Designing your signature offer

What you will be able to do

• Define the six parts of a signature offer and write each one for your business
• Cost a signature offer from hours, direct costs and margin so it stays profitable
• Present the offer in line with HST display, all-in pricing and Ontario consumer rules

Most event businesses sell a blank page. A client asks what you do, you say it depends, and you build every quote from scratch. A signature offer replaces that blank page with one named package that does a specific job for your niche, at a known price. It is easier to explain, easier to buy, easier to deliver and much easier to market.

Read the transcript

Designing your signature offer.

Most event businesses sell a blank page.

A client asks what you do, you say it depends, and you build every quote from scratch.

What a signature offer is.

A signature offer is the one package you would most like every ideal client to buy.

It is not your only option, and it is not a discount bundle.

The six parts.

The scope line deserves the most care.

Write what is excluded as clearly as what is included.

Costing the offer so it stays profitable.

A named price is a promise, so cost it carefully before you publish it.

Work from the hours it really takes, not the hours you wish it took.

Signature offers for other vendors.

Every vendor type can build one.

A magician: "The Mix and Mingle", 90 minutes of strolling close-up magic for corporate receptions of 50 to 200 guests, with a five-minute stage moment to open the speeches.

Naming and presenting the offer.

A name should describe the outcome or the occasion, not your brand.

"The Two-Tradition Weekend" tells a couple what it is.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What a signature offer is

A signature offer is the one package you would most like every ideal client to buy. It is not your only option, and it is not a discount bundle. It is your positioning turned into something a client can say yes to.

A good signature offer does three jobs at once. It shows the client that you have solved their problem many times before. It removes the anxiety of an open-ended quote. And it gives you a repeatable process, which means fewer surprises, better margins and a team that knows what comes next.

Every event you have ever worked had custom elements, and every future one will too. A signature offer does not remove customization. It puts the customization inside a frame.

The six parts

The scope line deserves the most care. Write what is excluded as clearly as what is included. “Does not include day-of coordination for a third event day” prevents more arguments than any clause in your contract.

Costing the offer so it stays profitable

A named price is a promise, so cost it carefully before you publish it. Work from the hours it really takes, not the hours you wish it took. Use your last three similar jobs as a guide.

The arithmetic shows something important. At $9,800, Lantern & Lane earns less margin than its target. Priya and Marco chose $9,800 for the first season to win the early bookings and reviews, and set themselves a rule: raise the price once the offer books out four months ahead. All figures here are illustrative. Module 5 covers pricing methods in depth.

Signature offers for other vendors

Every vendor type can build one. Some illustrative examples:

• A magician: “The Mix and Mingle”, 90 minutes of strolling close-up magic for corporate receptions of 50 to 200 guests, with a five-minute stage moment to open the speeches.
• A caterer: “The Office Launch Lunch”, a hot buffet for 30 to 120 people delivered, set up and cleared within a two-hour window, with labelled allergen cards.
• A photographer: “The Small Wedding Story”, six hours, two shooters, a 50-image preview the next morning and a full gallery in three weeks.
• A rental company: “The Backyard Fifty”, tent, tables, chairs, linens and string lighting for 50 guests, delivered and collected, with a rain plan.
• A venue: “The Weekday Offsite”, room, AV, lunch and two breaks for 20 to 60 people at a single per-person rate, Monday to Thursday.

Notice that each one names a client, a size range, a format and a clear deliverable. Each also has limits, and the limits make the price possible.

Naming and presenting the offer

A name should describe the outcome or the occasion, not your brand. “The Two-Tradition Weekend” tells a couple what it is. “The Lantern Platinum” tells them nothing. Keep names short enough to say on the phone.

Present the offer on one page, in this order:

1. The name and a one-line outcome.
2. Who it is for, including the size range.
3. What is included, as a short list.
4. What is not included, and what can be added.
5. The process, in four to six steps.
6. The price, the deposit and the payment schedule.
7. One piece of strong proof.
8. The next step.

