Research your next offer or product before spending money

Your Wednesday newsletter is arriving on Thursday this week. That's a first for me. I teach people how to save time with AI, so feel free to give me a hard time. ;-)

You're considering a new offer for your existing customers. This week, I'm using a made-up yoga studio deciding whether to sell a six-week course to its members. I'll show you how to use your AI assistant to compare similar courses and work through the numbers, then identify what you still need to ask your own customers.

The research instructions are below, so you can try them on an idea you've been considering. You don't need a course outline or a price worked out before you start. Finding those missing pieces is part of the work.

I've also included a guide to choosing the assistant and sources for each research job, plus three reads on staff training, Claude and WhatsApp business setup.

Marc

Imagine you run a yoga studio. You want to offer existing members a six-week course for a separate fee. The same small group would meet with the same instructor, follow a learning progression and get individual feedback. This is an invented example; I haven't researched or tested the course.

Before you pay an instructor to develop the course, you need to know what members would be buying beyond their usual classes. You also need to check whether the extra fee could cover the work. If members cancel or reduce their existing membership to pay for the course, some of that course revenue replaces money you already earned.

Start with a research brief you can check. Every finding needs a source, and every missing answer stays visible. A list of competing courses can help you compare offers. Your members still have to tell you whether the course fits what they want to learn and when they can attend.

1. Write the decision you need to make. Open a conversation with your AI assistant. Paste the instruction below and replace the yoga details with your own idea. Add your location, decision deadline and any limits you already know.

Help me decide whether to test a six-week paid yoga course for existing members. It would have a small, consistent group and instructor, a defined learning progression and individual feedback. The fee is separate from membership. My location is [location]. I need to decide by [date].

Here is what I have: [course notes, member requests, costs and available teaching times]. Before searching, ask for the missing information you need. Keep unknown prices, costs and demand unknown. Do not fill them with estimates unless I ask for clearly labelled scenarios.

You should get questions about the course, your members and the time and money available. If the assistant starts recommending a price without those inputs, ask it to list what the recommendation depends on. Supply what you know and leave the rest open.

2. Split the research into three questions. Use a separate conversation for each assignment below. Paste the same decision brief into each one so the assistant has your location and requirements. You can work through them one at a time; separate conversations do not run the research automatically in parallel.

Assignment A: Find comparable paid courses. For each, record the provider, location, intended student, course length, group size if stated, what is included, published price and date checked. Link directly to the offer. Explain differences that make a price comparison misleading. Mark anything you cannot find.

Assignment B: Read the member requests and feedback I supply. What do members want help learning? Link each finding to the supplied evidence and its date. Keep public reviews or wider trends separate from my own members. List questions I still need to ask them. Do not invent customer quotes.

Assignment C: Use my costs and available teaching time to work out whether the course could cover its costs. Show instructor preparation and teaching time, room costs, other course costs and the maximum group size. Ask for missing numbers. Show the enrolment needed at each price I choose to test.

For web research, use an assistant that can open current pages. If yours cannot, supply the pages yourself. Assignment B needs evidence from your business, even if that means the first answer is that you have no member feedback yet. Assignment C needs your numbers.

3. Put the findings in one comparison. Bring the three answers into a new conversation with the original brief. Ask the assistant to keep links and dates beside each finding. Use this table as the starting point. These rows describe what to collect, not completed research.

Combine these findings using the table above. Keep published offers, my own costs, member evidence and assumptions distinct. Preserve conflicting findings and explain what differs. Add a list of missing answers that could change my decision. Do not recommend launching based only on competitors offering a similar course.

A price on another studio's site shows what that studio asks. It doesn't show how many people paid. If two courses charge different amounts, check the number of sessions and what each includes before asking for an average.

4. Check the sources in a separate conversation. Give another conversation the comparison and its links. Ask for the source check below. The reviewer needs to open each important source again, rather than accept the researcher's description.

Check each claim that affects price, costs or the decision to test this course. Open its source and show the passage supporting the claim. Mark each claim supported, partly supported, unsupported or inaccessible. Check dates and course details. Keep claims you cannot verify on the unresolved list.

Then check the most important claims yourself by opening their sources. Check the cost calculation too. An assistant may correctly copy an advertised price and still compare a single workshop with a six-week course. Correct the comparison before using it.

5. Decide what to ask members and whether to test. Use the missing-answer list to prepare the member conversations. Ask what they want to learn, which times they can attend and what they would expect beyond their membership. Show them the proposed course and price when you have enough detail.

Use your costs to set the minimum enrolment a paid test would need. Include any membership revenue you expect to lose. If that minimum exceeds the group size you can teach, change the course or the price before offering it. Interest in a conversation still leaves the question of who will pay.

You make the call on the paid test. Keep the comparison, source checks and remaining questions together so you can update the decision when members respond.

A model is the part of the assistant that works through your question. The app around it supplies search, files and other tools. Changing the model can change the analysis; changing the app or its connections can change which evidence it can reach.

For Assignment A, choose an assistant that can find and open current course pages. Perplexity searches the web and links its sources. Grok can search the wider web too. Ask either for the course page, published price and date checked, then compare what came back.

If you want to explore what people say about courses on X, Grok can search public X posts. For Reddit discussions, check whether your chosen search tool actually returns links to relevant threads. Ask for those links. A mention of Reddit in an answer does not show that the assistant read the thread.

For Assignment B, give an assistant the member feedback you already have permission to use. Wider conversations can suggest questions to ask, but they cannot tell you whether your members would buy. For Assignment C, choose an assistant that can work with your cost sheet and show the calculation.

Paid business databases are another source choice. ZoomInfo supplies company and business-contact data. That may help if the yoga studio wants to sell a course to local employers. The assistant needs an authorized connection or an export you are allowed to use; changing models does not provide a database subscription.

You can compare two models on the same brief too. Look for useful differences: one might spot a missing cost or find an offer the first missed. Check whether the extra answer changes your decision before adding another tool to the process.

Keep source checking as a separate assignment. The reviewer opens the course page and checks the price, dates and inclusions against your comparison. Two assistants citing the same page have found one source. You still need to check your costs and ask members whether they would pay.

The New York Fed surveyed businesses in New York and northern New Jersey about AI. Retraining staff was the main adjustment; layoffs tied to AI remained uncommon. If you are considering a tool for your staff, include time to learn the changed task in your plan. The regional survey is worth reading before assuming the benefit comes from cutting jobs.

New York Fed workforce survey, September 1 · libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org

Anthropic is bringing Claude chat and Cowork together, with the change rolling out to Pro and Max subscribers over the coming weeks. If you've been unsure which one to open for a task, watch for the change in your account. An older walkthrough may show a choice your updated app no longer asks you to make.

Claude chat and Cowork announcement, September 16 · claude.com

Meta's WhatsApp Business Tools MCP connects AI coding tools to business-account setup, phone numbers, message templates and testing. If someone is setting up WhatsApp for you, ask whether it can help with that setup and what still needs your approval. The scope described here is setup and testing; it doesn't establish that an assistant can take over your customer conversations.

Meta developer news: WhatsApp Business Tools MCP · developers.meta.com

Reply and tell me one idea you're considering for bringing in more revenue, and what you need to learn before spending money on it.

Marc

P.S. Want to build a workflow for your own business with me walking you through it? My four-week live class starts Wednesday, September 30, with a Thursday group from October 1. See what the four weeks cover and reserve a seat.

Some of this content was made with AI assistance. Writing, creative direction, and final decisions are human.