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The difference between what the owner can do and what a customer can say yes to, the four parts besides the product that an offer is made of, and what each one costs.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will write what your business does as an offer rather than a skill — who it is for, what they get, when and how, what it costs, and what happens if it goes wrong — and name the packaging, convenience, quality and trust around it. You will also cost each part, such as a guarantee or a gift box, and judge whether it earns more than it costs.
You can say who your customer is, what they are buying, and what they do instead. What is missing is the sentence a stranger can agree to — and the arithmetic that says what each part of that sentence costs and earns. This lesson turns a skill into an offer and prices the parts around it, so an improvement to the offer can be judged the same way as any other cost.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Skill | What the owner can do, described from the owner's side. |
| Offer | A sentence a customer can say yes to: who, what, when and how, what it costs, and what if it goes wrong. |
| Packaging | The form the thing arrives in, and the work it saves the customer afterwards. |
| Convenience | When, where and how easily the thing can be got. |
| Quality | A standard stated plainly enough that someone else could check it. |
| Trust | A reason to believe the promise before it has been kept, such as a guarantee. |
| Guarantee cost | The replacements expected times their cost, spread over the sales. |
I can clean a house properly is a skill. A two-hour standard clean, the same slot every week, at a fixed fee is an offer. The work behind the two is identical; only one can be agreed to by a stranger.
An offer answers five things:
Owners spend on the thing and leave packaging, convenience, quality and trust to chance, though those four are cheaper to improve and more visible.
Another way: table
The same work, said twice.
| Business | The skill | The offer |
|---|---|---|
| Maya's Ceramics | she can throw and glaze pots | four mugs, boxed and ready to give, at a named price |
| Northside Repairs | he can repair a phone nobody else will open | a screen replaced the same day, at a price quoted first |
Every right-hand sentence has a thing, a time and a price. Every left-hand one is about the owner.
Another way: steps
To write one, in order:
Then read it back as a stranger: every question left is a missing part.
Start from the customer group and what they are buying. The previous two lessons give you both. Write them at the top of the page.
Describe what they get as a thing with edges. Not cleaning but a two-hour standard clean; not repairs but a screen replaced. A thing with edges can be priced and compared.
Add the four parts, one line each. Packaging: what form does it arrive in? Convenience: when, where, how is it ordered and collected? Quality: what standard, stated so someone could check it? Trust: what happens if it goes wrong?
Cost each part. A box costs something per sale; a fixed weekly slot costs flexibility; a guarantee costs the replacements it will trigger. Add those costs to the product's cost, so the price is built on the offer, not on the product alone.
Put the price on it. One number, where the customer can see it.
Check it twice. Read it back as a stranger: every question left unanswered is a missing part. Then read it as the owner on the worst week of the year: every promise that week could not keep is a promise to shrink. An offer that passes both readings is ready to test with real customers.
| Part | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Packaging | can I give this to somebody without doing anything to it first? |
| Convenience | can I get this at the time I actually have? |
| Quality | will it be the same as last time? |
| Trust | what happens to me if this goes wrong? |
None of the four is the product; if that is bad, nothing here saves it. And quality here means a standard somebody else could check — the same portion every day, three months on the part and the work — not as good as I can make it, which nobody can buy.
Each part of an offer has a cost, and each is worth adding only if it earns more than it costs — in a higher price, more sales, or both. The arithmetic is the contribution arithmetic from earlier in the course.
A gift box costing 2 dollars that lets Maya charge 5 more adds 3 of contribution to every set, and more if it also wins sets she would not otherwise have sold. A guarantee costs the replacements it triggers: if 2 mugs in 50 come back and each costs 6 to replace, the promise costs 2 × 6 ÷ 50 = 0.24 a mug — very little set against a first purchase from a stranger who would otherwise not risk it. A fixed weekly slot for a cleaner costs flexibility — she cannot move a regular customer to fit a better-paying one — and earns a steady schedule and fewer cancellations.
Costing the parts has two benefits. It stops an owner from adding a promise that quietly eats the margin, and it stops the opposite mistake: refusing to add something cheap, like a guarantee, that would change how strangers see the offer. Most parts of an offer turn out to cost little per sale, and the customer's question they answer is often the one standing between a look and a purchase.
Many small businesses find it useful to write two or three offers for the same skill, each for a different customer group. A cleaner might offer a weekly standard clean for busy households, a one-off deep clean for people moving out, and a every two weeks clean for older customers who want the same person every time. The skill is identical; the who, the when, the price and the promise differ, because each group is buying something different.
