Your Reasons for Not Building a Course Yet, Rated

Most experts I talk to have a reason they haven't built their course yet. Some of those reasons are real. Most of them are backwards.

I've built 200+ courses. I've heard every reason there is. So I started rating them. Out of ten, where ten means your reason is actually the strongest signal you should build right now.

Here's the argument: the reasons people use to wait are usually the same reasons they should start. Rate your own honestly. If you're still deciding between keeping everything one to one and building a product, read One to One Coaching vs a Product alongside this.

"I'm still figuring out who I help" is a 2, and it holds up

This one is honest. I'll give it that.

If you can't say who you help and what changes for them, a course won't fix it. You'll build a product for everybody and sell it to nobody.

So a 2 here means the reason is legit. You're not ready yet. But it doesn't mean wait forever. It means do the work that makes you ready: look at your last few clients, notice who got the best result, and write one sentence about them. That's where who you help comes from. You don't find it by thinking. You find it in who already paid you.

"I want passive income" is a 3, because it's about you

Wanting a course so you can stop working is a reason about you. Buyers don't care about your freedom. They care about theirs.

Courses built for passive income tend to feel like it. Thin. Long. No finish line. Nobody finishes them and nobody tells a friend.

The courses that sell are built around what the buyer gets to become. The freedom you get is a side effect of building that well. Flip the reason and the score goes up.

If you want to see how ready your business actually is before you decide anything, the Expert Score takes a few minutes and shows you where you stand.

Take the Expert Score

"My audience is too small" is a 5, because small and warm outsells big and cold

Half true. That's why it sits in the middle.

A small audience does limit how many people can buy. But a small audience that trusts you will buy faster than a huge audience that scrolled past you once.

Small and warm outsells big and cold. I've seen it over and over. The expert with a few hundred people who actually read their stuff beats the one with a big following who never gave anyone a reason to trust them.

So the question isn't how big your audience is. It's whether anybody in it has ever asked how to work with you. If yes, you have enough.

Big audiences come with their own problem, too. More followers usually means more people who found you by accident, watched one video, and never came back. A small group that reads everything you post, replies to your stories, and refers their friends is worth more than a big number that doesn't know your name. Don't let a follower count talk you out of selling to the people who already trust you.

"I don't have time" is a 6, because the product is how you get time back

This one feels like a real reason. And in the short term, it is.

But look at why you don't have time. Usually it's because every dollar you earn needs you live. On a call. In the DMs. On a Zoom at night.

That's the exact problem a product solves. Staying too busy to build the thing that makes you less busy is a loop. It doesn't end by itself.

The honest version of this reason is "I don't have time to build it the way I think I'd have to." That's fair. So build it smaller, or don't build it yourself.

"People keep asking if I have something to buy" is a 9. "I'm full" is a 10.

These aren't reasons to wait. They're the two loudest signals you'll ever get.

When people keep asking if you have a course and you keep saying "not yet," that's demand walking out the door. They already want it. You just haven't given them a way to pay you.

And "I'm full" is the top score. If your calendar is packed, you've proven people will pay you. What you haven't done is build a way for them to get the result without taking an hour of your week. That's the whole reason to build.

Composite example. This is a composite of what I see, not one client. An expert is booked solid, roughly twenty clients a month, all one to one. Every week a few more people ask if there's a program. She says she'll build one when things slow down. Things don't slow down, because the business is built on her hours. The answer isn't waiting for a slow month. It's taking the method she already runs the same way for every client and packaging it, so the next twenty people have a door that doesn't go through her calendar.

What to do next

Three things you can do this week without buying anything.

1. Write your reason down and score it. Be honest. If it's a 2 or a 3, fix the reason. If it's a 5 or above, the reason is probably telling you to build.

2. Count the asks. For the next seven days, write down every time someone asks how to work with you, whether you have a course, or what you charge. That number is your real demand.

3. Offer it to ten people. Before you record anything, describe the result and the price to ten people who already trust you. If they pay, you build. If they won't, two hundred lessons won't fix that.

If you want the full list of what I'd do starting over, read Ten Things I'd Do If I Had to Rebuild From Zero.

Two doors from here

If you already have proof people pay you and your calendar is the thing stopping you, book your build call. If you're still building that proof, start with the Mini Course Playbook for $17. It finds the mini course in what you already teach and hands you a two hour build plan.

Frequently asked questions

Should I create an online course if my audience is small?

Often, yes. A small audience that trusts you will buy faster than a big audience that barely knows your name. Small and warm outsells big and cold. The test is simple: if a handful of people already ask how to work with you, you have enough to sell something. Sell it to ten people before you build the full thing.

How do I know if I am ready to build an online course?

Look for proof, not confidence. You are ready when people keep asking if you have something to buy, when your calendar is full, and when you notice you teach the same things the same way to every client. If you are still guessing who you help, work on that first.

Is an online course a good source of passive income?

Not the way most people mean it. A course still needs selling, updating, and a system that brings buyers in. What it removes is the need for you to be live for every hour of delivery. If passive income is the only reason you want one, the course usually stalls because the reason is about you, not the buyer.

What if I do not have time to build a course?

That is the reason most worth pushing through. If you have no time, it is usually because every dollar you earn needs you in the room. A product is how you get time back. The fix is to build it in a way that does not add a second full-time job, either by keeping it small or by having it built for you.