How to explain what my business does
Why your explanation gets polite nods
You know the work is good. Clients tell you so, and the work holds up. Then someone at a barbecue asks what you do, and out comes something like "We offer high-quality, reliable, professional services tailored to your needs." They nod, say "oh nice", and change the subject. They aren't being rude. You gave them nothing to hold onto.
The cause is almost always the same. You describe what you do and what you have. The listener wants to know what changes for them. Closing that gap is a skill, and it can be learned in an afternoon.
Features versus the thing being bought
A feature is a fact about your service: what you do, how, with what, how often. The thing the customer is buying is the change in their situation once you have done it: a problem gone, a worry handled, time given back. Explaining your business well means moving from the first to the second, in words your customer would use.
The method
You need a page, a pen and about 45 minutes. Work through these five steps in order.
- Write down your plain description. One sentence, the way you would say it today. "I'm a mobile mechanic. I do logbook servicing and repairs at your home or work."
- List your features. Everything you would normally put on a brochure. Aim for six to ten. Qualifications, tools, hours, guarantees, how you quote, where you travel.
- Ask "so what?" after each one, at least three times. Take a feature, say what it means for the customer, then ask "and what does that mean for them?" again. Keep going until the answer is something that happens in their life, not in your process.
- Describe the moment before they called you. What was going on? What had they been putting off? What was annoying, risky or expensive about the situation? The thing they are buying is usually the opposite of that moment.
- Write the sentence. Combine who it is for, the change you make, and the part of your process that makes it believable. Then cut it down until you could say it in one breath.
A worked example
This is a made-up example, not a client. Imagine a mobile mechanic called Dale (invented for this article). His first description is: "I'm a licensed mechanic with a fully equipped van. I do logbook servicing and repairs, all makes and models, and I travel across the northern suburbs."
Here is how the "so what?" step runs on two of his features.
| Feature | So what? | And what does that mean for them? | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fully equipped van that comes to you | You don't have to drop the car at a workshop | No morning lost arranging lifts or waiting around, and no day without a car | The service happens while you carry on with your day |
| Logbook servicing | The car is serviced to the manufacturer's schedule and the history is recorded | The service record stays complete, which matters when you sell it | You can stop worrying whether the car is "up to date" |
| Quotes before any work starts | You know the price in advance | No bill shock, and no pressure to say yes on the spot | You stay in control of what you spend |
Now Dale does step four. When people call him, what has usually happened? The service is overdue. They have been meaning to book it for weeks, and the reason they haven't is the hassle of getting the car into a workshop and themselves back out again. So what they are really buying is getting a nagging job off the list without it costing them a morning.
Step five, the sentence: "I service your car in your driveway while you're at work, so it gets done without you losing a morning, and you see the price before I touch anything."
Notice what happened. "Fully equipped van" and "licensed" are still true, and they still matter. They have moved into the background as proof, instead of leading the sentence.
What good looks like versus what most people produce
Most descriptions fall into one of three shapes: a job title, a list of adjectives, or a process. A good one passes a simple test. A stranger could repeat it to a friend and the friend would know when to call you.
| What most people write | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| "Reliable, affordable, professional mobile mechanic." | "I service your car at your home or work, so you don't lose a morning at a workshop." |
| "Full-service bookkeeping solutions for small business." | "I keep your books up to date so you know where the business stands before the tax deadline, not after it." |
| "Premium dog walking tailored to your pet's needs." | "Your dog gets a proper walk every weekday, so you come home to a calm dog instead of a guilty feeling." |
The good versions share a few traits. They use plain words. They describe something that happens in the customer's day. They contain a hint of the "before", the annoyance or worry that sent the customer looking. And they sound like a person talking, not a brochure.
The three mistakes that make the exercise useless
1. Stopping at the first "so what?"
The first answer is usually still a feature in disguise, or a vague benefit word like "convenience", "peace of mind" or "quality". Those words fail the same way the adjectives did. If you could stick the phrase on any business in your street, keep asking. "Peace of mind" becomes "you can stop wondering whether the invoice is right". Only the second version is something a person can picture.
2. Writing in your words instead of theirs
You think of your work in trade terms: "BAS lodgement", "pre-purchase inspection", "behavioural reinforcement". Your customer thinks in their own terms: "sorting out the tax thing", "making sure I'm not buying a lemon", "stopping the barking". If the exercise produces language only your peers would use, it has gone wrong. The best fix is to look at what customers have actually written to you. Check old emails, reviews and the first message they sent. Borrow their phrases directly.
3. Trying to say everything
Once you find five good outcomes, it is tempting to cram them all into one sentence. The result is a list again. Pick the one that matters most to the customer you most want more of, and say that one. The others can live further down your website, in conversation and in quotes. A sentence that carries five ideas leaves the listener remembering none of them.
What to do with it once it is written
This is the part most articles skip, and it is where the value is. A good sentence sitting in a notebook changes nothing. Here is a short plan.
- Say it out loud to three real people. Friends are fine, ideally ones who do not know your trade. Ask them to tell it back to you in their own words. If what they say back is different from what you meant, the sentence needs another pass. Their version is often better than yours, so write it down.
- Check it against a real customer. Pick a recent client and ask yourself whether they would recognise their own situation in it. If you have a good relationship, ask them. "What was going on when you decided to call me?" gives you the raw material for step four, and often the exact words.
- Put it where people meet you first. Replace the opening line of your website homepage, your social media bio, your email signature, and the first thing you say when you introduce yourself. Keep the old, longer description for further down. The new sentence goes at the front.
- Keep the proof close. The features you demoted are now your evidence. Put them in the second sentence or underneath: licensed, insured, years in the trade, how you quote. People trust the outcome more when the reason behind it is nearby.
- Make a version for each type of customer if you need to. A bookkeeper serving tradies and a bookkeeper serving cafes might buy the same service for different reasons. Run the exercise once for each group, rather than blending them into something vague.
- Revisit it every few months. Your customers and your offer shift. Keep a note of phrases clients use when they describe you, and fold them in.
Doing this properly takes an afternoon, mostly because the "so what?" questions get easier once you have done a few. If you would rather have it done for you, a Value Proposition Canvas built from your own answers is $99. Either way, the method above works on its own, so start with a pen and one feature from your list.