Service providers should package offerings around what clients can afford, not cut rates. Repeatable patterns, courses, and productized content preserve value and build sustainable practices, following Naval Ravikant's idea of turning knowledge into accessible products.
Map your offering to the ability to pay of the customer. I have talked to people who are trying to sell consulting services, personal services, to very small companies who are really worthy of their help, but don't have the ability to pay for those services. When that happens, the consultant starts dropping their rates so that their clients can actually afford them, and they start doing work perhaps for free, and the whole value of the engagement drops way, way down. What one should focus on is what can the client afford and how does it create value for that client? How can you create more value in a package that they can afford? This will lead you down the road to productization, to repeatable patterns, to sometimes being able to offer a course instead of offer or offering a product, right? Content and code, as Ravikant would say. You should look at what packaging they can afford, what kind of service they can afford. It might not be the one that you imagined wanting to do in the first place, but it'll be the one that allows them to succeed and for you to have successful practice.
