Design Your Online Business for the Results You Want

Start with Delivery. Then Design Your Sales, Marketing, Content, and Community.

When experienced professionals decide to build an online business, where do they usually start? Often, it's with a website, social media, an email list, a newsletter, or perhaps a marketing funnel.

That's understandable. These are the visible parts of an online business, and much of the online business training available today focuses on marketing activities.

But there's a problem with starting there. You can spend months building your marketing systems without having a clear picture of what you're selling, who you're serving, or whether your business will produce the results you want.

I recommend a different approach: Start with the end in mind. Design your business around the results you want to achieve. Then work backward to determine the activities and systems needed to produce those results.

Start by Defining Three Types of Results

Before designing your business, consider what success looks like from three perspectives.

1. Client Results

Who are the people you want to serve? What problems will you help them solve? What transformations will they experience through working with you? Your expertise becomes valuable when it helps clients move from where they are today to where they want to be.

2. Business Results

Will your business generate sufficient revenue? Will it be profitable and sustainable? A business needs an economic model that supports your financial objectives while delivering meaningful value to clients.

3. Personal Results

Will your business support the life you want to live? Perhaps you want more flexibility, more time with family, the ability to travel, or simply the satisfaction of doing meaningful work. Your business should support your personal goals, not become another demanding job you've created for yourself.

Operate Left to Right. Design Right to Left. 

Every expert business has three core operating activities:

• Marketing: Attract qualified leads.

• Sales: Convert qualified leads into clients.

• Delivery: Help clients achieve their desired results.

When your business is operating, these activities flow naturally from left to right. Marketing generates leads. Sales converts leads into clients. Delivery produces the results your clients purchased.

But when you're designing and building your business, I recommend reversing that sequence.

• Start with Delivery.

• Then Sales.

• Finally, Marketing.

Why? Because knowing what you're delivering determines what you need to sell, and knowing what you're selling determines whom you need to attract. Let's look at how that works.

Step 1: Design Your Delivery Experience

Start by identifying the transformation you want to help your clients achieve. Your signature framework or methodology provides the structure for guiding clients from their current situation to their desired outcome.

Next, consider how you'll deliver that transformation. You have several options:

• Recorded formats: Courses, videos, books, and downloadable resources.

• Live group formats: Workshops, group training, coaching programs, and masterminds.

• One-on-one formats: Private coaching, consulting, and advisory services.

Each format has different implications for your time and capacity. Recorded programs generally require more development effort upfront but less ongoing delivery time per client. Group programs allow you to serve multiple clients simultaneously. Private services typically require more of your personal time per client.

Choose delivery formats that support both your clients' desired results and your own lifestyle objectives.

Step 2: Design Your Offers and Revenue Model

Once you know what you're delivering, determine how to package and price your offers. An offer might include a single course or a combination of training, coaching, resources, and community support.

When determining price, consider the value of the transformation to your client, not simply the hours you spend delivering it. What is solving the problem worth to them? What alternatives do they have? What might it cost them in time, money, or missed opportunities to continue without help?

Then connect your pricing decisions to your business revenue goals. The basic equation is:

Revenue = Price × Number of Sales

For example, generating $10,000 in revenue could require:

• 100 sales at $100

• 10 sales at $1,000

• 4 sales at $2,500

Each scenario requires a different sales strategy, delivery capacity, and level of client engagement. Your goal is to develop a revenue model that is financially viable and sustainable while delivering excellent client results.

Step 3: Design Your Marketing to Attract Qualified Leads

Now that you know what you're selling, you're ready to design your marketing. Start with four questions:

• Who? Who are your ideal clients? What problems are they actively trying to solve?
• Where? Where can you find them? LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, podcasts, professional associations, or networking communities?
• What? What messages will attract their attention? Speak to the problems, frustrations, and aspirations they're already thinking about.
• How many? How many qualified leads will you need to achieve your sales targets?

Not everyone who becomes aware of your business will become a client. Your marketing plan needs to account for the number of prospects required to generate your desired sales. Notice how much easier these decisions become when you've already defined your delivery experience and your offers.

Content and Community Support the Entire Journey

Two additional core business activities support marketing, sales, and delivery: Content and Community.

Content plays different roles throughout the customer journey. In marketing, it attracts and educates your audience. During sales, it explains your solutions and demonstrates their value. During delivery, it provides the training and resources clients need to succeed.

Community adds an interactive dimension. During marketing, community helps build  interactive connection and trust. During sales, it provides interactive opportunities to demonstrate value and build confidence. During delivery, it supports interactive learning, implementation, and ongoing relationships.

Rather than treating content and community as separate initiatives, design them to support the experiences you're creating throughout your business.

Build Your Business One Version at a Time

You don't need to build everything at once. Start by designing and implementing your core offer and the essential activities needed to sell and deliver it.

Get your Online Business 1.0 operating. Learn from your clients, improve what you've built, and add new capabilities in subsequent business versions.

Next, you might add an entry-level offer, expand your delivery options, develop more extensive marketing systems, or introduce additional community experiences.

Build, operate, and improve your business through focused sprints. That's how you can create a successful online business without becoming overwhelmed by everything you could potentially do.

Ready to Design Your Online Business?

You already have valuable knowledge and expertise. Before investing months building websites, funnels, courses, and systems, take the time to design a business that produces the results you want.

I'm preparing a five-day Online Business Success Design Workshop to help experienced professionals create their initial online business design and determine their best path forward.

You can participate for free, with an optional VIP experience for additional guidance and support.

Learn more and join the workshop notification list at OBSDesignWorkshop.com.