This is something self-employed folk and small businesses have debated for years… should you have an ‘off the shelf’ product, or do you provide a service to your clients?
Whether you’re newly freelance or looking to shift gears after a few years in business, it’s a question worth asking. In this post, Kim Ellis digs into the pros and cons – and what might work best for you.
The passive income dream (and reality)
When I first started out, the lure of a passive income was appealing to me so I looked into the websites which would let you upload your eLearning and charge per seat. I figured I was building content for my portfolio so I may as well build full courses and try to sell them… there’s where the magical passive income idea comes in.
So I built a course for Emotional Intelligence at Work – it was a five-part series which people could complete at their own pace. I researched a few different websites, settled on one and picked my price point of $20 (USD).
I paid around $200 to list the course for a year, did a promo video, did some comms and gave them an article to share in their comms too.
I sold one.
And had to pay a percentage of that to the site hosting it.
The problem with platforms
If you’ve ever been on these websites, you’ll know there is a massive amount of content and it’s super hard to stand out… even harder to turn a profit from them.
So for me, reselling content in this way didn’t yield results. But saying that, I didn’t have a marketing campaign, I didn’t keep promoting it, I just let it disappear. If I would have had a marketing strategy – I think I could have at least covered my costs.
But it would have been a heck of a lot of work for one course where I was making probably a tenner per seat. So it’s probably not worth the effort at that scale.
Could products work at scale?
Now if I would have had a dozen courses on there… or fifty… could I have made that my primary business?
Or would it be better having this library of content as an offer to clients? There are a bunch of companies out there which have ‘off the shelf’ content which they sell alongside the customised content. I can see the benefit of doing that, just customising the branding on the content and sending it over to them… easy profit potentially.
Other product-based options
There’s another angle too – one if you’re not into the eLearning game – and that’s to create a course or workshop that you sell again and again. It might be a Train the Trainer or a Management Fundamentals or Customer Service Skills – it could literally be anything.
You could design the full course and sell that to trainers, or you could sell you delivering the course to companies. There’s quite a few different options available to you, and if I’m honest, you could make a heck of a lot of money if it’s something everyone wants.
But no matter what type of product it is, one thing remains the same:
You have a heck of a lot of competition, you’ve got to stand out, and you need to have a heck of a marketing strategy too.
The brain is the product
Ok, so flipping the offer pancake over, we have not a product… but a service. You are providing a service to your clients – essentially your brain is the product you’re selling.
As with the products, you need to stand out – you need to sell your uniqueness. Think about what’s your ‘thing’ and lean heavily on that in your marketing.
For me, the uniqueness that I was selling was my ability to see into the problem and visualise the solutions. I’d put myself into the learners’ shoes, see the solution from their eyes – know what they were likely to do… and what things weren’t likely to work. It’s the way I visualise an entire training programme, every inch of the course, every interaction – that’s what I bring to my clients.
Why not both?
So how about if we combine both approaches? A double whammy for our clients – a hybrid model. That could work – and it could give you the best of both worlds too.
- A downloadable toolkit backed up with a coaching session.
- A ready-made course plus custom tweaks for a client’s team.
- A pre-built programme you deliver live – your way.
If you’re wanting to scale in the future, you can build a model which allows that flexibility without losing the personal touch. And you still get to do the work that you truly want to do.
And if you’re planning to create a signature product or course that you want to sell again and again, it’s worth thinking about how to protect it. If you’ve got a unique name, a standout framework, or a recognisable method – you might want to trademark it. That way, no one else can swoop in and use your stuff. It’s not just about legal protection, either – it adds credibility, helps you stand out, and shows clients you mean business.
What’s your next step?
So what’s your offer?
A product, a service, or a bit of both?
Whatever route you choose, make sure it plays to your strengths, fits the way you want to work, and solves a problem your clients actually care about.
And if you’re not quite sure what that offer should be yet – or who it’s for – then it might be time to revisit your niche. You can dig into your niche with this workbook (it’s free for members too) – it’s simple, practical, and a cracking place to start if your offer needs a rethink.