Testing the offer before you publish it

A signature offer is a hypothesis until clients buy it. Test it cheaply before you rebuild your website around it.

1. Send it to five past clients from the niche. Ask one question: “If this had existed when you booked us, would you have chosen it, and what would you have changed?”
2. Show it to two referral partners. A venue sales manager or a planner who sends you work will tell you quickly whether the offer is easy to recommend.
3. Quote it to the next five inquiries. Present the signature offer first, before any custom option, and record what happens: booked, asked for changes, or walked away on price.
4. Review after a season. Compare actual hours against the costing table. If delivery took 90 hours rather than 70, the price or the scope must change.

Expect to revise the offer two or three times in its first year. That is normal. The goal is not a perfect package on day one but a package that gets a little more profitable and a little easier to sell every season.

When to say no to custom work

Once the offer exists, you will be tempted to rebuild it for every client. Resist. Small changes go in a priced add-on list. Large changes become a custom quote at a higher rate, because custom work costs more to deliver. Marco keeps a simple rule: if a request changes more than two lines of the scope, it is a custom project and priced as one. Over time, the requests that keep coming back become add-ons, and the add-ons that everyone buys become part of the next version of the offer.

In Canada and Ontario: presenting the price

A signature offer puts a price in front of the public, so three sets of rules apply.

HST display. In Ontario the HST rate is 13%. The CRA says that, for taxable supplies, you must tell the customer one of three things: that the total includes the GST/HST, the amount of tax shown separately, or the applicable rate. Where HST applies, show the total 13% rate rather than separate federal and provincial parts. “From $9,800 plus 13% HST” meets that requirement. Your invoices have their own rules: for sales of $500 or more, the CRA expects your registration number, the buyer’s name, a brief description and the payment terms, among other details. You can check the details in the CRA’s guide RC4022. If you are still a small supplier, with taxable sales of $30,000 or less in any single calendar quarter and over the last four consecutive quarters, you may not be charging HST at all, and your offer page should not suggest otherwise.

All-in pricing. Since June 23, 2022, the Competition Act has treated drip pricing as a false or misleading representation. A price that cannot be attained because of fixed, mandatory extra fees is misleading unless the extras are only charges imposed by law, such as HST. If every client of the Backyard Fifty pays a $150 delivery fee, that fee belongs inside the advertised price, not in the fine print. Optional add-ons are different, because the client chooses them. Module 5 covers all-in pricing and the drip pricing rules in detail.

Ontario consumer agreements. When you sell to individuals, Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act, 2002 applies. A newer Consumer Protection Act, 2023 has been passed but, until it is proclaimed in force, the 2002 Act remains in effect, so check ontario.ca for the current position. Under the 2002 Act, most event bookings are future performance agreements: the client pays now and you deliver later. If you deliver more than 30 calendar days after the agreed date, the consumer may cancel and get a refund. Where you give an estimate, you cannot bill a consumer more than 10% above it unless they agree in writing to the extra charges. Any uncertainty in a consumer agreement is interpreted in the consumer’s favour, which is one more reason to write the scope line carefully. Ontario’s business guide to consumer protection explains these concepts. Corporate clients are generally not consumers under the Act, but they will hold you to your written scope just as firmly.

Timing the launch in the GTA

Launch a social or wedding offer before the season when clients choose vendors, not when they hold events. In the GTA many couples book key vendors in the late fall and winter, around the wedding show calendar and the engagement season that follows the December holidays. Corporate holiday offers need to be in front of buyers by late summer or early fall, when many firms lock their December plans. Summer offers for backyard parties, patios and festivals do best when published in early spring.

Price your offer for the GTA market you actually serve. Costs for parking, travel time on the 401 and the Gardiner, and venue load-in rules downtown are real, and they belong in the hours line of your costing. If you serve both downtown Toronto and smaller Ontario towns, consider a travel zone add-on rather than a single price that is too high for one market and too low for the other. Make sure any mandatory travel charge is disclosed in the price for that zone. This is general information, not legal advice.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)