What Service Am I Actually Providing?

“What do I actually sell?”

It’s a simple question, but the moment you ask it, everything gets slippery:

• You have real skills, yet can’t define them as a concrete service.
• You believe consulting is a viable path, but don’t know where or whom to start.
• You’re not desperate, just thinking, but the fog of uncertainty is loud enough to stop you from planning your first move.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that nearly 50% of new businesses will fail within 5 years.

Other sources put the 5-year failure rate at 80% or even 90%. (If the stats took into account businesses that formed but never became operational at all, the success rate would likely appear even lower.)

A lack of clarity around offers and positioning is thought to be one of the most common reasons for failure.

That’s exactly why, in a few days, I’m dropping a free 50-minute YouTube video packed with templates, examples, and starter maps, the same ones I’ve used to help new consultants land their first paying clients.

It isn’t that you’re not capable; it’s that most guidance skips this foundation.

So if you’ve been circling the idea of launching your consulting business or already tinkering but stuck in planning mode, this is where clarity begins.

What you’re about to read is not theory. It’s the first map I use with consultants to help them go from vague idea → clear offer → first traction.

Map 1: The Offer Formula

Skill + Pain + Willing Wallet = Offer

This is the backbone of consulting. You’re not selling yourself, you’re not selling a list of credentials.

You’re selling a valuable resolution to a painful, costly problem for someone with the budget and urgency to pay.

This formula forces clarity on three levels:

1. Skill – What do you know how to do? Not just what you’ve studied, but what you’ve solved.
2. Pain – Who’s losing time, money, or peace of mind right now because of a problem you can solve?
3. Wallet – Who has both the need and the budget to get it fixed?

Think of it this way: You’re good at streamlining systems.

You’ve helped friends automate workflows in Airtable or Notion. You’ve set up zaps, dashboards, or templates that save hours.

But you’ve never quite figured out how to package that into a real consulting offer.

So you sit there asking yourself: “Do I just sell ‘automation’? Is that even a thing? Would anyone pay me for that?”

Now picture this: A creative agency founder reaches out, her team is drowning in admin, and client onboarding is manual. Project delivery as well is chaotic.

She’s losing time, losing revenue, and her top employee is quietly considering quitting.

She doesn’t need “automation.” She needs a fix.

And that’s where your offer lives.

🔧 Skill: Workflow automation
😖 Pain: “We’re losing 20+ hours a week just chasing docs, emails, and project files.”
💰 Wallet: Creative agency scaling past 10 employees
🎯 Offer: “I help creative agencies automate their backend ops so they reclaim time, reduce errors, and scale delivery without burning out their team.”

That’s not theory, that’s a real consulting business anchored in pain, built around your skill, and directed toward a wallet with urgency and budget.

This is what the Offer Formula helps you uncover, and once you’ve framed this clearly, everything else – pricing, positioning, and marketing – becomes 10x easier.

In consulting, you don’t need a flashy niche; you need relevance, clarity, and a painful problem to solve.

And this formula gives you a way to craft that, even if you’ve never sold before.

📌 Mini exercise: List 3 things people have asked you to help with (professionally or informally).

For each one, write down:

• What did they ask for?
• What pain did it solve?
• Who else has that pain?

That’s raw consulting material. That’s how your offer begins.

Hey! What you just read is only one piece.

Like I mentioned earlier, in the next few days, I’m releasing a full video walkthrough, something I’ve never shared publicly before.

It’s a detailed, 50-minute breakdown of everything I wish someone had handed me when I was first thinking about consulting.

You’ll get:

• All the starter maps, not just this one
• Real examples, templates, and positioning breakdowns
• The exact steps to go from “I think I can do this” to real traction

And if consulting has been on your mind even quietly, I think this will mean a lot to you.