Podcast Intro
Welcome back to a new episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where we are talking about the Coaching Hive Blueprint for building your business from the ground up. As you know, building a business has a lot of moving parts. And that’s why here at the Coaching Hive, we use a blueprint in the shape of a car. In our car, we have all of the different parts to help you get your business rolling down the road.
We have talked about a few topics so far, so far, we’ve talked about the importance of having a mindful vision. We’ve talked about having a daily rhythm. We talked about having mentors and peers, and that brings us to today’s topic of products and services.
What are you going to offer to your clients, your customers? When they say I need your services, how are you going to respond? What are you going to offer today?
We are going to talk about the importance of getting this figured out so that when you start talking with potential customers, potential clients, the answer is easy. You don’t stumble. You confidently share what you offer. And this will also take us into next week’s conversation, where we talk about having a one-liner.
So although this is a two-part conversation, we’re going to start with thinking about your products and services.
If you are ready to get started, grab that notebook, grab your tablet, whatever you’re taking notes on today, grab a cup of water, a snack, whatever you need to stay focused. And if you’re ready with our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, let’s jump in.
Products and Services: Don’t Confuse Potential Clients
Here we are. You have a business, whether it’s beside hustle, part-time, or full-time. In order to actually have a business, you have to have something that you can exchange for money, right? You have to have products or services in the case of a coaching business, or even most online businesses.
These days, that’s going to be a service that you’re offering. It might be:
- A membership
- 1:1 services
- Group services
Whatever it looks like, you have to have something that you’re offering in return for being paid for your time and expertise. It’s not enough to say that you have a one-on-one opportunity, we can work together and here’s the price. No one’s going to buy that because they’re not really sure what they’re getting. This is why taking time to clarify your products and services is going to be critical to everything else that follows and building your business.
When you have clear products and services:
- Now you better know how to share what you do, what you offer with your potential customers and clients.
- You know how to create marketing that works.
- You know how to grow and scale your business. You know how to build the right relationships in your community.
- You know how to create your website. You know how to create your social media posts.
In other words, if you don’t know what you’re offering, it’s going to be hard to figure out the rest of your business. This is why having your products and services so early in the blueprint is intentional. It’s not something we want to skip over and think, “Oh, I’ll come back to that later”.
Nope. Stop here. Full stop. Figure out those products and services.
When you are thinking about the products and services that you’d like to offer, first, I’d like you to take a step back and think about:
- who you serve in your business
- who you want to serve in your business
- what problems they experience or challenges or struggles they experience that they are going to come to you as their guide and ask for help.
Start by figuring out what it is they actually want. Maybe you know what they need, but they’re going to buy what they want and you can sneak in what they actually need as well.
Let’s go back to those key questions again. Who are we serving? What problems, challenges, struggles are they experiencing that they’d like you to act as their guide as they move through those so that they can live a full life?
When you have that clearly defined, take some time to think about, and this goes back to your vision, what you want your business to look like.
- Do you want to work with people?
- One-on-one do you want to work with people in a group setting?
- Would you prefer to offer a template that they can download and fill out all on their own?
- Or maybe some combination?
- Maybe it’s a membership, perhaps it is a retreat.
- Maybe it’s a speaking engagement.
Think about what you want from your business, and then start aligning what your clients want and what you want. Think about how they fit together, where they are complementary and where maybe they’re kind of grading against one another. I want you to go ahead and highlight. When you start making these lists, I want you to highlight the things that really feel complementary to one another.
If you have potential clients who really want to be able to learn from others and have some support, not just from you, but from people who are going through the exact situation, they are then a group setting. That’s going to really work beautifully. And if you like group settings, well guess what? It’s a double win now. That’s truly what we have in a complementary service.
It’s going to work for you. And it’s going to work for your client.
Start looking for those things that align, but what happens when you know what your clients want and you don’t want to offer it, should you just offer it because you’re building a business and you need to make some money. That’s a deeply personal question.
Here are some things to think about.
If you’re considering offering services that don’t feel like they’re in alignment with your vision or with who you are or what you want to do, ask yourself why you’re considering offering a service. It is not in alignment. Next, think about what will it gain you to offer the service and what will it cost you to offer the service. And when I’m talking about gaining cost, I’m not necessarily talking about money. Yes, money is a part of it, but think about it in terms of gains. Is it opening up future doors for you to do the services that you want to do? Get into organizations where you want to be present? Is it costing you? Because now you don’t have time to build out these other services or to pursue these opportunities that really do align with what you want and who you are.
So when you’re thinking about offering a service that feels like it’s grinding against, or it’s out of alignment with you and your vision, ask yourself, what are you going to get from it? Why are you thinking about it? Then? What can you gain? What will it cost?
There is always a cost associated with offering something just like there’s always a gain. Think about both sides of it. Weigh that information carefully before you make a decision. I can’t tell you what the right answer is. Only you can answer that for yourself. If you need that rapid income, then maybe offering the service and telling yourself you’re going to put a time limit on it might be a great option because now, even though it’s costing you from building out some other things, you are putting a hard stop on that cost. You’re saying only for three months.
Building out your products and services is like everything else in our blueprint. It is an iterative process. You are going to say, this is what I’m offering and somewhere down the road, you’re going to say, and now I’m pivoting.
I think after 2020, we have all gotten a taste of what it means to pivot. So hopefully it won’t be so scary when we need to pivot in our own business. That is part of growth. That is part of remaining aware of what’s going on in your business and staying current, staying relevant, knowing that sometimes we have to make a shift. As you make each shift, align it back to your vision, the foundation of your business. Remember that your vision might have shifted, which would indicate that there will be a shift in everything else that follows.
