When you’re starting out in business, it’s almost a rite of passage to say “yes” to every client who wants to work with you.

I did it. You probably did it. And honestly? In those early days, it’s not the worst thing in the world. You learn what you enjoy, what you never want to do again 🙈, what clients are willing to pay, and which of your offerings are the most profitable. 

But here’s the catch: the language you use while you’re in that “I can do everything for everyone” stage can follow you far longer than it should, and it can hold you back from attracting the clients you really want.

Generalists get generalist rates. Specialists get specialist rates.

Think about it: you’ll pay more to see a specialist doctor than a GP. The same principle applies to your business.

If your website, LinkedIn profile, or even your elevator pitch implies you can help “most people” (within the context of your expertise), you’ll be perceived as a generalist. That perception affects how people value your work and how much they’re willing to pay for it.

The good news is that you can shift this without changing what you offer.

Sometimes, it’s simply about:

• Narrowing your scope
  
• Packaging your services differently
  
• Changing the way you talk about them

But FIRST, you need to get clear on who it is you ultimately want to be offering your services to. If you weren’t saying yes to everyone…. Who would you MOST want to work with? 

In my own business, I did an audit of all of the clients I’d worked with over a 12-month period and identified the projects I enjoyed the most. It turned out that roughly 30% of my clients were responsible for 70% of my income… and those 30% of clients were responsible for the projects I most enjoyed! 

So I looked at what traits those clients had in common:

• They saw me as a partner, not just a service provider
• They valued the outcome I delivered, not the number of hours I worked
• They never micromanaged me
• They just wanted someone they could trust to get the job done

And then I revisited how I could best serve these clients. 

The result was my Intensive Week service. I took all the core services I typically deliver separately — messaging strategy, copywriting, and CustomGPT creation — and packaged them into a one-week Intensive.

Instead of clients having to book multiple service providers over months (and juggle all the back-and-forth that comes with it), we get everything done in five days. My clients walk away with clear, compelling messaging, all of the copy they need across multiple touch points in their business rewritten and ready for use, and their own CustomGPT tool to make ongoing content creation easier.

It’s faster, more cohesive, and far less stressful for them and it positions me as the one partner who can deliver the whole transformation, not just one piece of it.

It helped me to present myself as a partner, not a “pair of hands for hire.” 

When you start working that way — whether that means narrowing your focus to your best-fit clients, packaging your services so they get the most value in the most efficient way, or simply changing the way you talk about what you do — you notice a shift not just in the type of work you do, but in the type of clients you attract.

The projects feel more aligned. The conversations feel easier. And your clients see you as the strategic partner they can trust to deliver, not just a service provider ticking tasks off a list.

If you’re wondering how you could do something similar in your business, give this a try:

1. List your favourite clients from the past year. Write down what you loved about working with them, beyond the money.
   
2. Spot the patterns. Do they share the same mindset? Business stage? Communication style?
   
3. Test new language or a new offering in low-stakes spaces. Talk about your work differently in LinkedIn posts, coffee catch-ups, or networking events before you commit to updating your website and overhauling everything.

(I delivered six Intensive Week services before it even made it onto my website as an official offering!)

The beauty is, you don’t have to change everything. Just identify the one shift — narrowing your scope, repackaging your services, or refining your language — that will have the biggest impact for where you are right now, and start there.

Start small, keep it simple, and give yourself permission to grow into the version of your business you really want.