How did you handle risk reversal (guarantees) when money was tight in the early days, or should I just run the system myself to get results and use that as proof to close clients?
I bootstrapped with Upwork, so I never faced a tight‑budget need for risk reversal. A guarantee only refunds your management fee, not the platform or software costs—those are paid by the client directly to the service providers. For example, you could charge a $1,980 fee but refund it if you don’t deliver the agreed result, while the client still pays the $145/month platform cost; if they get results they keep your fee, if not they’re out only the small platform fee. This shows ROI and makes the guarantee a no‑brainer for the client.
You don't have to guarantee dollar-sign outcomes — I've worked with these kinds of businesses for about a decade so I have a reasonable sense of what value I can drive, but if you're new to this it's completely understandable that you're not comfortable promising a dollar figure. Offer something else instead. A few variants: tell them you won't charge a cent unless they absolutely love it and ask you to keep going. Or say you'll deliver X, Y and Z, or you'll keep working for free until you do (weaker, but I've used it myself — we did this at Pacific Creative Group with my old business partner). You could also put real risk on the table, like offering to buy them an Amazon gift card or refund them if you don't deliver. Instead of ROI, you could frame it around hours saved per week (hard to track in practice, but usable). Or just offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee — tell them your sole goal is their satisfaction, and if they don't see the value, you won't charge them. A guarantee does two things: it makes people much more likely to want to work with you, and it makes you much more likely to actually follow through on what you promised.
When you make a guarantee like 20 meetings in 60 days, you need to get payment up front. Instead of working for free until you hit the target, have the client sign a contract and pay you before you start. If you miss the goal, you refund them. This upfront payment solves cash‑flow issues, shows both parties are serious, and gives you billing details that make upsells easier later. Even though asking for money upfront can be harder, it protects you and builds trust.
Learn to pitch your work as a deliverable rather than as time, and back it with a guarantee. If the deliverable doesn’t meet expectations, the client pays nothing, and you’re both happy. It may sound odd to offer free work, but you can say, ‘I’ll deliver X as we agreed, and if you don’t love it you owe me nothing.’ This removes risk for the client and eliminates the mental block of ‘what if it doesn’t work?’ If the project fails, the client gets their money back and you haven’t lost more than the time you invested, which is still valuable experience. You can then charge more on future projects because you’ve proven the system works. Even if you have rent and other expenses, you can treat the guarantee as a side‑hustle risk that pays off long term. I learned the hard way in a door‑to‑door marketing agency that never offering guarantees cost me millions; once I started guaranteeing offers, my top line tripled with only a small refund rate, making the guarantee a logical decision.
Nick says it’s difficult to guarantee outcomes you don’t directly control. In Maker School he guarantees a first client or a refund, which is downstream of his control but still offered. He notes that in practice, money is the strongest guarantee because it’s simple and quantifiable; you can offer a money‑back guarantee even without direct control, as the program’s overall value is evident—participants often find it valuable and may have a pipeline of leads even if they don’t land a client. He shares that his refund rate is very low because participants interact with him daily for 90 days. He appreciates the question, noting that most sellers focus on agents rather than outcomes, and thanks for the AI comment reframe. Regarding school growth boost, he says he would enable the feature, estimating it brings about 20‑30 % of net new people, so letting the platform take a cut is fine because you still grow your top line; he doesn’t know the exact percentage but sees it as acceptable.