When should you stop offering a service in your business?
A service can still attract clients after you have stopped wanting the responsibility that comes with it. Use recent work to decide what you want to offer next time.
If you are considering withdrawing a service, start with a recent assignment and identify the part you want to stop doing. Then separate what you have already agreed to deliver from what you might sell in future. Look at what a change would mean for your income and working week before deciding how to answer the next enquiry.
Clients may still want the service, and you may know that you can deliver it. What you are trying to understand is whether you want to keep building your days around it.
Name the responsibility you want to change
Choose an assignment you have recently completed or are delivering now. Write down the work you sold and what you actually did. Include preparation, questions between meetings and the work that continued after the main delivery. Where did you find yourself wishing someone else had the responsibility?
Imagine that you offer a review of a client's work. You enjoy reading the material and discussing your findings, but each review is followed by weeks of small requests to help carry out the changes. You might want to stop doing that follow-up while continuing to offer the review. You might also discover that you have lost interest in the subject itself. Those observations lead to different decisions.
Try describing the change without using the name of the whole service. For example: I want to finish my involvement after the review conversation and the written recommendations. That gives you something specific to examine with the client. If the service only works for them when you also take responsibility for implementation, you need to decide whether you still want to offer it.
Separate the next sale from existing work
List the assignments and follow-up you have already agreed to. Check what each client expects from you and where your description of the work leaves room for different interpretations. A decision about what you want to sell next needs a separate plan for work already under way.
In the review example, a new enquiry gives you a chance to describe the end of your involvement clearly. An existing client may already be relying on your help with implementation. Read back the agreement and discuss the work with them before assuming that a revised offer changes their arrangement.
Keep two descriptions in front of you: what continues for current assignments, and what you are willing to agree to in a future assignment. If those descriptions differ, name the difference. It will help you avoid taking on the same unwanted responsibility through an informal promise.
Examine what the change would leave you with
Look at recent invoices alongside the time the service required. Include the follow-up you identified, even if it was never priced separately. Then consider what would remain if you stopped selling that work. Which income would you be giving up, and which responsibilities would leave your calendar? Use your own figures rather than assuming that the freed time will immediately produce another sale.
Decide what you want that time to allow. You might want to spend it on another existing service, develop a different offer or leave more room outside work. If you are relying on replacement work, write down what you already know about the demand and what you still need to find out.
You can also examine a narrower change. In the hypothetical review business, the owner could describe a review with a clear finish and find out whether prospective clients would still find it useful. The purpose of that conversation is to understand the client's need and your preferred involvement. It cannot tell you in advance that the revised service will sell.
Write the decision for the next enquiry
Draft the answer you would give someone asking for the service today. Say which work you are willing to do and where your involvement ends. If you have decided to stop offering it altogether, make that decision explicit in the draft. Read it alongside the plan for your existing assignments so that both remain clear.
If you cannot yet choose an answer, identify what is missing. You may need to clarify an existing commitment, understand how much income the service actually brings or ask a potential client whether a different arrangement would help. Choose the next action that would let you make the decision with better information.
An existing offer and a recent working week are useful things to bring into business coaching. We can examine what you want to keep doing and the choices available around the work. My coaching is available online in English or Danish. The first conversation stands on its own, and you decide afterwards whether you want to continue.