You can spend an afternoon improving the description of your business and still finish without knowing whether someone would pay for what you do.
If you are turning years of experience into a service, that is an easy place to get stuck. You know how much you could help with. Choosing a small part of that experience to sell can feel like leaving something valuable out.
A useful next step is to describe one piece of work clearly enough for a possible client to consider it. Her response can help you decide what deserves more work. If you are still deciding what that piece of work is, How to Choose Your First Coaching or Consulting Offer is a good place to begin.
Choose a situation your client recognises
“I help women move forward” leaves a reader with a lot to work out. She may like the idea without knowing when she would need you.
Try starting with the situation that brings someone to you. A consultant might help a small business owner who has hired her first assistant but keeps answering the same questions every day. A trainer might help a manager prepare for difficult conversations with her team.
Those descriptions give the buyer something familiar to respond to. The language can become more polished later.
If you already have a business, choose one service that people struggle to understand or buy. You can work on that part without changing everything else. Reduce the Offer to Its Smallest Complete Result shows one way to narrow it.
Decide what the work includes
Write down who the service is for, the problem it addresses and the useful result you can reasonably help someone work towards. Add the format, time involved, boundaries and price.
For example, a clearly scoped service might be a two-week project to document how a small team handles new enquiries, with a written process and a handover session. That is an illustration, rather than a recommended offer or price. Its value here is that a buyer can see what she would receive.
Check the practical side too. Can you deliver it well within the hours you have? Does the price cover preparation, delivery, follow-up and costs? A price you feel comfortable saying still needs to make business sense. Price the Work. Not Your Comfort With the Number goes into this in more detail.
Ask about the problem before presenting the service
Choose a few people who fit the situation you want to help with. Ask what happens now, what they have already tried and what the problem costs them in time, money or missed opportunities.
Listen for specific examples. Someone describing an enquiry lost last Tuesday gives you more to work with than someone agreeing that better systems are important.
Once you understand the situation, explain the work you have in mind and ask whether she would consider paying for it. Be clear when you are gathering feedback and when you are making an invitation to buy. For more on testing an idea before you invest in it, read How to Validate Your Career Pivot Idea Before Investing Time and Money.
Write down what the answer actually tells you
A compliment is encouraging, but it does not tell you the same thing as a question about starting dates or a request for an agreement.
Record what the person said, whether she fits your intended audience and what happened next. If she declines, ask a respectful follow-up if she is willing: is the problem not pressing, is the scope unclear, or is something else taking priority?
A few conversations can reveal useful questions. They are too small a sample to prove demand. Repeated confusion is a reason to examine your wording; repeated reluctance to pay may require a closer look at the problem, the buyer or the service itself.
Make the next change from evidence
At the end of the week, look at your notes before reopening your website editor. Choose the change most closely connected to what you heard. You might narrow the scope, explain the result more plainly or speak with people who have a more immediate need.
If your next decision still feels tangled, you can message me through Coached by Bukky to arrange a 15-minute Decision Audit. Bring the business decision you are trying to make, and we can look at what needs attention first.
If you would like a place to start on your own, the free What to Decide Next guide helps you put your decisions in order, and the What Do I Have to Offer? workbook helps you name what you already have.