Three offers are usually enough. More than that and the customer has to work out which one is for them, which is itself a small switching cost. A useful pattern is a plain offer, a fuller one at a higher price, and a small first step that makes trying the business easy — a trial clean, a single mug, a diagnosis for a small fee that is taken off the repair.
Each offer is costed separately, because each carries different parts. The deep clean needs more materials and more time; the trial clean may earn little on its own and is worth it only if enough trial customers become regulars. Writing the offers side by side, each with its cost and price, shows at a glance which one pays the rent and which one exists to bring new customers in — and stops the second kind from quietly becoming most of the business. Review the three once a quarter: count how many of each were sold, what each contributed, and how many trial customers became regulars, then keep, change or drop each one on those figures rather than on how each one feels to sell.
A home cook who sells frozen curries at a Saturday market wants to reach working parents who never come to the market. Her skill — good curries — is unchanged. Her new offer is: for families with no time on weeknights, four family-size curries delivered on Sunday evening, 48 dollars, and any curry your family does not finish is refunded.
She costs each part. The curries cost her 5.50 each to make. Delivery on a Sunday route of 15 households takes 3 hours and 20 dollars of fuel, which at her costing rate of 25 is 95 dollars, or about 6.30 a household. Insulated packaging costs 2 a box. The refund promise, from a trial month, is claimed on about one curry in 40, at 12 each: 12 ÷ 40 = 0.30 a curry, or 1.20 a box. The full offer costs 22 + 6.30 + 2 + 1.20 ≈ 31.50 a box, and 48 leaves about 16.50 of contribution.
At the market the same four curries sold for 36 and cost 22 — 14 of contribution. The new offer earns more per sale even after delivery and the guarantee, reaches customers the market never did, and tells her which part to watch: if the Sunday route shrinks below about 10 households, the delivery cost per box rises past what the offer can carry.
Many retailers offer generous returns and guarantees because the cost is predictable and small beside the sales it wins. They measure the return rate for each product and build it into the price, exactly as this lesson does for a mug or a tray of plants — and they stop offering the promise on products whose return rate makes it too expensive.
Describing the maker. Fifteen years in the trade is about you, and answers none of the five questions.
Leaving the price off. A price the customer must ask for is one most will not ask for.
Promising what a bad week cannot keep. Any job, any time, same day reads well until the van breaks down. A smaller promise always kept is worth more.
Spending on the product and nothing else. The next improvement to the thing is often invisible while a box or a fixed slot is not.
Leaving the parts uncosted. A promise or a box added without its cost comes out of the margin on every sale.
Writing a quality nobody can check. We use only the best ingredients cannot be held to. The same portion every day, cooked that morning can.
Write the skill.
$\text{Maya can throw and glaze pots}$
A skill has no edges, no time and no price, so nobody can buy it.
Name who it is for and what they get.
$\text{a present buyer}; \ \text{four mugs}$
Two of the five questions answered.
Say when and how, and what it costs.
$\text{collected or posted}; \ 72 \text{ on the label}$
Convenience and price, settled in advance.
Say what happens if it goes wrong.
$\text{any mug that chips within a year is replaced}$
That is trust: why a stranger risks the first purchase.
Cost the guarantee at 2 in 50 returned and 6 to replace.
$2 \times 6 \div 50 = 0.24 \text{ a mug}$
About a dollar a set, built into the price.
Write the skill the owner talks about.
$\text{cooking for forty at once}$
The product, already good.
Write the offer.
$\text{a main and a side, served in five minutes, } 8 \text{ dollars}$
A thing with edges, a time and a price.
Add the packaging line.
$\text{a box that can be eaten from on a wall}$
It saves the customer finding a table.
Add the convenience line.
$\text{ordered the night before, collected without a line}$
It fits a forty-minute break.
Add quality and trust.
$\text{same portion daily}; \ \text{kitchen visible from the counter}$
A standard someone can check, and a reason to believe it.
Cost the box at 0.40 and compare with the 1 dollar extra customers pay for pre-ordered boxes.
$1 - 0.40 = 0.60 \text{ extra contribution a box}$
The parts paid for themselves, and the recipe was untouched.
Write the skill.
$\text{he can repair a phone nobody else will open}$
True, and not something a customer can agree to.
Name who it is for.
$\text{someone whose phone is their only way of being reached}$
One group, named by what they need done.
