Design Programs From Your Services- 4 Proven Ways

As a service-based business owner, you've probably heard the debate about selling time versus selling value. When you sell individual services (like a single Reiki session, or a single massage), you're selling your time. If you sell packages (like multiple massages, or a trio of sessions - massage, yoga, and counseling, you can sell your clients on the value - on what they get out of it (greater relaxation/better mental health? Something like that).

No matter how long you've been in business, there's always an opportunity to re-examine existing packages or create new packages. The summer months are often slow for service-based business owners, so now might be a fantastic time to take a look at the programs or services you're selling, and to decide whether or not to make changes to existing programs.

→ Four Methods to Create Programs ←

There are four methods that I suggest to assess your programs, or design new ones. Each starts with your client and asks a few questions. Depending on the type of business you run, you may find that the methods work together, and help you to create solid programs.

→ Method 1: Design a program based on the type of clients you work with or want to work with

If you're looking at this method, ask yourself two questions to shape your programs:

• Who is the client?
• Are they new to something, or at a specific stage in business or in life?

For example, are your client's new mothers? Are they new business owners?

Your programs should focus on the value that you can provide to specific clients in specific situations.

Let's say you're a business coach and you work with clients who are both new moms, and new business owners. You could create a program that helps them to manage their time and balance the demands of being both mom and business owner.

Or, let's say you're a divorce coach, and you want to help people to navigate the process of getting a divorce.  If you want to help people at the beginning of a divorce, you can create programs that help them make that decision and walk them through the process.

→ Method two: Design programs based on your clients' goals. 

Ask yourself this:

• What are they trying to achieve?

This method works if you are a coach and your clients are all working toward the same goal. You create a program designed around that specific goal.

If you're a health coach, for example, and your clients are all working to achieve health-related goals. If all of your clients are aiming for the same goal, create a specific program designed to move them through the stages to get to that goal.

If you have multiple clients who are all working toward slightly different goals - say some want to start their weight loss journey, and other clients are well on their way to losing weight but want to step it up to lose the last 5-10 pounds maybe - you must design programs that all fall under the same umbrella.  There needs to be a common theme. You can't create programs for individuals who want to build their own websites and individuals who want to lose weight - because those themes are radically different and it would make your business chaotic and stressful to switch hats when working with clients.

You can easily combine methods one and two to create specialized programs. Look at who your client is - say a woman who wants to lose weight - and then create programs based on different fitness levels: introduction to weight loss and midway to weight loss are examples of potential programs that could combine the two methods.

In this method, there isn't always a defined order of steps, but as a coach, you can create different tracks that allow your client to decide, with your guidance, which track to start in, or how to proceed.

For example, if the goal was to achieve a new position at work, that goal would include several different tracks that a client could follow. Ultimately, moving through those tracks would help your client get to their end goal - getting to that new position at work.

→ Method three: Design programs based on the types of projects your clients want to complete

For this method, let's talk about website designers.

Your ideal client would be an individual who needs a website, to revamp or uplevel an existing website. In this situation, you could create packages for brand new websites built from scratch, and you could create packages for a website redesign, where you'd be working with existing content and refining existing pages.

This would combine method one with method three: creating for your specific client, who is at a specific stage, with a specific project to complete (creating a website or redesigning one).  These projects have a defined start and endpoint.

→ Method four: Design programs based on the process of moving your client from one stage to another

Look at this method as a recipe.  To get from where your client is to where they want to be, there are probably multiple steps to follow.

If there was a recipe for success, what would that look like?

• What are the ingredients?
• In what order do the ingredients get added?

Think of the program you're creating as a recipe to get your clients from one point to another.  What does your client have to do to get from point A to point B? What is the very specific order of steps to take in this situation? As a coach, you can help them to fully understand exactly what those steps are and how to get started, or how to keep going as they move through the program.

There may be completions in this sort of program, but they're not necessarily final - someone is always trying to get from one stage to another, to improve in some way, so there's not a completion date that is set in stone, unlike with the project-based methods.

Whether you're a new business owner or an experienced business owner and you want to revamp your programs to make them more effective and efficient, I can help with that. Explore Your Coaching Options!