Crafting Your Business Services: A Framework to Get Started

You can easily stay stuck by trying to figure out your services, instead of having a simple offering and actually start working with clients. You can also start with offering hourly rates (this is also how I started when I first became a freelancer and offered business consulting for startups), but you can already begin with an attractive, yet simple service portfolio.

Talk to potential clients and find out what they really need. By paying attention to them, you'll learn a lot about how to define your services.

The human brain likes the number of three: three options, three choices, or three things to remember. Three is the smallest number we need to create a pattern. It is also captured in the Latin phrase omne trium perfectum: everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete.

Many of you ask, how to create your first offering, what services should you offer, and how to find out what to start with. If you’re starting your business, or you’re in the first two-three years (even for mature solo- businesses it can be a super simple approach to follow!), the easiest way is to offer three options:

An entry-level, a fixed-term standard program and a personalized high-value offer.

1. The first one is gonna be a low-key, accessible and affordable option. For example a consultation. If you’re an interior designer, it can be a 1-2 hours call when you help your client with ideas to redesign a room or consult about a layout when they’re moving into a new home. If you’re a coach, it can be a single booster session.

2. The second option can be a package or program, for example a 3-month coaching program targeting a specific audience, that can be standardized to a certain extend, but also leaves room for personalization. If you’re a language teacher, it can be a fixed-term package to help your client moving from B2 to C1, or get skilled for job interviews in that language. You can also add extras like a CV-review or a demo-interview.

3. The third option you wanna offer is a high-value and/or longer engagement with your client. You can design the whole interior of a flat, offer a year-round coaching program, or a business mentorship to reach a certain milestone. It can be a program following the seasons, or a theme that help your client put it into a framework and connect with it easier. Obviously this has the higher price.

Based on this simple framework, what are the three services you’ll offer?