How to Turn Your Service into an Online Course

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Creating an online course is a lot easier if you're already working with clients. You can turn your service into an e-course!

In my blog on Services vs. Courses: Which Should You Offer I talked about the wonders of diversification. In short, I think it’s awesome to have a variety of “types” of offers to diversify your business’ income and create a more reliable revenue over time.

Caveat: this takes a lot of time! Though I recommend working now to EVENTUALLY get to the point where you have 6-7 revenue streams, you can only focus on one at a time.

So here’s the thing, if you don’t already have an essentially “booked out” service, I recommend working on that first. Here are some resources to help you with that:

#1 – My signature program, Yay for Clients, which will launch 2-3 times per year.

#2 – Here are 12 core actions you should be taking to book more clients now.

#3 – Here’s the exhaustive guide to packaging a service

Having a DIY version of your one-on-one service is a great way to serve clients who may not be ready to work with you one-on-one.

In the past, if I spoke with a potential client for CPR I often told them to get and use the Sales Page Kit first because I knew they wouldn’t get a good ROI on a one-on-one service.

Here’s the steps I recommend for turning your service into a DIY course or online program:

#1 – Prove that Your Process Works

  • Work with enough clients to really master your service, work out the kinks, and perfect your method.
  • Get testimonials from clients. You can use the relevant information from them on your course sales page!

#2 – Start with “leveraged materials”

  • The best way to move from service to product is to start “productizing” your service.
  • The more I automated parts of Sales Page CPR, the more confidence I built in my ability to teach clients how to write their own sales pages.
  • You can later use these materials as a part of your course.

#3 – Spend your marketing efforts building your list

  • The key jump you need to make between services and products is having a sizeable enough list that your course will actually sell.

#4 – Let the course marinate

  • Start outlining your course and organizing the information. Really consider what should / should not be included. Don’t wait until the last minute to start building your course. By the time you’re ready to offer a program, you should already have a clear method to sell.

#5 – Launch a Minimally Viable Product

  • In other words, if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your course, you waited too long.
  • You can launch the course before you have all of the materials created (as long as you have a rock solid outline of what will be included)
  • Use the initial round of students to help you work out the kinks. This is what I did for Yay for Clients 🙂

Do you offer a service that you’d like to turn into a course? Tell me about it in the comments below

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