Write what they get and when.
$\text{a screen replaced: leave at nine, collect at five}$
A thing with edges and a time.
Put the price on it.
$60 \text{ dollars, quoted before the phone is opened}$
No surprises at the counter.
Add trust: three months on the part and the work.
$\text{about 1 in 40 come back}$
A promise he can keep on a bad week.
Cost the promise at 18 a redo.
$18 \div 40 = 0.45 \text{ a repair}$
Small beside a 60-dollar price.
Read it back as a stranger.
$\text{who, what, when, how much, if it goes wrong: all answered}$
Nothing left to hesitate over, and every part has a cost.
Name who it is for.
$\text{households with two jobs and no spare evening}$
One group, named by what they need.
Write what they get, when, and for how much.
$\text{a two-hour clean, the same slot weekly, } 50 \text{ dollars}$
A thing, a time and a price.
Add a promise she can keep, and cost it: a free return visit if anything on the list is missed, needed about once in 60 cleans at 25.
The four parts of an offer that are not the product, and four questions a customer asks with money in their hand. Match each part to the question it answers.
| Can I give this to somebody without doing anything to it first? | Can I get this at the time I actually have? | Will it be the same as last time? | What happens to me if this goes wrong? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Packaging | ||||
| Convenience | ||||
| Quality | ||||
| Trust |
Complete the worked solution: a set costs $10$ dollars to make and sells for $18$. Adding a gift box costs $3$ a set, and a promise to replace any set that breaks in a year will mean replacing about $2$ sets in every 50, at $6$ dollars each. What does the full offer cost per set, and what price keeps the same contribution?
Find the guarantee's cost over 50 sets.
$2 \times 6 =$ r
The replacements expected in a batch of 50.
Spread it over the 50 sets.
$(\text{replacements}) \div 50 = 0.24$
Every set carries its share of the promise.
Add the box and the guarantee to the product's cost.
$10 + 3 + 0.24 =$ f
The offer costs more than the product.
Find the price that keeps the contribution of $8$.
$(\text{full cost}) + 8 =$ p
The parts must be paid for by the price, not by the margin.
Say what the customer gets for the difference.
$\text{a present ready to give, with a promise}$
The extra price buys packaging and trust, which the customer values.
Maya promises to replace any mug that chips within a year. From her records, about $1$ mugs in every 50 come back, and a replacement costs her $8$ dollars to make and post. How many dollars does the promise cost her per mug sold?
Answer:
A window card for Bright Home Cleaning, written as five lines. Three of them are sound. Mark the line that promises something the business cannot deliver, and the line that describes the maker rather than the customer.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Maya sells sets of four mugs. Adding a gift box costs her $1$ dollars a set and lets her charge $4$ dollars more, and she sells $33$ sets a month. How many dollars a month of extra contribution does the box add, if she sells the same number of sets?
Answer:
Bright Home Cleaning sells this: a two-hour standard clean, same day each week, at a fixed fee. Four things come with it that are not the thing itself, and each one does a different job. Say which part of the offer each line is.
| Which part of the offer is this? | |
|---|---|
| the same slot every week, so nobody has to arrange it again | |
| insured, and the same cleaner every time | |
| a written list of what a standard clean includes | |
| the list checked off and left on the table |
A plant nursery sells $52$ trays of bedding plants a month and promises to replace, free, any tray that has not taken within a month. Its records say $2$ in every 100 trays come back, and a replacement tray costs it $9$ dollars. How many dollars a month does the promise cost?
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Trays expected back in a month | |
| What the promise costs in a month, dollars | |
| What it costs per tray sold, dollars |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Maya's Ceramics sells this: a set of four mugs, boxed and ready to give, for a named price. Four things come with it that are not the thing itself, and each one does a different job. Say which part of the offer each line is.
| Which part of the offer is this? | |
|---|---|
| collected from the shop or posted, chosen at the register | |
| her name and the town on the base of each one | |
| a plain box with a card saying how it was made | |
| every mug fired twice, and a replacement for any that chips in a year |
You can tell a skill from an offer, say which of the five parts a given sentence is missing, and cost a guarantee or a box per sale. Tell someone the four parts of an offer that are not the product, and the buying question each one answers. Next: finding out whether anybody wants it before the money is spent.
15. Your turn: a cleaning round's offer, step 3
$25 \div 60 \approx 0.42 \text{ a clean}$
Trust at a small, known cost.