I heard this from Blair Enns, who has an excellent book called "Pricing Creativity".

He talks about how consultants have four phases of engagement with their clients. I've probably got the names wrong, but the idea is correct.

Phase One is Discovery. This is where the client says "this is not working right" and the consultant figures out what's wrong.

Phase Two is Remedy. This is where the consultant says "to fix this, you need X".

Phase Three is Implementation. This is where the fix is put into practice.

Phase Four is Maintenance. This is where the fix is kept up to date so the problem does not reoccur.

These four phases have varying amounts of importance and value - both to you and the client. I'll speak about them later.

Take action: Where do your services fit in the four phases?