Workbook New
Pricing a Service
The floor below which work costs you money, what moves a price above it, and the arithmetic of a rise that shows you can lose two clients in ten and still be ahead.
CA$9.99
Workbook
The First Ten Customers
A list of ninety real people, a definition narrow enough that a friend can refer somebody, one offer with a price on it, six messages, and twelve weeks of a weekly habit.
CA$12.99
One time purchase. Instant download. No subscription.
The problem
What this solves
Almost every piece of marketing advice assumes a business that already has customers, because ads, content and referral schemes all need something to scale from: a measured conversion rate, a tested price, a description of the customer that came from real ones. At zero there is none of that, so people either buy attention and learn nothing, or send a hundred vague messages that nobody can act on.
Contents
What's included
- The First Ten Customers, twelve pages, as a PDF and as a web page.
- Part 1, what the first ten are actually for, and why charging them matters more than the money.
- Part 2, the referral test, and three axes to narrow on.
- Part 3, ten prompts that produce a list of ninety, with a note on non-solicitation clauses before you contact anybody.
- Part 4, the four properties of an offer and the three reasons a willing person still says no.
- Part 5, six messages, written out in full.
- Part 6, the arithmetic of twelve weeks and what narrowing does to it.
- Part 7, the two questions and the three asks, including how to ask for a testimonial so that a usable one comes back.
- Part 8, five sheets to print.
- Free updates for as long as the product exists, in your library.
How it works
Using it
Fill in sheet 1 in one sitting
Phone in hand, contacts and sent messages open. Every name down before you judge any of them, because a name dismissed while writing is a name you never get back.
Do sheet 2, which takes ten minutes
Three definitions, broad to narrow. Take the narrowest one you can still name twenty people for. This is the step that changes the answer more than anything else in the workbook.
Send ten a week, on the same day, for twelve weeks
Ten is what one person can send properly alongside doing the work. The weekly habit matters more than the weekly number, because this fails almost every time in the same way: a strong first fortnight and then nothing.
Outcomes
What you get out of it
- A list of ninety people you can actually contact, from ten prompts rather than from memory
- A definition of your customer that other people can sell for you, which is what makes twelve weeks possible instead of a year
- Six messages to copy, including the one that turns a vague willingness to help into a named introduction
- The arithmetic that shows why working harder moves the wrong line
- Five sheets, including the weekly one that prevents the way this always fails
Fit
Who it's for
Somebody who has just started selling their own services and has no customers yet, or has three and cannot see where the next seven come from. Trades, freelancers, consultants, cleaners, bookkeepers, designers.
Specifics
Product details
- Format
- Workbook
- Version
- 1.0
- Licence
- Personal use
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Global
- Last updated
- September 2026
- Twelve pages and five sheets, as a PDF and as a web page
- Ten prompts, six messages, ninety names
- Two worked examples in Part 6, with the money arithmetic recomputed on every build
- No channels, no funnels, no benchmarks and no region
- Every ratio in it is labelled as a chosen illustration, in three separate places
Questions
Frequently asked
Are the conversion rates in it real?
No, and the document says so in its own masthead, in the standfirst of Part 6 and in the caption under the table. They are chosen illustrations. Nobody can give you a conversion rate for your trade, your city and your price without watching you sell, and anybody who offers one is guessing. What the arithmetic is for is showing which lever moves the answer, which turns out to be the definition rather than the effort.
Is there anything about social media or ads in it?
Nothing, deliberately. Both need something to scale from, and at zero customers you have no tested price and no measured rate, so paying for attention is paying to learn what one conversation would have told you. This is about the ninety people you can already name.
I do not have ninety people.
Most people say that before sheet 1 and not after. The ten prompts are mechanical on purpose, and the fourth and the tenth are the ones that surprise people. If you genuinely finish under ninety, Part 6 shows what that costs you and the sixth message is how you close the gap.
Does it tell me what to charge?
No. It says the first ten should pay something and explains what a free client actually costs you, but the floor below which work loses money is a different exercise. That is Pricing a Service, which is the product this one recommends first.
Is it Canadian?
It has no region and nothing in it expires. The one Canadian note is a caution: if you signed a non-solicitation clause with a former employer, their clients are off your list for its term, and what is enforceable varies by province. That is general information and not legal advice.
Reviews
What customers say
No reviews yet, and we will not invent any. What you can rely on instead: you get the files listed on this page, they are yours to keep, and updates are free. If anything is wrong with them you get your money back.
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Template New
Getting Paid
The terms that stop it happening, the invoice that can actually be paid, and six messages to send in order when it happens anyway.
CA$9.99