Action Item for the Week
This week, I just briefly introduced you to the concept and the importance of clarifying your products and services. There are so many options out there that you can offer.
I encourage you to do a little bit of research this week, start writing down. Like I said, what do your clients or potential clients want? What could you offer? Start recognizing how they’re in alignment. Those two things are in alignment versus out of alignment or kind of grinding against each other and then narrow it down. If you have a few services that are in absolute alignment between what your potential customers want and what you want as a business owner,
those probably go to the top of your list. This week, get really serious about defining what you’re offering and what, what problem, what challenge it’s going to solve or help your clients solve as they work with you. This is incredibly important because next week in our podcast episode, we are going to talk about a one liner. This is going to be how you describe your business and what you do, including the problem you solve.
If you don’t understand your products and services, that’s going to be a little bit harder. Now I will warn you that it’s a two-way road here. When we get to the one-liner next week, you are probably going to go back and adjust your products and services a little bit more.
Remember, write down what things your clients or potential clients or customers want. What do you want in your business? What kinds of things do you want to offer? Look for the overlap. Start to kind of rank order what services you’d like to offer. If you have something that is out of alignment, but you know that it would help you increase your income.
And that’s really important for you right now. I want you to go into that with an open eye. I want you to recognize why you’re doing it, what the gain is and what the cost is of making that decision. Not to talk you out of it, just because it helps us to be present and in the moment versus having our business happen to us.
We are in charge of our business. We are at an exciting point in the blueprint because now it feels like it’s getting real. It’s been real, but now it feels even more like it’s getting real. You are building your business. You’re thinking about what you’re going to offer to your potential clients. When they say, “Hey, I hear that you’re a coach. What would it look like if we worked together?” You’re going to be able to tell them what you offer and what kinds of problems you solve and help them solve (Of course, as the guide.)
Don’t worry if this isn’t perfect; it’s a starting place. This is, this is very much an iterative process like I’ve told you time and again. Treat it like you would a draft of an English paper. It’s simply a draft. You’re going to get your ideas down. Then you’re going to adjust. You’re going to tweak them. You’re going to make another draft. And that will continue on.
Hopefully you’re clear on this week’s micro decision, which is to settle in and think about those products and services. Remember the whole point of this series is to get you to take action through the blueprint and making micro-decisions each day for your business. I am so excited that you are hanging in there with me each week with our Coaching Hive Blueprint.
Now, if you have not yet had a chance, and I can’t believe that you haven’t, but I’m going to say it anyway, just in case you’re popping in, in the middle of this series. If you have not yet taken the Coaching Hive Blueprint, assessment, go do it. Go to www.coachinghive.com/assessment. Take the assessment. You’ll receive a report in your email inbox, in a downloadable PDF so that you can get a better idea of where you are in your coaching business.
The report is going to come to you pretty quickly, but I’ve got something special for you. I believe that every coach should have an opportunity to talk to a mentor. So what I’m going to do is probably 24 to 48 hours after you get your PDF, I’m going to reach out again, personally, this is not an automated email, which is why I’m saying 24 to 48 hours and it kind of depends on what day you do the assessment and what I’ve got going on, I’m going to send you an email and say, “Hey, I took a look at your assessment results, and I’d love to sit down and talk with you so that we can help you take the next step in your business”.
Maybe the next step is working with me as a mentor, maybe as being part of the Coaching Hive community. Maybe it is working with me on your messaging as a marketing guide. Regardless, my point in the call is to help you make a micro decision about what next step to take in your business.
I love this idea of putting things into action, knowing what steps to take next, following a blueprint. It makes my post-it loving heart happy. My planner-loving heart happy. I don’t know about you, but that’s just the way I feel. It makes everything simpler. And I am looking forward to the fact that we still have several weeks together on this blueprint. And we’re getting a little bit more in depth each week.
Now, if at any point you’re sitting in your chair or maybe you’re taking a walk while you’re listening to this, you’ve got your earbuds in and you’re thinking to yourself, I can’t wait. I need more. That’s wonderful that you recognize where you are in your journey and that you’re ready for the next step. Send me a DM on Instagram www.instagram.com/coachinghive and we’ll talk about the options that are available.
If I don’t have an option that fits your needs right now, I’m going to help you find the right option for you because everyone deserves to have a community and mentoring on their business building journey as always.
I want to thank you for listening to today’s podcast, and I have a shameless ask. Would you do me a favor? If you liked today’s podcast episode, wherever you’re listening to it, can you rate it and leave a review for me? I love those reviews. It helps me to plan future content. It helps me know how to better serve you. And it’s just fun. It also lets me know that you’re listening and that you’re building the coaching business of your dreams.
If you feel so compelled, I’d also like to invite you to share your favorite episode. Maybe it’s this one with someone else, someone who might benefit someone who is building their business, whether it is a coaching business or other entrepreneurial adventure, share it for me, will you? This is how we help everyone grow together. We are better together sharing resources, sharing ideas. That is one of the biggest ways we can make the world a better place and help our fellow entrepreneurs grow.
If you want to keep it simple and you’re thinking, “I don’t have time to reach out to individual people”, take a screenshot of this episode while you’re playing it on your phone and just post it to your Facebook and Instagram stories. Your folks will see it. Your fans, your followers, your friends will see it. Then you can also tag me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/coachinghive and over on Facebook, I am at www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife.
That’s all for now! I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful coaching business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
~Dr. Moira
