Good at Too Many Things? How to Choose What to Sell First

You could coach. You could consult. You could design websites, run workshops, write a course, help people with their finances, plan their meals and fix their LinkedIn profile while you're at it.

And so... you do none of them.

If that's you, here's the short answer. Sell the thing people already ask you for help with, that solves an urgent problem for a group you can reach and that you could deliver this month without building anything. Everything else goes on a "later" list. Not a "never" list. A "later" list.

Below is how to pick, with a scoring table you can fill in today.

Being good at many things is why you're stuck

Nobody tells you this, but having lots of options is one of the hardest places to start a business from.

When you're only good at one thing, the decision is made for you. When you're good at six, every choice feels like closing five doors. So you keep them all open. You keep researching. You keep starting things.

Then you look around six months later and nothing's for sale.

There's nothing wrong with you. This is what happens when a capable person tries to pick the "right" answer before they have any information. More thinking won't get you out. Picking a good-enough option and getting real feedback from buyers will. I go into the pattern behind it in the real reason you keep starting things you never finish.

Write every idea down, then score it

Get every option out of your head and onto one page. Every service, every course idea, every "people keep telling me I should..."

Then score each one from 1 to 5 on these five tests:

• Asked for. Do people already come to you for this? (5 = all the time, 1 = never)
• Urgent. Is it a problem people want solved now, or a nice-to-have?
• Reachable. Do you know where these people are? Could you name ten of them?
• Ready. Could you deliver it this month with what you already know?
• Energy. Would you happily do this fifty times?

Add the scores. Highest total wins -- for now.

Here's a hypothetical. Say Dana is a marketing manager who also does yoga and loves organizing. Her list looks like this:

Idea	Asked for	Urgent	Reachable	Ready	Energy	Total
LinkedIn coaching for senior managers changing jobs	5	4	5	5	4	23
Yoga classes for desk workers	2	2	3	4	5	16
Social media management for local cafés	3	3	2	4	2	14
An online course on content planning	3	2	2	1	4	12

Yoga is the one Dana loves. But LinkedIn coaching is the one people already ask her for, the one with a deadline (they need a job) and the one where she knows exactly who to call. That's her first offer.

Notice the course scored lowest. That happens a lot. Courses feel like the dream, but they're slow to build and hard to sell before you have an audience or results.

The "already asked" test beats the others

If you only use one test, use this one.

When people already ask you for something, three things are true. There's a need. They trust you to meet it. And you know how to describe it, because you've heard them describe it to you.

Go back through your messages, emails and texts from the last year. Look for:

• "Can I pick your brain about..."
• "How did you..."
• "Would you take a look at my..."
• "You should charge for this."

Write down every topic. The one that shows up most is your strongest lead. It's often something you're so good at that you don't even notice it's a skill.

Sell a service before a product

Whatever you choose, start by selling it as a service. One-to-one coaching, a consulting package, a done-for-you or done-with-you project.

Why? Because you can sell it this week. You don't need to build a course, a membership or a funnel. You need an offer, a conversation and a way to get paid.

And every client shows you something you can't learn from planning. What they actually struggle with. The words they use. Where they get stuck. That's exactly what you'll need later if you want to turn it into a program people actually finish -- rather than one more course stuck at the industry's typical 3% completion rate.

For the steps from idea to first client, see how to start a business around your expertise and how to get your first 3 clients without an audience.

Narrow it down to one person and one result

Once you've picked an idea, make it specific. "Marketing help" is an idea. "Helping senior managers rewrite their LinkedIn profile so recruiters call them within a month" is an offer.

Ask yourself:

• Who exactly is this for? (Job, life stage, situation)
• What's the one result they'll walk away with?
• What's the moment they realize they need help?

That last one matters. Dana's buyers realize they need her the week they decide to leave their job. That tells her where to find them and what to say.

If you'd like more help here, my guide to choosing a profitable niche goes deeper. And sell them what they want, give them what they need shows how to name the offer in your buyer's language, not yours.

Your other talents don't disappear

This is the part that makes people breathe out.

Picking one offer doesn't mean the rest of you goes in a drawer. Usually your other skills show up in how you deliver.

Dana's yoga background might be why her clients feel calmer in their interviews. Her organizing streak becomes the simple job-search tracker she gives every client. Her content know-how shapes the posts she helps them write.

Those things become what makes her different from every other LinkedIn coach. And once her first offer sells steadily, she can add a second one from her "later" list -- maybe a workshop, maybe a small group, maybe the yoga after all.

One at a time. That's the whole trick.

Give it 90 days before you judge it

Most people drop an idea after three weeks and two conversations. That's a wobble, and a wobble tells you nothing.

Commit to about 90 days of real selling. Set yourself simple weekly numbers, something like:

• 5 conversations with people who have the problem
• 2 direct invitations to work with you
• 1 piece of follow-up for everyone who said "maybe"

Then watch the signals:

• Keep going if people lean in, ask questions, ask about price or refer friends -- even if they're not buying yet.
• Change one thing if people like the idea but don't buy. Try a different price, a sharper result or a different group of people. One change at a time, so you know what worked.
• Move to the next idea only if you've had plenty of conversations and nobody cares about the problem.

To keep yourself honest, try the 5-minute weekly ritual that keeps your business on track. It's an easy way to see whether you're actually selling or just planning to.

What to do when two ideas tie

It happens. Two ideas, same score.

Break the tie with one question: which one gets me to a paid conversation fastest?

Usually it's the one closest to work you've been paid for before, or the one where you can name the most people with the problem today. Pick that one. You can always switch later, and you'll switch with real information instead of a hunch.

If you'd like to pull your choice and your next steps onto one sheet, the one-page business clarity plan is made for exactly that.

Where coaching helps

Choosing is hard to do alone, mostly because you're too close to it. You can't see which of your skills is the obvious one, because it's obvious to you.

That's one of the things a coach is good for. In Momentum Activate -- our level of business coaching for people starting out, from no first sale yet up to $29K a year -- your Momentum Coach is matched to you through our Flowmapping® process, which looks at how you naturally work best. That matters for multi-talented business owners, because the right first offer is one you'll actually keep showing up for.

If you're wondering whether you need that kind of help yet, I wrote an honest piece on hiring a business coach before your first sale. Either way, fill in that scoring table today. You'll be surprised how clear it gets once it's on paper.