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Business Advisory Launch Programme · Stage 1 of 10
Choose Your Model & Niche
Make the decisions that shape everything else: what you advise on, who you serve, and what you charge.
How long
1–2 days, plus a week of validation calls
You’ll have
A positioning line, a target client, and a pricing model
Steps
4 steps
Resources
2 resources
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01 Step 01
Step 01
Choose your type and write your one-liner
"Business adviser" means nothing to a buyer, but a specific promise sells.
Do it yourself
- Pick a primary discipline (strategy, growth, finance, operations, turnaround, exit, coaching) and at most one secondary.
- Decide whether you are a doer who builds the plan or a facilitator who coaches the owner to build it.
- Write your positioning in one sentence: I help [who] achieve [outcome] through [how].
- Test it: would a stranger know within ten seconds whether to call you?
Common mistake · Trying to be the "I can help with anything" adviser. It reads as inexperience and gives referrers nothing to repeat.
Time~2–3 hours CostFree DifficultyMediumResource for this step
PDFAdvisory positioning canvas
Move from a discipline to a buyer to an outcome to a one-line promise.
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02 Step 02
Step 02
Define your client and their trigger
Advisory is bought in a moment of pain or ambition, so the trigger matters as much as the client.
Do it yourself
- Set an SME band big enough to pay you and small enough to have no in-house equivalent.
- Choose one to three sectors where you have real credibility or contacts.
- Name the trigger that creates demand: raising finance, stalled growth, a cash crunch, an owner who wants out.
- Name three real businesses that fit. If you cannot, the niche is still theoretical.
Common mistake · Defining the client by size and sector but not by the trigger event that makes them buy.
Time~2 hours CostFree DifficultyMedium -
03 Step 03
Step 03
Design your pricing
How you charge shapes your income, your positioning and the clients you attract.
Do it yourself
- Know the four models: day rate, fixed project, monthly retainer, and value-based.
- Set a defensible day-rate anchor even if you never quote it, because everything else derives from it.
- Design a low-risk entry product, like a fixed-price diagnostic, to turn a stranger into a paying client.
- Check the maths: your rate times realistic billable days must clear what you need to earn.
Common mistake · Pricing on hours instead of value, with no low-risk entry offer, so every sale is a big cold commitment.
Time~3–4 hours CostFree DifficultyHardResource for this step
PDFPricing model selector and rate floor
Pick a model, set your floor, and design the entry offer that leads to a retainer.
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04 Step 04
Step 04
Validate before you build
It is far cheaper to find out your niche is wrong in a conversation than after a website.
Do it yourself
- List eight to ten people who fit the niche or refer to it.
- Have five discovery conversations: their biggest problem, who they turn to now, what they would pay.
- Listen for the exact words they use for the problem. That is your website copy.
- Adjust the offer to what you heard, not to what you hoped.
Common mistake · Treating validation as selling. You are there to learn, not to pitch.
Time~1–2 weeks, a few active hours CostFree DifficultyMedium
What you’ll have after this stage
- A primary discipline and a one-line positioning
- A target client defined by size and by trigger
- A pricing model with a defensible rate floor
- A low-risk entry offer that leads to a retainer
- Five validation conversations behind your niche