I’ve noticed a tendency for newer business owners to spend weeks constantly tweaking their offer before releasing it into the wild.
Because of their uncertainty and nervousness, they feel the need to keep reading and learning and adding more detail to their programme or course and take ages to go public with it.
Learning more helps them feel more confident, but the constant tweaking and updating of their thing drives them crazy, and of course, they’re miserable because they’re not making any money.
So why do they spend so much time on it?
It could be because they just want to help people as much as possible by packing in heaps of detail, but often, it’s because they’re afraid.
Because of their relative inexperience as business owners, they’re worried that people will realise they don’t really know what they’re doing at all, and everything they’ve worked so hard to create will come crashing down before it’s even got going!
If this sounds like you, here’s what I suggest that you do:
1) Remind yourself regularly that you haven’t suddenly lost all the years of knowledge and experience you gained from study and employment. You’re just new to being self-employed.
You’re bloody good at what you do! Turning it into a business is the challenge but you’ll get to grips with it before you know it.
Don’t let your current lack of experience in running a business affect your confidence in your ability to deliver for your clients. You know exactly what you’re doing there, so own it.
2) Go back to basics and focus on the person you want to buy your thing. Work out what their specific problems are and help solve them.
No one expects you to fix everything, so you don’t have to keep learning and become a polymath-genius type. What you already know is enough to help people.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be curious and stay up to date with changes in your industry. And it goes without saying that you’ll need to undertake CPD if required to do so by a professional or regulatory body.
If you love what you do, it’s natural to want to keep learning new techniques and theories to enhance your practice. Just don’t let your thirst for continuous learning delay the launch of your offer. More certificates won’t make you feel ready. You’ll never feel ready.
At some point, you just have to jump in and go for it!
3) Make sure your thing solves your client’s problems.
Not sure if it does? Find people to test it out on.
You can offer a reduced-price beta version for a small group of people to test your offer in return for their honest feedback. Don’t forget to ask them for testimonials. They’re great for sharing on social media and your website.
4) Cut the fluff.
You’re not expected to pass on your entire industry knowledge to your clients! They don’t want to be an expert like you. They just want whatever tools and information will get them from where they are to where they want to be, so make sure you provide a nice, neat solution for them.
Strip out anything that may have snuck into your offer that is ‘filler’ content (i.e., there to show that you know your stuff rather than actually helping solve your client’s problems). Instead, explore ways to showcase this additional content in your marketing activities to build your credibility.
Summary
If you’re nervous about going public with your new offer and keep putting it off, it’s time to take action.
- Remind yourself how good you are at the work you do.
- Make sure that you’re clear what your perfect client’s problems are and ensure that your offer includes tools and advice to solve them.
- Cut out any ‘filler’ content and make a note of it in your ideas bank to figure out how you can use it in your marketing instead.
- Test your offer on a small group of people and ask for feedback.
- Make any improvements needed.
- Take a deep breath and launch your offer!
If you want to finally get your thing out into the world, take a look at how I can help you with my Business Blast Off programme.
