Happy Sunday friends.
Welcome to the third and final edition of this week’s newsletter series.
In case you missed it, I’d highly recommend reading How To Redesign Your Life and How To Write before you get started.
Today, I'm going to walk you through the four fundamental principles of starting, sustaining, and scaling your business as a creative entrepreneur. Let's go.
Building an Offer
An offer is what you provide your client in exchange for money.
At any given point, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people in your market. If you want to stand out, you need something that differentiates you from the rest of the market.
Setting aside experience and skills, a good offer is what separates a service priced at $500 or $5000. Why? Because an offer raises the value of your product or service.
When a client enjoys the process or is satisfied with what you’re able to deliver, they’re going to stick around and refer you to their network. That is single-handedly the best way to grow your business.
However, a good product or service makes up just a small part of a successful offer. What matters equally, if not more, is what you package along with it, specifically, the delivery, the experience, the results, and the transformation.
Creating an offer is a one-time decision that leads to greater revenue and greater profits. If you structure your offer to deliver more value, you can charge more and make more profit with each sale.
Keep in mind that a key part of what makes an offer successful is the market you place your offer. Say you’re offering writing services to business consultants. Try to think about:
- Do they have the money you’re looking to make?
- Do they have a problem that your offer helps them solve?
- Does the benefit of your offer outweigh the cost?
- Can your offer exist in your target market?
- Is there enough demand to back your offer?
- Is your offer niched down enough?
Regardless of your market, your answers are going to give you a lot of clarity. If things are not aligning as you would have expected, don’t worry. Head back to the drawing board and iterate.
Now, let’s break down your offer into three fundamental components.
The first step is to keep your offer quantifiable. This means that rather than being unspecific with the outcome you provide, have a visual, quantifiable result that your target client would desire. In this case, saying “I will write (a) pieces of content that deliver (b) result” is far better than just “I will write for you.”
The next step is setting time limits, which helps everyone understand the deadlines, deliverables, and expectations. This means your offer should now look something like “I will write (a) pieces of content for you that will deliver (b) results in (c) time”.
The third part is the unique mechanism of your offer. This means an ultra-specific method, process, or strategy that differentiates you from your competition to create an advantage for your service. This signals innovation and in a market where everyone sells the same result, a unique way of doing something adds more value and importance to your offer. Building on to your offer, you can now piece your offer together with “I will write “I will write (a) pieces of content for you that will deliver (b) results in (c) time through my (d) process”.
Eliminating Risk
All clients are extremely risk-averse, and eliminating 100% of the risk associated with your offer is almost impossible. However, there are a few ways to mitigate or reduce certain levels of risk.
For example, by offering a guarantee, your clients know that they have little to lose by taking on your service. If you share social proof through a case study or testimonial, your prospects are going to trust you and have a visual idea of what the end result of your service looks like.
But let’s take a step back.
Typically, before a buyer finds your offer, they’re first going to find your content. This means your content is an excellent opportunity to show that you can solve a problem they have.
Keep a variation between actionable, personal, and storytelling-based posts. Not just to show you’re a good fit, but also to show your personality and what it’s like to work with you.
This is exactly how I got to work with my current startup. I didn’t have any fancy website or a fancy logo. But what I had was tons of content that proved my ability to write and most importantly, my ability to solve a problem.
Sales Calls
Once you’ve got some momentum with your writing and locked down a solid offer, the next step is to think about traction and conversions. This is where sales comes into play.
Let’s say you get your first set up with a prospect. Instead of thinking of it as an “all or nothing” situation, lower the stakes. Don’t stress about how important it is to close a deal. Relax.
There’s a strong likelihood that not everyone who sets up a call with you is interested in your services, which means you need to once again lower your expectations and gauge the situation accordingly.
However, there will be times when a prospect has signaled they’re interested in your services. You’ve been speaking for a while. They’ve asked you questions about your offer and how you deliver your service.
This is a great sign, but you still need to lower the stakes. Because if you appear desperate or needy for a sale, I can guarantee you’re going to scare them off.
The most effective way to handle this is to be prepared with three steps.
First, qualify or disqualify your prospect before or by the early stages of the call. Ask them questions about their current situation, experience, and exactly what they’re looking to achieve by working with you. Next, walk them through a high-level overview of your offer during your conversation. Finally, at the end of your call, make your pitch and name your price.
There are two points to note here.
The first is to be confident with your pricing. If your offer is well-structured and you have sufficient proof of work, do not hesitate. Indecisiveness is a fatal flaw during a sales call.
The second is that there might be some objections your prospect may mention during a call: pricing, structure, deliverables, etc. That’s okay. It’s extremely normal, and it’s up to you to iron out the doubts in your prospect’s mind. A good practice is before the call, preemptively identify what your prospect might have trouble understanding, then, think of ways you can address those objections.
Increasing Success
Let’s move on to the final part of today’s email.
I can’t promise that you will end up finding the right clients and building a self-sustaining writing business overnight. That’s simply impossible, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. There are a lot of things you need to get proficient with before people pay you for what you’d like to sell.
What I can say for certain is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there in the world who would love to work with you. However, you won’t find them by sending a thousand cold emails or posting twenty times a day. But you will find them by being a talented writer, being strategic with your business goals, and being confident that you can make your prospects more money than you charge them.
Writing and publishing are simple, but making a living in the process is much more complicated. If you want to improve fast, you need to keep trying things. Volume is key. Reach out to people to connect rather than just convert. Tweak elements of your offer when you can see there’s little to no response. Publish regularly and look for signals on what worked well and what didn’t.
So, if you want to become a creative entrepreneur, the message is simple:
Work on your ability to build, learn, and create things that make you who you are and make others want to work with you.
Thank you for reading today's newsletter.
I had a lot of fun putting together this series and I hope you got some value from the couple of emails. If you'd like to share your thoughts and feedback, hit reply to this email. I would love to hear from you on how I can help you best.
Next week, I'll be back in your inbox with a slightly different structure that I think you're going to love.
See you then.
Dr. Pranav