How to Start An Expert Business

The internet is overflowing with conflicting and often ridiculous advice on starting and building an expert business.

Every expert claims their way is the best, leaving you more confused and overwhelmed than before you started.

In today’s letter, I’ll show you what an expert business really is and how to create one that fits your unique goals and aspirations.

Understanding these fundamentals can be the difference between thriving as an expert and wasting years without making progress.

What Is An Expert Business?

An expert business is a business that monetises your knowledge by creating a service, product, or offering around your expertise.

It relies on positioning yourself as an authority and providing high-value solutions to clients' problems or needs.

A few examples of expert businesses:

1. Consulting Firms

2. Coaching Services

3. Marketing Agencies

4. Design & Creative Agencies

5. Financial Advisory Firms

The Expert Product Suite

An expert product suite is a collection of complementary products and services offered by a business or individual, designed to leverage their specialised knowledge and expertise.

This suite typically includes various formats and price points, catering to different customer needs and preferences. This includes books, online courses, coaching programs, workshops, and consulting services.

The goal is to provide a comprehensive range of solutions that establish the provider as an authority in their field and helps grow their business.

An expert product suite is often categorised into three types: DIY (Do It Yourself), DWY (Done With You), and DFY (Done For You).

Here's what each category entails:

DIY (Do It Yourself): 

Products and services where clients are given the tools, resources, and instructions to achieve their goals on their own. Examples include:

• E-book on LinkedIn Growth Strategies: $29

• Online Course on Email Marketing: $199

• Video Tutorial Series on SEO Basics: $99

• Marketing Strategy Templates: $49

DWY (Done With You): 

Collaborative products and services where the expert works alongside the client to guide them through the process. Examples include:

• Group Coaching Program (6-week course): $995

• One-on-One Consulting Sessions: $250/hour

• Interactive Webinars with Live Q&A: $95/session

• Workshop on Premium Ghostwriting: $1,500

DFY (Done For You): 

Services where the expert handles everything for the client, delivering a complete solution without the client's active involvement. Examples include:

• LinkedIn Management Package: $2,500/month

• Search Engine Optimisation Project: $3,500

• Custom Email Marketing Campaign: $5,000

• Website Design and Development: $10,000

This categorisation helps cater to different customer preferences and needs, from those who prefer to learn and execute independently to those who seek hands-on guidance or complete done-for-you solutions.

Example of a complete expert product suite:

1. High-ticket DFY service - $5000/mo

2. High-ticket DWY service - $3000/mo

3. Mid-ticket DIY product - $500 Course

4. Low-ticket DIY product - $25 ebook

5. Entry level product - Free Template

The above examples illustrate how the price increases as the level of expert involvement and service complexity grows, from providing resources for self-guided learning to offering comprehensive done-for-you solutions.

Where Should You Start?

Knowing all the above is important, but it doesn’t mean you have to do it all. In fact, building one thing at a time is the best way to go.

Choose one modality that suits you most and build it well. Then, if you want to add more, you’ll be in a better position to make your next move.

You need one offer, one target market, and one customer acquisition channel.

This is the lean approach to building your expert business without adding unnecessary complexity and draining your resources.

Your First Offer

You need something to sell to someone. In other words, you need to create an irresistible offer that solves a painful problem for your ideal client.

If you have a skill like copywriting, graphic design, video production, or media buying, the best place to start is to sell your expertise as a service.

Most people want to launch a digital product because it’s more scalable. You can create it once and sell it many times.

But digital products, especially those that are low or mid-priced, require a big audience or advertising budget to make enough sales to justify the effort.

So a better place to start is to package and sell your expertise as a service.

The main advantages of a service-based business:

1. Low startup cost

2. Recurring revenue

3. High Cash flow

Most importantly, you get to work directly with your clients and understand their pain points, fears, and desires.

This learning experience lays a solid foundation for future expansion. It’s the best kind of market research that you need to create and test more offers.

This applies in cases where you want to scale your service business and also in cases where you want to transition into creating and selling digital products.

Know Your Endgame

Knowing your endgame is key to determining the right next steps.

1. If your endgame is to sell and scale digital products, you can limit your DFY service capacity to 3 or 5 clients only so you have more time to focus on building and monetising your audience with a digital product suite.
   

2. If your endgame is to scale a service business, you should use your digital products as means to an end so you can attract your ICP into your ecosystem and sell them your services. Your digital products should have a clear path leading your prospects to your services.
   

3. If your endgame is a mix of both, you need to decide what ratio is ideal for you and consider hiring a small team to scale your service business so you can still have time to create and scale your digital products.

In the beginning, don’t worry about what’s scalable and what isn’t it. Choose the thing you’re most excited about and stick with it until you make it work.

You’ll have much more clarity, experience, and confidence when you stay the path long enough to develop the necessary skills.

If you enjoyed this, share it with a friend.

Until next time, keep creating!

Omara

Quick Picks

In today’s quick picks, I’m sharing with you 7 must-read books to build and grow your expert business. Read all of them.

1. Russell Brunson: Dotcom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets.

2. Alex Hormozi: 100M Offers and 100M Leads.

3. David C. Baker: The Business of Expertise, and Blair Enns: The Win Without Pitching Manifesto.

P.S. I’m offering a FREE 1:1 coaching session for creators that want to grow and monetise their personal brand. If that’s you, reply to this email and let me know. Only 1 spot available!