Ever since I started this blog, I always wanted to make a business out of it by creating my own products and services.
But I had no idea about how I should structure a business, what products should I create or what services should I offer?
The general advice of creating courses, books and services on niche topics that people want to learn about did not make any sense to me.
Yes, I could have created standalone courses on how to use Beaver Builder plugin, Astra theme, Elementor plugin, etc. as many of my peers do.
But I failed to understand how these courses would eventually help me to structure a business that I want to create ultimately.
Just creating courses, books and services without a pre-defined business plan or structure in place baffled me and still does.
So I was always on the constant look out for people who are running their businesses and trying to learn from them.
Once I found someone that I thought was great at what he/she was doing, I would start analyzing their businesses by buying their products.
This helped me to learn how other people are structuring their businesses by creating various products and services.
But nothing actually stood out for me that I could use to model my business upon.
And during this constant pursuit of trying to learn how to structure a business, one day I learnt about the 3 Prong System of structuring a business in the Brain Alchemy Masterclass of Sean D’Souza at Psychotactics.
Learning this 3 Prong System from Sean made me realize how I should structure my business.
Finally, it all made sense to me and I had a model that I could use to structure my business.
So what exactly is this 3 Prong System that I am raving about and how it can help you to structure a business?
Let me tell you…
What is The 3 Prong System And How You Can Use It to Structure A Business?
The 3 Prong System is basically about creating 3 prongs for your business.
Those 3 Prongs are Consulting, Training and Products.
If you offer Services for your clients, then the 3 Prongs would be Services, Training and Products.
Consulting or Services is where you work one-on-one with your clients.
Training is where you train multiple clients together at a time, either in a Live Workshop, Webinar or Teleclass.
Products is where you create products that your clients can buy from you to learn or do something on their own.
Consulting should be your highest price offering, followed by Training. Products can be your lowest priced offerings.
Now with these 3 Prongs in place, all of a sudden your business starts to look a lot more structured, profitable and scalable, isn’t it?
But as you can see, each of these 3 Prongs will require you to put in a significant amount of time and effort.
So it is essential that you divide these 3 Prongs in proper proportions to avoid burning yourself out.
I would recommended that you aim for the following proportions:
- Consulting – 15%
- Training – 25% and
- Products – 60%
With this kind of proportions what will eventually happen is that you will end up freeing up your time because Products need the least amount of your time once they are created and they can sell without too much of an involvement from you.
The whole idea of the 3 Prong System is to structure your business in such a way that it will help you to free up your time while also making sure that your revenues are not impacted.
If you take your business and create Consulting, Training and Products in proper proportions for it then basically you will end up creating a sustainable business model.
I know you don’t believe me.
So let me give you an example.
Example of The 3 Prong System For Businesses That Create Products
Imagine that you are a developer who creates WordPress plugins.
So you already have one of the prongs, Products, in place.
Now, can you train other people on how to create a WordPress plugin?
Yes, you can.
So now you have the second prong in place, Training.
Now tell me, can you not offer consulting to other WordPress developers who are looking for specific advice from you on the plugins that they have developed?
Yes, you can.
So now you have the third prong in place too, Consulting.
At this point if you take a holistic look at your business, then you will realize that your business looks a lot more sustainable because now you have opened up 3 distinct sources of income from Consulting, Training and Products.
But what if you offer services instead of creating products like WordPress plugins?
Example of The 3 Prong System For Businesses That Offer Services
Okay, let’s take another hypothetical example but this time of a service.
For services, the 3 Prongs are Services, Training and Products.
Now, imagine that you are a web designer who builds websites for your clients.
So you already have the first prong, Service, in place.
Now, for people who cannot afford to hire your services, can you not train them on how to create their own websites?
Off-course you can.
You can also train your existing clients on other website related activities like performing SEO, creating graphics, maintaining a blog, etc.
So now you have the second prong in place, Training.
Similarly, you can record the entire process of building a website, performing SEO, creating graphics, etc. in courses or books and sell them.
So now you have the third prong, Products, in place too.
I hope you have realized by now that by using the 3 Prong System, you can literally structure any business.
But do you need to have all the 3 prongs?
Do You Need All 3 Prongs?
Absolutely, not!
If you don’t want to do consulting, don’t do it.
If you don’t want to train people, then don’t train them.
If you don’t want to create products, then don’t create them.
No one is forcing you to have all the 3 Prongs in your business. Even without putting all 3 Prongs in place, you will still be able to create a viable business model.
Use the 3 Prong System as a guideline to understand how you eventually want to structure your business.
Using the 3 Prong System will not only give you the clarity on how to structure your business but will also help you to know from where your income is going to get generated and you can plan for your products and services well in advance.
Okay, enough of the theoretical talk!
Let me now show you some live examples of the 3 Prong System in play.
Live Examples Of The 3 Prong System In Play
What better place to start then Psychotactics itself from where I learnt about the 3 Prong System.
Sean offers Products and Home-Study Courses which form the Products prong of Psychotactics. The Live Workshops that Sean does forms the Training prong of Psychotactics and his Speaking and Consultation services form the Consulting/Services prong of Psychotactics.
Let me take another example.
Brainstorm Force is the company behind the Astra theme, Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Convert Pro and many other WordPress related products. This forms the Products prong of Brainstorm Force. They also take up website related projects which form their Consulting and Services prong.
Brainstorm Force does not have the Training prong because there is no need for them to have this prong.
This is a good example of how you can just have 2 Prongs in place and still be able to grow your business significantly.
This is something that I am planning to implement here on my blog too.
The first step of creating a product is already under way.
This course is going to form the Products prong of my business and I will eventually offer Live Training on website related topics. I am not planning to create any Consulting prong for my business. At least not yet.
Now you can see how this 3 Prong System has helped me structure my business.
But…
Will the 3 Prong System Actually Help Me Grow My Business?
I don’t know.
But what I do know is that by following this 3 Prong System, I will at least be a lot ahead of my competitors because now I have a strategy and a structure in place. All I have to do now is to act on it.
And you will see me taking action on all of this here on my blog in the days to come.
I will be blogging a lot about my journey on building a business from the ground up and what I learn along the way.
I urge you to be a part of this journey. Please come and join me.
Click here to sign up for my newsletter to see everything that is to unfold on my journey to build a profitable business using the 3 Prong System.
Got any questions for me?
Then ask them in the comments below. I reply to every comment.
