We recently connected with Marianne Beane and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marianne, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Many entrepreneurs start a business out of a desire to get paid to pursue something we are passionate about. That passion can be the driving force that motivates us to persevere when business is challenging or profits are lean. It can be what motivates us to go the extra-mile to provide exceptional service for our customers. It may be what attracts talented employees to want to work with and for us. It may be the force that draws in potential clients. Passion is a wild and wonderful thing.

But…passion can be blinding! We can get so focused (perhaps even obsessive at times) about sharing our talents and passions with the world that we jump right into doing what we do, often without taking the time to establish pricing that matches the value of what we provide to the markets we serve. We end up undercharging and overdelivering just to grab those initial sales. Pursuing passion without properly planning for profit is a killer mistake: It kills passion. It kills profits. It devalues what we do both in the eyes of our customers as well as in our own eyes.

We are left feeling overworked, underpaid, and stressed out about the business’s bottom lines.

When I started Endless Mountain Consulting in 2014, I was all about sharing my passion and making the world a better place. Profit was, quite literally, the last thing on my mind. I invested hours of my time meeting with hopeful entrepreneurs to help them draft one-page lean business plans. We’d chat about their about hopes and dreams, business goals, and marketing basics. I’d share a few insights and suggestions, help with idea generation, hand over the plans and ideas to the clients and send them on their way – all pro bono.

I was literally sharing my passion for free, with no thought about profit.

It wasn’t until 2020 that I realized the profit potential in the services I provided. After working to revamp a client’s business strategy to pivot in response to COVID-19, the client made an intriguing offer: “How much for you to help us implement these suggestions?” I considered for a moment, threw out a number, and the business immediately accepted. Quite literally overnight, my consulting business went from pro bono to bonafide income.

But there was a HUGE problem here: I didn’t follow the advice that for YEARS I’d given to my clients. A small business’s future success requires an intentional investment of thought, time, effort, and research into developing a pricing strategy. All I’d done was invest a few seconds of thought. The result was that I’d priced my services well under the industry standard and at about 1/3 of what my experience and expertise warranted. No wonder the client accepted on the spot.

I was working for rates established in a split second of “How much do I want to get paid per hour?” rather than “How much is my expertise truly worth in a competitive environment?” or “How much do I need to charge to both attract and retain similar clients while also paying myself a fair wage and covering my business expenses and self-employment taxes?”.

Something shifted when I assigned a poorly-planned dollar value to my services. I went from happily working for FREE to spending a whole year struggling to maintain my passion and motivation. There were times I was resentful of the client and the expectations and deadlines I had to meet – the very same expectations and deadlines I had agreed to and then set the price for. I had no one to blame but myself.

Fortunately, the client was so thrilled with my work that I was able to adjust my pricing to a more reasonable rate when our contract renewed the following year. It was a hard-learned but incredibly valuable lesson.

Since then, I’ve learned a few more valuable lessons: If a potential client balks at my rates, they simply aren’t my target market. I don’t need to undervalue my time to attract paying clients. The clients who want to pay the least tend to be the ones who will be most demanding and least satisfied. Charging reasonable rates allowed me not only to pay myself a reasonable rate, but also to generate enough revenue to expand my business and hire two part-time employees.

One of the greatest challenges to profitability in the business consulting and advisory industry, and really small business in general, is knowing one’s worth. This includes ensuring that, as a business owner and employer, I’m charging a price that not only attracts and retains customers but also allows me to provide reasonable compensation to myself and my employees.

And yes, I still offer discounted and pro-bono work, but now I do it on a case-by-case basis for nonprofts and aspiring entrepreneurs from underserved populations.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We like to refer to ourselves as Accidental Entrepreneurs because when we started what would become Endless Mountain Enterprises, LLC. we never intended it to become an actual enterprise, let alone grow into a family business!

Endless Mountain Consulting began in 2014, when I started assisting small business owners in our small Northcentral Pennsylvania community. Tapping into my background in Business Administration, Marketing and Communication, and prior experience working in accounting, finance, and sales and also as the owner of a small insurance business, I would meet with hopeful entrepreneurs to help them draft simple one-page business plans. This, of course, led to conversations about hopes and dreams, business goals, and marketing basics. I would share a few insights and suggestions, help with idea generation, and then hand over the plans and ideas to the clients, and send them on their way – all pro bono.

In 2020, one of these entrepreneurs reviewed the business and marketing plan I developed and made an intriguing offer: “How much for you to help us implement these suggestions?” I considered for a moment, threw out a number, and the business accepted. Quite literally overnight, the consulting side of our business went from pro bono to bonafide income, and when we shared the results our delighted clients received, more paying clients followed.

In mid 2021, I left my full-time job teaching Business, Careers, and Personal Finance to work as a Business Manager and Small Business Outreach Specialist for a local non-profit offering business coaching, small business education and training, and other supports and resources for microentrepreneurs. This opportunity offered me the flexibility I needed to grow the consulting and coaching portion of our business.

Throughout 2021, our clientele continued to grow, as did the variety of services we offered. We now offered not only consulting, coaching, and idea generation, but also website design, graphic design, social media content creation, social media management, and even online course development!

In November 2021, we hired our daughter, Lily, as our first official employee to assist with our clients’ growing demand for graphic design, social media content generation, and social media account management. Lily, now a college freshman studying Business Administration and Marketing, continues to delight our clients with her creativity and ability to communicate the genuine voice of their respective businesses through social media content.

In 2022, we refined our service offerings to include only the Consulting and Advisory services, Social Media Management & Content Creation, and Curriculum Design, Course & Workshop Development. We also added a part-time Administrative Assistant to our payroll to help set appointments and manage customer service.

We are proud to say that Endless Mountain Consulting provides services that enable the small businesses we serve to confidently scale their businesses and “buy back their time” so they can focus on doing what they do best: pursuing their passions and sharing their expertise with the world.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source for new clients has been word-of-mouth from current and past clients. I’ve found that ensuring my clients have the absolute best results, experience, and service leads to delighted, successful customers who tell others about us. When someone asks a client how they did what they did, or who manages their social media, or how they created their successful online course the answer often leads them straight to us.

Don’t be afraid to ask satisfied clients for reviews, referrals, and recommendations!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Hire for fit as much as possible: skills can always be learned.

Seek employees with personal values that align with the mission, vision, and values of your business.

Offer paid training and opportunities to learn new skills and advance in their career (even if it means they may leave you).

Provide praise and constructive feedback. It’s important to let employees know what they’re doing well – not just how they can improve.

Pay competitive wages. Give regular raises. Offer paid time off and paid sick days.

Offer flexible scheduling. If you can, allow employees to work remotely or a hybrid of remote and in-person.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eme.llc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/endlessmountainconsulting/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/endlessmountainconsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/endless-mountain-enterprises

Image Credits
Black and White Photo: Reiner Productions