Nikkie Achartz Taught Me How to Increase My Income While Working Fewer Hours

Two years ago, I hired Nikkie Achartz of Snap Savvy Strategies as a pricing and profitability consultant. I was getting more leads than I could handle and feared, “leaving money on the table.”

I offered two services: 1) financial advice and investment management for clients with brokerage and retirement accounts; and 2) divorce financial analysis and planning for individuals and couples. 

My solution had been to work as many hours as required to not only get the work done for my current clients, but also secure new clients who expressed interest in working with me. The more clients I acquired, the more hours I needed to work. I had about 120 investment and retirement accounts for which I was responsible (and needed to be on-call for the clients who owned them) and also worked on over 100 divorce cases each year. Every month I was getting referrals from past clients and divorce mediators from around the state. I would also get inquiries from people who found me online in the middle of the night when they used the search terms, “divorce,” “financial planner,” and “California.” 

For several years, I had been consistently working 60-hour weeks without a vacation. Something needed to change, and that’s where Nikkie came in.

The first thing Nikki encouraged me to do was raise my rate. For investment management, that wasn’t possible for a variety of reasons. However, for divorce financial planning I provided through my own company, The Options Lady, that was certainly an option.  According to my national trade association, most certified divorce financial analysts (also known as CDFAs) charge between $175 and $400 per hour. Rates are usually higher in major metropolitan areas. 

When I started working with Nikkie, I charged $250 per hour.  After gaining significant experience working on over 450 divorce cases in California, I felt like it was time for me to charge on the upper end of the spectrum.  

But I resisted raising my hourly rate. First, I didn’t want to serve only the affluent. Second, I was concerned that my “close” rate – which was over 95% — would shrink.

Nikkie explained that I could still serve lower-income clients – I would just need to do so as a pro-bono volunteer. And that’s what I did – I became a volunteer for the Savvy Ladies Helpline. To date, I have provided advice on a pro-bono basis to 35 women. Women send their questions that concern budgeting, investing, debt management, family finances or divorce, and they are matched with a Savvy Ladies volunteer. Whenever I have a few open hours in my weekly schedule, I log onto the database and connect with a Helpline client.  

Knowing that my skills and talents would be used to serve not just the wealthy gave my heart permission to charge middle class and affluent individuals what I was worth. My fear of a huge drop-off in my close rate when I increased by hourly rate from $250 to $300 was unfounded. Every now and then someone decides they can’t afford me, but my close rate is still above 80%.

Except for volunteering for the Helpline, Nikkie convinced me to stop giving away time for free.  I had been allowing prospective clients who needed divorce-related financial advice to book 20-minute free phone consultations on my calendar. I would often allow the calls to run for 30 minutes.  The longer they ran, the more time the prospect had to “pick my brain” and get answers to their burning questions. Sometimes they even received a free mini-strategy session! In about a third of the cases I discovered that either the prospect was not my ideal client, or they would decline to pay a retainer for a multi-hour client engagement.

So, I switched it up. Now I offer prospects who call or email me two choices: 1) a 15-minute free phone call so they can determine if I am the right fit for what they need; or 2) a 60-minute paid strategy session via Zoom where they can share their screen and get my real-time feedback on financial documents and spreadsheets.  If the prospect has emailed me a summary of their situation and I know I am the right fit for what they need, I direct them to a paid consultation so we can dive into their pressing issues and have an actual working session with takeaways.

When I implemented that new approach, in less than four months I had billed 20 paid consultations. At $300 each, that generated $6,000 in revenue. On an annualized basis, that is $18,000. Looking back, I shake my head as to why I resisted for so long monetizing my precious time.   

Many of the paid consultations turn into months-long consulting engagements. And for those that don’t, it’s a comfort knowing I have been paid for my time.

Nikkie believes that solopreneurs’ growth will be capped if they simply trade time for money and my 60-hour work weeks were proof of that. She also believes delegation is crucial for growth. She challenged me to document my processes so they could be replicated by someone I hire. 

I was constantly getting calls and emails from primarily women who wanted to know what their financial situation would be like if they initiated a divorce. In addition to wanting to know how they could keep the house, they wanted to get an estimate of how much child and/or spousal support would be.  I documented the steps involved in such an analysis and created my first flat-rate package which I named, “It Could Happen.” 

I hired a paralegal who had experience working at several prominent family law firms to provide the first component in the package.  He meets clients to help them gather critical financial information which he documents and summarizes for me. His hourly rate is less than mine and clients enjoy working with him. Then clients meet with me for a strategy session, and I follow up with recommended next steps. As a bonus, clients can take advantage of a free session with one of two certified divorce coaches I recommend.  By collaborating and delegating, I can offer a value-rich package at an affordable price.

It is not practical to get rid of hourly billing entirely.  However, I have learned how to be more efficient. Outside of the paid one-hour consultation I offer, I now require an upfront payment for a minimum number of hours for clients in divorce mediation or litigation. This means I will no longer work with clients who pay me for only two or three hours, since at least half an hour is consumed by drafting an engagement letter, billing the client, and having an email exchange to on-board them.  Sure, I lose potential clients who do not want to commit to a set number of hours, but there are plenty of other potential clients who do!

Working with Nikkie required me to invest time and money. It was worth every minute and every dollar. Her advice has made me thousands of dollars and I certainly recouped what I invested in her pricing and profitability coaching services.