One of the toughest things as an entrepreneur, especially one who is just starting out, is figuring out what the heck to create or offer.

With a million awesome ideas swirling around in our heads, we want to do #allthethings. But it’s super important to make sure you’re building your business in the right order so you can grow most effectively.

In this episode I’m going to walk you through the 3 main things you need to know before creating your programs, and the 3-phase process you need to move through when creating your offerings.

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What Programs Should You Offer?

Let’s start with the big one: unless you already have a solid area of expertise, don’t start making a course right out the gate.

Shiny object syndrome can have a way of massively derailing you in your business growth, so you need to learn to focus on the right things at the right time.

Focus isn’t just about the thing you’re doing right now, but being really confident in what you need to do next.

When it comes to the programs you will offer, you want to make sure they do these 3 things:

1. Meet your client’s actual needs

Whatever it is that you decide to create, you need to make sure it’s actually going to meet the real, tangible needs or desires of your ideal client.

In order to sell, what you offer needs to fill gaps or solve problems.

2. Fit your client’s budget

You don’t want to undervalue yourself, but you don’t want to charge outside of what your ideal client will realistically be able to spend.

The magic lies in figuring out and offering and a price with a good profit margin built in.

The keys are: understand your market, what they need and want, and how much they will actually pay for the solutions to those needs and desires.

Work hard to find that sweet spot.

3. Fit your client’s habits and desires

When creating your programs, take into consideration their lifestyle…their habits and desires that will influence what kinds of programs they’ll like best.

Are they in the car driving a lot? Do they prefer to read and write, or watch and listen? Do they want to talk with you once a week, once a month, 1:1 or in a group setting?

Understanding these things are the informants to what you should create, and will ensure the success of what you create.

Determine Where You Are in Your Business

Now that you understand what you should create for your clients, you need to determine where you’re at in your business building journey so you can do things in the right order.

If you jump into things out of order, things can get messy quickly.

1. Work with people 1:1

Here is a reality: when you’re just starting out, you HAVE to work 1:1 with people. You HAVE to trade time for money.

Business is people, you can’t have the knowledge you need to leverage to actually scale your business until you’ve experienced a connection with your ideal clients and what they need.

The information and intel you gather from connecting with people 1:1 is invaluable. It will inform your marketing content, the testimonials you get, and better help you understand the needs, desires and possibilities of your ideal client.

2. Move into groups, retainers and bundles

Once you’ve established yourself in your business and worked successfully with people 1:1, you can take your experience up to that point and begin to shift your model into group programs, retainers for your services or bundling your products.

This shift is the first step in scaling your business as you move up the ladder (yes, there’s ladder climbing in entrepreneurship!)

3. Create courses, masterminds, intensives, events, etc

As you grow and scale your business, you become more valuable and your programs need to reflect that. You’ve got a foundation, now narrow your individual focus and up-level it!

The best way to know if you’re ready to create a course is if you’re consistently doing the same thing or technique over and over again and it’s something that would make sense to document and package so you can leverage your time and expertise.

Remember: you don’t just get to start a business and hop into CEO mode right away. You have to EARN it!

You need to do things in the right order, move up systematically and in good rhythms. And how fast you move up is completely up to you!

Sponsor Spotlight: Thinkific

You all know just how much I love online courses and think that anyone with knowledge or expertise in an area should take that knowledge and turn it into a resource to share with others.

That’s why I’m SO pumped to share Thinkific with you, the online course platform that I use and love for all Boss Mom courses.

Thinkific is dedicated to helping businesses grow through online education, and helping you easily create, market and sell online courses. This easy to use, all-inclusive resource will change your life – seriously.

Go check out boss-mom.com/thinkific to learn more and try Thinkific FREE for 1 month.

We love hearing from you!

If you’ve got a question about today’s episode or want to leave us some inbox love, you can email us at hello@boss-mom-sg.local. Or, you can always find Dana hanging out in her happy place, the Boss Mom Facebook Community.