Turn your hidden skills into a product you can sell

Use this first. Your best skills are hard to list yourself, because they feel easy to you.

Help me find skills I have that other people would pay for. The best ones are often things I find so easy that I do not count them as skills. Interview me one question at a time. Wait for each answer. Ask about: 1. What friends, family or colleagues ask me to help with. 2. Tasks I finish faster than other people. 3. Things I have taught myself, even as a hobby. 4. Problems I have solved for myself that other people still struggle with. 5. Compliments I tend to brush off. 6. What I did in past jobs that someone else would have needed training for. 7. Topics I could talk about for an hour without notes. Ask a follow up whenever an answer hints at a skill, and ask for a real example. Ask about 15 questions in total. Then give me a skills list. For each skill, include: the skill in plain words, the evidence from my answers, and who struggles with it. Put the skills I seem to undervalue at the top and say why you think I undervalue them.

Tips

• Answer with real stories. "My sister asked me to fix her CV three times" tells Claude more than "I can write".
• Ask a friend what they come to you for, and add their answer to the chat.

Use this once you have the skills list.

Score each skill on the list from 1 to 5 on these five points: 1. Pain: how much the people who lack it suffer. 2. Money: whether those people already spend money on this problem. 3. Reach: whether I can find and talk to these people easily. 4. Enjoyment: whether I would like doing this every week, based on what I told you. 5. Speed: how fast I could deliver something useful. Show a table with one row per skill and a total. Then pick the top 2 and explain your choice in plain words. If none of them look sellable, tell me plainly and say what is missing.

Tip

• If you disagree with a score, say why. Claude will rescore with your reason.

Use this before you design the offer. A narrow buyer is easier to sell to.

For my top skill, [SKILL], describe 3 possible buyers. Make each one a specific type of person or business, such as "owners of one-person cleaning businesses in the UK", and avoid broad groups such as "small businesses". For each buyer, tell me: 1. The problem they have that this skill solves, in their words. 2. What they do about it today. 3. What they already spend on it, as a rough range. Say if you are guessing. 4. Where they spend time online and offline, so I can find them. 5. The biggest reason they would say no. Then recommend one buyer to start with, and say why.

Swap the highlighted parts for your own words.

Tip

• Pick a buyer you can reach this week. Knowing three of them personally is a strong start.

Use this once you have chosen a buyer.

Design 3 different offers that sell my skill [SKILL] to [BUYER]. Make them different in kind: 1. A done for you service, where I do the work. 2. A done with you option, such as a session, a review or coaching. 3. A do it yourself product, such as a template, a guide or a short course. For each offer, give me: a plain name, one sentence on what the buyer gets, the result they can expect, how long it takes me to deliver, a starting price range in pounds, and the main risk. Then tell me which offer to test first, given my time and constraints. Be honest if one of them is a poor fit for me.

Swap the highlighted parts for your own words.

Tips

• A service is usually the quickest to test, because you can sell it before you build anything.
• Change pounds to your own currency if you are outside the UK.

Use this to check the offer is clear enough to sell.

Write the offer I chose as one sentence that a stranger would understand in 5 seconds. Use this shape: "I help [BUYER] get [RESULT] with [WHAT I DO], in [TIME]." Give me 5 versions. Then act as someone from my chosen buyer group reading each one for the first time. For each version, say what they would think, what they would not understand, and whether they would ask for more. Pick the clearest version and explain why.

Swap the highlighted parts for your own words.

Tip

• Send your favourite version to two people who fit the buyer group. Ask them what they think it means.

Use this before you tell anyone a price.

Help me set a starting price for my offer and plan how to test it. 1. List what my buyer currently pays for alternatives, including doing it themselves and the cost of their time. Mark which numbers are guesses. 2. Suggest three prices: a low one, a middle one and a high one. Explain what each one says about the offer. 3. Give me a simple way to test the price with real people this week without building anything. For example, a short message offering the first 3 spots at a set price. 4. Tell me what result would mean the price is too high, and what result would mean it is too low. Be honest. If you think I am about to undercharge, say so.

Tip

• If everyone says yes straight away, try a higher price with the next few people.

Use this to get something real in front of buyers within a week.

Plan the smallest version of my offer that I could deliver to one paying customer within 7 days. Rules: 1. Use only tools I already have or free tools. Name them. 2. Cut every part that a first customer would not miss. 3. Keep anything manual that could be automated later. Give me: what the customer gets, a day by day plan for the 7 days, the one thing most likely to go wrong, and how I will know it worked. Then list the parts you cut, so I can add them later if customers ask.

Tip

• Doing it by hand for the first customers teaches you what to build later.

Use this when the offer and price are ready. Your first customers usually come from talking to people directly.

Make a plan to find my first 10 paying customers for my offer, by talking to people directly. I will not use ads. Give me: 1. Five places to find people from my buyer group, starting with people I already know. 2. A short first message for each place, under 80 words, written in plain English. Ask about their problem first. Do not pitch in the first message. 3. A simple follow up for people who reply. 4. A daily target, such as 10 messages a day, and a tracking table with columns for name, where I found them, date contacted, reply, and next step. 5. What to do if I send 50 messages and get no replies. Base the messages on my skill, buyer and offer from this chat.

Tips

• Keep the tracking table in a spreadsheet. Ask Claude to format it so you can paste it in.
• Expect few replies at the start. Even a few replies from 50 messages give you something to learn from.

Use this after your first 10 to 20 conversations with possible buyers.

Here are notes from my conversations with possible buyers: <notes> [PASTE YOUR NOTES, ONE CONVERSATION PER PARAGRAPH] </notes> Analyse them: 1. The words buyers used to describe their problem. Quote them. 2. The objections that came up more than once. 3. Signs of real interest, such as asking the price or asking when they can start, and signs of polite interest only. 4. What I should change about the offer, the buyer or the price. Then tell me plainly whether to keep going, change direction, or stop. Explain your reasoning.

Swap the highlighted parts for your own words.

Tip

• Write notes straight after each conversation, while you still remember their exact words.

Use this at any point when you suspect you are fooling yourself.

Look at everything in this chat: my skills, my buyer, my offer and my price. Tell me the three biggest reasons this could fail. Be blunt. I want to hear it now, before I spend months on it. For each reason, say how I could test it cheaply in the next 7 days. If you think a different skill or buyer from earlier in this chat is a better bet, say so and explain why.

Tip

• Run this before you spend any money on the idea.