My first client ghosted me after eight weeks of unpaid work.
Did the work suck? Probably.
Was he the wrong client from day one? Absolutely.
I like to think that even if I’d delivered the best result imaginable, I still would’ve been screwed one way or another. He was needy, controlling, and to top it off—the guy was just as broke as me.
Yet at the time, I chose to ignore the red flags. That’s what being desperate does to you. When all you can think about is paying rent, keeping the lights on, and food on the table—you talk yourself into anything. “Make money now and figure it out later.”
But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Reality is, you can earn more, work less, and actually enjoy what you do. The only thing holding you back is clarity. That’s the difference between wantepreneurs and entrepreneurs. The latter know exactly what they’re about and account for everything, while the former rush into battle without a plan.
If I had to start over, knowing what I know now, this is the first non-negotiable step I’d take to save me years of pain, stress, and money—in plain English.
Define Your Core Offer (In Obsessive Detail)
Offers are what you promise in exchange for something of value (usually money).
Your core offer is the one that generates most of your revenue. A hot dog stand might also offer drinks, but the business lives or dies on selling hot dogs.
Without an offer, people literally cannot give you money—as offers are what initiate an exchange.
Therefore, the first step in business is getting clear on exactly what your core offer is so you aren’t wasting time chasing the wrong customers, or building products that nobody wants (like I did).
And here’s the best part: your profitable offer already exists inside your head—we just need to dig it out with the right questions, in the right order. This took me a long time to figure out.
Introducing the 3Ps: Person → Process → Package.
Get clarity on these three things before you quit your day job. Seriously, grab a notebook and follow along step-by-step. By the end, you will not be allowed to use ignorance as an excuse for failure.
I’ll attach a worksheet at the end for those serious about implementing these steps.
Step One — Person: Figure Out Who You Help
The person refers to the specific “avatar” your core offer is designed to help.
Clarity here creates clarity everywhere else: branding, pricing, delivery, content, etc.
If you don’t know exactly who you serve, you end up:
- Selling to everyone (which means no one),
- Attracting low-quality clients (broke, needy, time-wasters), and
- Spending years building or refining a product nobody cares about
To avoid being vague, I like to break this step into a further three parts:
I — Problem (what hurts)
People pay for solutions to their problems.
They want to move from their “painful present” to an “ideal future.”
At the end of the day, all businesses are just solutions to problems—therefore, it makes sense to identify what core problem you help solve. I like to think about this in two ways. You can either:
A) Look at results you’ve already achieved (based on your past pain), or
B) Look at results other’s have achieved (that you’re willing to learn and master).
For example:
Scenario A → You’re jacked but you used to be overweight. You overcame an eating disorder by following a specific meal plan, training program, and habit tracker. You gained a level of insight others are willing to pay for to shortcut the process.
Scenario B → You’re not jacked yet, but you’re willing to learn and master the skills from someone you follow who is. You study their methods, you test their routines, and you commit to learning the craft properly. You may not be the final version, but you’re close enough to guide someone who’s a few steps behind you.
Obviously, option B requires a few extra steps and is more suited for someone starting at true zero.
And that’s just the reality of business. If you expect people to give you money, they’re going to expect proof you can deliver results. None of this “I sell X that I don’t even have” crap.
Ever seen an obese personal trainer? Neither have I.
For what it’s worth, I’m an example of someone who took option B. I took courses on copywriting, shadowed successful copywriters, and even did free work just to prove I could get results.
Whichever path you take, the goal is the same: find the problem you understand well enough to solve. What is the reason somebody would hire you?
II — Profile (who hurts)
Now describe exactly who the person experiencing the problem looks like.
Think about it as if you were writing a story. You’re basically describing your main character and the journey they’re about to go through.
This helps you stay focused on the right person, while also allowing them to see themselves in your message. Specificity breeds trust, and trust is ultimately what gets people to say “yes.”
The reason I used to pull bad clients had nothing to do with them, and everything to do with my non-existent avatar profile. Continuing the fitness example:
If you used to be overweight and struggled with binge eating, your avatar is simply a mirror of your old self. Maybe they’re:
- mid-20s to early-30s
- male
- sitting at a desk most of the day
- stuck in start–stop patterns
- wanting a simple plan that actually works
You’re not inventing anything new, just describing who you were before you solved the problem.
Once you’ve got their age, gender, profession, dream outcome, and the struggles they want to avoid, you plug it into a single line I call the customer call-out:
“I help [age][gender][profession] get [dream outcome] in [time-frame] **without [struggles].”
It may not fit in the exact phrase, but the point is to make this line so clear that you could recite it in your sleep. If somebody asks you what you do, this should be your default response.
