318: Interview With Tim Nyberg Of The MacGuys+ - Value Based Billing
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-From the days of the Apple II, Tim Nyberg was known as “The Mac Guy” in his college days because he could confidently fix any Apple computer. Tim kept the name, opened The MacGuys+ in 1991 and today he and his team are still obsessed with Macs and Apple technology.
-Tim talks about his history from typing papers for fellow students, to a job at Kinkos, and eventually landing back in Minneapolis to build his current business.
-Tim has a brick and mortar location that serves a purpose for walk in traffic and repairs.
-Having a location has its challenges but provides opportunity and space to perform some large scale tasks
-As Tim’s business has seen changes over the years, Jerry notes that the tools that he uses has allowed him to work more efficiently
-Tim starts to see himself being more of the business end of the company and transitioning from the technical end of the company. He is on his way to obtaining his MBA.
-There are some clients that have been around for 20 years who want nothing to do with managed services
-Value based billing is a concept that Tim has been presenting to his clients. Part of this is setting expectations with the customer and making them realize what the value of the work is.
-As Jerry asks for a practical example, Tim talks about value based billing in projects like Synology setups, Wi-Fi roll outs where the value of expertise and padded time for potential pitfalls are covered as a part of the cost.
-If projects go more smoothly than expected, it provides opportunity to offer a discount to the customer.
-One book that provided good information on this topic was "Value-Based Fees" By Alan Weiss
-It is important to express to the customer what your value is. Less important than total hours on an invoice is the details of all the work performed.
-Like many of us, Tim leverages the TidBITS Content Network and a variety of social media tools to provide content to his customers.
