How do I describe my offer?

What is an offering?

An offering is the universe of all products offered by a company. In simpler terms: all the products and/or services that your company will eventually offer.

How do I develop my offering?

We have again compiled key questions, including examples, that you can ask yourself about the subject of your offering. If you can answer all of them thoroughly, you have practically completed your offering.

1. What is my core offering?
   Example: I offer event photography. 
   
   
2. What are my additional offerings?
   Example: I have a studio, I make videos, including post-production, and I also rent out camera equipment.
   
   
3. What will my offering cost me?
   Example: For my own time, I calculate CHF 100 an hour, and my car and equipment cost me around CHF 30’000 a year. 
   
   
4. What are the price drivers for my business?
   Example: As I earn money mainly from my own labour, idle time such as travel or days without an order are expensive.
   
   
5. What is the external (selling) price?
   Example: I charge my customers CHF 180 per hour plus 10% expenses. 

Other questions you can ask yourself:

• What resources do you need to make your offering available?
• What other relationships need to be secured so that you can sell the offering?
• Why should customers buy from me?
• Does my offering cover the needs of the customer segment?
• Can I cater to individual wishes?
• Is the price reasonable?
• Is the quality good enough to survive in the market?
• Can I potentially also expand my offering?

We hope that these questions will help you to gain an overview of your offering. Do you have difficulties answering the questions above? It’s always worth taking the effort to look more closely at potential competitors to find out what they offer. But this should always be done cautiously, as you never know how much they can gain from this. 

Have you already tested the market to see if your offering is working in the market and have you been able to acquire your first customers? This is important if you want to be recognised as an independent business owner by the authorities. 

As soon as your offering is clear, you should start thinking about how you can increase awareness of your products or services. In concrete terms, this means marketing your company.