any reason to dicsount or give away my services.

The problem is that they "may" come back at a later stage and ask for the discount again

Have you already tried the traditional routes such as advertising, cold calling at full price?

[iccomms]

Hi

Discount them maybe, however I wouldn't go to extreme as with circle hosting when we started we gave massive discounts and now existing customers still expect crazy low prices.

We would still be making a profit if we offered discount however there is much more time and effort needed for the extra customers that still want top service even though they have paid a fraction of the price.

I think that offering big discounts for event managment could devalue your service and make you look unprofessional and unable to provide what the customer wants.

I would stick to some low budget advertising before lowering prices or giving services away for free.

[Play!!]

How about holding an event for potential customers.

Invite the customers along and try to sell your service that way. Then they will be able to see for their own eyes how good the service is.

[brianabudabi]

NO to discounts - unless you've high margins, anyone can work for nothing.

I've been done the discounting route and you attract alot of the wrong sort of customers - the ones that don't like paying full stop