Identifying Your Value Proposition and Starting Your Service Based Business with Courtney Chaal
Episode 553: Show Notes
Today on the podcast, we have Courtney Chaal. She is a copywriter turned business coach obsessed with making complex concepts (like business models and sales copy) simple and tangible to help regular people achieve big results. She is a big believer in the power of offering a signature service as the best way to start making a full-time income online. And services are the theme for today’s episode. If you have ever thought about offering something you kind of, sort of, maybe know how to do to some people you kind of, maybe, sort of like, then this episode is going to be a really good framework for how to get started. We get into Courtney’s first clients, how she niched down to identify her value proposition, and how you can do the same thing. Courtney shares tips she would give new service providers after they have just landed their first client, and advice on what to do next. We also talk about something we’ve never mentioned on the podcast before: the dad bod level of business, so if you want to find out what that’s all about, make sure you stay tuned.
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Service-Based Businesses are the Dad Bods of Businesses
Like us, Courtney is a firm believer that services are the best way to make an income online. But why does she believe this, even though it is a relatively unpopular (but correct) opinion? Well, for her, services are her “now money” and courses are her “later money”. If you are doing it correctly, you should be able to get a handful of clients in a number of days. This is because services are what we call the dad bod level of business, meaning they are comfortable, reliable, maybe not super sexy, but will never let you down. So, how did Courtney get her business started? She did not begin with super lofty goals; she just wanted to be able to live her digital nomad lifestyle as a copywriter. Luckily, she can now dream a bit bigger. At first, she would pour her heart into proposals, and receive very little pay for them, even though at the time she thought she was hitting the jackpot. After a while, she was getting inundated with requests to write sales pages, which was something she was always hesitant to do. Instead, she started with sales page audits to get her feet wet and validate the need for her services, and then eventually, she launched in and hasn’t looked back.
Identifying Your Value Proposition
Identifying value is very hard because nothing is a guarantee. Your services won’t automatically yield the necessary results. People try really hard to sell the how, when in fact, what you should be selling is the value proposition; the “so what?” This is why it is important to let go of the results and promises people make and instead understand the value of what they are getting in a context that’s relevant to them. So, how do you niche down as quickly as possible to ensure you are not taking on unwanted clients for years to come? Courtney points out that this is an iterative process that will happen at every level of business. The first important thing is to solve a problem instead of trying to sell products. You could think of people you want to work with and unpack what they want, which can be kind of hard and abstract. This is probably the most important thing you can do early on in your business. It is fine to be general for a while because sometimes someone you think you want to work with isn’t so great in practice. When Courtney first started out, she worked with three different clients to understand who she really wanted to work with. Gaining this experience was very valuable in shaping her path, even if it did take a bit longer than it could have. You know what? Nobody cares if you start something and then pivot if it doesn’t work. It is your business, and you are allowed to experiment. You are supposed to refine your business model as you go.
You’ve Landed Your First Client. Now What?
So, you have landed your first client after a great deal of effort and anxiety, and then all of a sudden, you completely freeze. This happened to Courtney when she was starting out. There are three pillars of your service-based business; marketing, sales, and delivery, that you should be actively improving and streamlining as you go. In the beginning, it is hard because you have to put a lot of effort into each of the pillars continuously to make sure all of these components are strong. If you put too many resources into one area, you may find that there is an imbalance. The general rule that Courtney sets out is that you should not be spending more than half your time on client-facing work. We are so obsessed with billable hours, but as a business owner, you need to get out of this mindset. You are not making money when you are with the clients; you are making money when you sell to them. You are not an employee, you are your own boss, and this mindset shift is key in this new role you are in.
Changing Your Mindset As a Business Owner
You might go through your days and feel like you have not accomplished much, but Courtney offers a useful analogy for you to counter this thinking. Businesses have different departments, so think about how the activities you do on a given day fit into a department. Maybe creating Instagram content fits into the marketing department, for example. Remember, it will not be you alone forever. You are building your business so that you can get other people or systems to take over these roles eventually. The sooner you get into this mindset, the better. There will be a point in time when you can offload tasks. We have been conditioned into believing that we have to put a lot of time and effort to make money, but this is a false societal construct. In 2014, Courtney used to have to do everything in her business, but she is going on maternity leave in October knowing that the business could run without her entirely. Now, instead of taking on extra tasks, Courtney thinks about ways she can avoid taking them on.
Quote This
Create a service that people you already know already want.
—@CourtneyChaal
Highlights
Service-Based Businesses are the Dad Bods of Businesses. [0:03:15.1]
Identifying Your Value Proposition. [0:13:04.1]
You’ve Landed Your First Client. Now What? [0:30:33.1]
Changing Your Mindset As a Business Owner. [0:37:03.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:41:52.6]
Decide that you are going to get started and you are going to do a project for one to three clients.
Make a list of 25 people you know that might potentially need the work you do. From here, you will find at least three to five people you actually can work with.
Map out what your services will look like and the process of what it will look like.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Courtney Chaal
Courtney is a copywriter turned business coach obsessed with making complex concepts (like business models and sales copy) simple and tangible to help regular people get big results. She is a BIG believer in the power of offering a signature service as the best way to start making a full-time income online. For the past 4 years, she has taught more than 300 entrepreneurs how to make a full-time income from 1:1 services work and teaches them how to turn their services into a signature program through her program Yay for 100K™ and is also the host of the Yay for Business Podcast.
KEY TOPICS
Service-Based Business, Dad Bod Business, Value Proposition, Signature Service, Results, Niche, Income