III — Profitability (is it worth solving)
Now that you have a) a core problem, and b) the profile of the person experiencing that problem, you need to figure out if its even worth building a business around that problem to begin with.
There’s literally no point investing in something that will ultimately fail.
You’d think this would be common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people I run into with some unicorn business they thought up while they were drunk.
Heck—even I’ve spent months “building” crap I thought would work in theory, which is why I am going to say this in all caps…
DO NOT MOVE ON UNTIL YOU’VE ANSWERED “YES” TO ALL OF THE CONDITIONS BELOW:
a) Pain — Are they desperate enough to pay for it?
People shouldn’t just want but desperately need your thing. Is the problem painful enough that they’d voluntarily part ways with their hard-earned money to fix it? A good litmus test is to ask yourself, “would I pay for it myself?” If the answer is no, reconsider.
b) Money — Can they actually afford it?
If you’re planning to make $5K, $15K, $50K a month—can your avatar afford this? You could have the best product on the market, if your customers are broke, you ain’t getting paid.
Run through your avatar’s profile from the previous step again. This time, focus on their financial situation. Are they broke college students? 7-figure founders? Or somewhere in between?
c) Reach — Can you find or contact them easily?
Again, you could objectively have the best business known to man, but if you can’t locate and reach out to the people who’d pay for your services, you’ve got an issue. Consider where they might hang out online. Where would be considered their “watering holes.”
d) Market — Is demand stable or growing?
A problem can feel important to you but be irrelevant to the market. If fewer and fewer people care about the problem each year, you’re fighting an uphill battle for no reason. You want signs that the market is either stable or expanding. Google the “eternal markets” if you need more info.
e) Proof — Does this already exist and sell?
Competition can be seen as a negative. But it can also be validation that the idea works.
If nobody is selling anything even remotely close, you’re either:
- a genius who discovered a new frontier, or
- about to waste 6–12 months on something nobody wants.
99% of the time, it’s the second one.
Look for real evidence that people are already pulling out their wallet for this kind of solution. If the answer is yes, that means you’ve got a winner.
Once you can confidently tick off all of the above, you can proceed to the next step.
Step Two — Process: Figure Out How You Help
Your process is the exact set of steps your avatar needs to take to fix their problem and reach the desired outcome.
Steps are what give people hard results in a world full of soft advice. They will form the core systems—the backbone—of your product or service, that makes the result repeatable.
In addition, a clear process will show you exactly what you need to build, instead of aimlessly running in circles. Think of it like a blueprint.
Now this is usually where someone like me—an overthinker—tends to make things more difficult than it should be. So trust me when I say that this is the answer I always return to:
Reverse engineer what already works.
- Re-trace what you did that got you where you are
- Re-trace what others did that got them where they are
Do not attempt to invent something new (especially at the beginning). Do not try to be clever. Drop the ego and save yourself the hassle.
Literally grab a pen and make a list from the painful present …all the way to the dream outcome (a tangible, measurable result). Don’t worry if it’s rough at first, just make it exist—you can make it good later.
If you managed to drop 10kg of fat in the last 6 months, list the exact steps in plain English.
If you happened to build 10k followers in the last 3 months, list the exact steps in plain English.
You already know the avatar’s starting point (struggles) and finish line (dream outcome), all that’s left is to build the bridge, so that you can charge a crossing fee. They get from A to B and you get the money.
Hurray for business!
Step Three — Package: Figure Out How You Deliver Help
Once you know who you help and how you help, the last step is deciding what the help actually looks like in real life. Your package is the delivery model for your process.
Different models suit different situations.
- A farmer needs a tractor.
- A delivery guy needs a van.
- A mum of three needs a family car.
Same road, different vehicles, many price points.
The same goes for business.
The goal is to pick the model that makes the most sense for you and your client’s needs. You can have a strong process, but a weak delivery model—which could lead to negative outcomes: burnout, overwork, resentment, etc.
To keep things simple, I break this down into five key dimensions:
- Personal attention — 1:1, group, or one-to-many
- Effort level — Done-for-you, done-with-you, or DIY
- Support — calls, chat, email, Zoom, in-person
- Format — written, audio, or video
- Response time — 24/7, business hours, or within X hours
These five will help bring clarity to your workload, boundaries, and what you could realistically charge. For instance, the piece you’re reading right now is a: one-to-many, DIY, in written format.
If I wanted I could teach this process as a one-on-one, done-with-you via Zoom, and with 24/7 message support. Same step-by-step process, different delivery methods.
Since I am not you, I cannot tell you how you ought to do this. It’s on you to really get in the weeds and figure out what makes the most sense for your business.
This was a bit of a long one, but hopefully it covered some of the nuance you don’t often get in the business circles online.
If you want the full worksheet that covers everything we talked about, feel free to send me a DM on X.
