Advice on how to handle increasing demand.

[fylaxtas]

Hi everyone .
What is your advise on how to handle increasing demand?
Elements such as
Communicating with buyers prior to agreeing on a gig.
Handling and working on the gigs.
Post gig support. 

Because working on a buyer's gig while chatting with a different buyer can shift attention focus .
 

[neidertmike]

It may sound off-topic, but I always try to meet increasing demand (and message/buyer volume) with higher prices.

Typically, that reduces the volume of buyers/messages I need to deal with while allowing me to earn more. Fewer projects but higher earnings means less work for more money.

[dutchbydesign]

I 'try' and switch off all communications while working with an allocated work time slot.  Two hours is a good time to stop, have a break and stretch the legs and back. While having a coffee break, I catch up with messages on Fiverr.  Also, remember priority are the new possible clients.  While as older clients following up on work, is not. I am also fortunate to have a husband, who is my part-time admin for my our studio (but not always is he available, as he has a full-time job outside our studio.) Hope this helps you 🙂

[dakotacaldwell8]

I'll echo what neidertmike said! About a year ago or so, I was at the point where I was getting so many messages that I would have to spend almost an hour at the start of each day responding to assorted requests, both new and old, and would subsequently have to turn away from my work throughout the day as people followed up or just sent me new messages. I didn't want to be greedy, but eventually, I just had to start hiking my prices (I think I did it incrementally, over a several-month period) until the number of messages I was getting was down to a more reasonable level.

[barrydavian]

4 hours ago, dutchbydesign said:

I 'try' and switch off all communications while working with an allocated work time slot.  Two hours is a good time to stop, have a break and stretch the legs and back. While having a coffee break, I catch up with messages on Fiverr.  Also, remember priority are the new possible clients.  While as older clients following up on work, is not. I am also fortunate to have a husband, who is my part-time admin for my our studio (but not always is he available, as he has a full-time job outside our studio.) Hope this helps you 🙂

 

Similar to my situation. My wife helps me with making a schedule for each project. Daily schedule. On the sidelines of the schedule, I responded to messages from potential buyers.

Increasing the price also seems a good solution to reduce the number of messages that are overflowing.

[midsummervoice]

Bulk work on projects. Schedule tasks so that they can have your full focus and attention.
Turn on auto message to let buyer's know you are busy with a client but they can leave info for what they are looking for and you'll respond as soon as you can.
Raise prices. Half you day should be completing current work, and half should be spent on communicating future projects. If you're spending all your time doing projects, then you're demand indicates you should raise your prices.
Create systems and templates you can setup to increase the efficiency of your workflow.
Outsource projects or menial work whenever you can.

[ellamicheler]

Congrats on being so in demand 🙂 It can feel overwhelming, especially when messages come at all hours of the day and you still want to keep up your metrics. Make use of lightning standard replies, and as someone else said, raise your prices. That way, you can afford to take the projects you're passionate about, and say no to anything you have a bad gut feeling about (e.g., a buyer that may prove to be demanding and difficult) or say no to things that just don't sound fun or lucrative for you. 

[texvox]

Depends on what you mean by "handling" increasing demand. Do you want to just manage what you're working with, or potentially decrease demand in the short-term?

General suggestion: If you have access to it I can't sing the praises of the "Request to order" feature enough (this feature requires certain - or all - buyers to contact you first before ordering). I have it set to be on 24/7 and it has been a wonderful tool in helping me to control my queue without having to limit the # of projects I have taken on. If my queue has too many projects in it for my regular turnaround time I explain that to buyers up front in our first conversation and give them options for moving forward with custom turnaround times that are a bit extended, if they are not open to the rush delivery option. Not only has this feature not slowed me down at all, but it's led to bigger and better quotes as I've been able to discuss every project with clients beforehand. Similarly it's eliminated the situation of clients placing an order and then fighting you or cancelling when you explain that they need certain extras. 

If you want to "lessen" your demand short-term: If you've found that your demand has increased to a level that is difficult to maintain over the long-term, it may be time to increase your prices. If you've just seen a sudden spike of activity for 1-2 weeks then maybe don't rush to increase rates just yet, but if it's been going on for a month or more that's a good sign to me that your product is in high enough demand to justify a more premium price. Don't make sudden drastic price increases, but somewhat incremental increases here and there to your base pricing and certain gig extras can work. This will begin to "price out" some clients in the short-term while opening the doors to people looking to work with more "premium" buyers.

If you want to better manage what you have now: Be up front with buyers. Explain to them as early as possible what your queue looks like, and what you are reasonably able to deliver when they order. Getting in front of the problem is always much better than trying to desperately put out a fire later. It will also make you look more professional (I can't tell you how many buyers have told me this). Then spend some time determining how you best work. For instance, I am often booked for voice-over performances in very different genres using wildly different performance styles and vocal deliveries. I batch order and complete all of the deliveries for X genre back to back, or all deliveries requiring Y emotional delivery at the same time. The concept of "multi-tasking" has been scientifically proven to be a farce. The more different each task you are trying to juggle is from each other task the slower you will go, or the more your work will suffer. Whatever product you're selling, find some commonalities and see if you can batch your project completion to "like projects."

[fylaxtas]

Thank you everyone.
Responses come down to increase prices so you act on basis of low volume ,high margin. 
I couldn't agree more with that.

I wanted to hear if anyone performs some form of outsourcing or working with a team somehow to manage demand given that sharing account is absolutely not an option .

Thank you