What is the number 1 thing you need in business?
Updated 23 July 2026 by Chanelle Segerius-Bruce
The number 1 thing you need in business is simpler than most advice makes it sound, and most people are doing it in the wrong order. This guide covers what that one thing is, why building a buying audience has to come before the offer rather than after it, and the practical ways to build one: your presence, your email list, your welcome sequence, your group and your ads. There is a real client example at the end, with the numbers attached.
Quick answer
The number 1 thing you need in business is sales. If you are not making sales, you do not have a business yet. You get sales by building a buying audience first and launching to them second, which is the opposite of what most people do. That means growing your presence, creating one opt-in freebie that leads to your signature offer, building an email list you actually own, writing a seven-part welcome sequence, and nurturing a community you show up in. Build the offer around the problem your ideal client already has, then sell it to them.
Why sales are the number 1 thing
If you are not making sales, you do not have a business. You have something you are working on, which is a different thing and pays differently.
The way you get sales is by building a buying audience first and launching to them second. In my own business I have built genuine relationships with people whose problems I can solve, and after a period of time I make them an offer. That is the whole thing. It is also what I teach my private clients.
Build your offer around the problem your ideal client actually struggles with, then sell it to them. What I see too often is people leaping ahead and selling the course or the group programme because they have had the idea for a while, skipping the part where they build an audience who want to buy it.
Grow your presence online and offline
Blogging and social content attract the right people by entertaining and educating them. Tidy up your Facebook page, your Instagram account and your LinkedIn profile so they say the same thing. Then show up consistently and give value without an offer attached.
Do not overlook live video. Stories are worth using too, because they give people a way into your day, your client work and whatever you have coming.
Then think wider than your own channels. Network. Guest post on other industry leaders' blogs. Get yourself onto a podcast, onto radio, into a magazine. All of that credibility can be pointed back at what you sell.
Build your email list
Create one opt-in freebie. A PDF is the easiest place to start, but a video series, a webinar, a quiz, a mini email course or an audio course all work. Do not overcomplicate it and do not build five of them. Build one that leads towards your signature offer.
On the thank you page, invite them into your Facebook group, so you are growing the list and the group at the same time.
Then promote it properly: your Instagram bio, your posts, your stories, LinkedIn, an article, your homepage, a pop-up, inside blog posts.
Start this sooner than feels necessary. A social platform can go down or change its algorithm overnight, and you own your email list.
Write a 7-part welcome sequence
The welcome email goes out automatically once someone opts in. A seven-part welcome series, sometimes called a nurture sequence, sent a day apart, works well.
Reuse the content from your freebie. Link to your lives, your blog posts and any press you have. Let them get to know you and your story, and share results early so they can see you know what you are talking about.
What you want is for someone to finish your free content thinking that if this is what she gives away, working with her must be something else.
Do not worry about giving away too much. People usually take a while to act on anything handed to them free. Often they need to invest before they will do the work and see it happen for themselves.
Create a Facebook group
A group is more intimate than a page. Members share more, and it is your space, where you are the one leading it.
Nurture it by showing up. Interviews with industry experts, masterclasses, video testimonials from happy clients, and evidence of the work you are doing all belong there. Go live regularly and give plenty away.
This is close to non-negotiable early on. It is how people get to know you, trust you and believe you can help them.
Use ads to speed it up
Ads are targeted, fast and measurable. You can push traffic to your opt-in page, and you can target cold leads, people who watch your lives, people who visit your site, and people already on your list.
Here is what that looked like in practice. A private client came back to me needing a buying audience ahead of a new group programme. She already had a Facebook group of more than 2,500 people, and they were the wrong audience for what she was about to sell. So she built a new opt-in, a new group with a new name and a different feel, and hired me to run her ads.
I ran them for about three months, watching and adjusting the audience as I went. We grew the group to roughly 1,500 members in six weeks on about £2,000 of ad spend. She showed up constantly, did the lives, answered the questions and gave real value. When she finally ran her webinar and sold the course, it was an $80,000 launch.
She built the audience, nurtured it, then sold to it. In that order.
Key takeaways
- Sales are the number 1 thing you need in business. Without them you do not have one yet.
- The order matters: build a buying audience first, then launch to it.
- Build the offer around a problem your ideal client actually has, not around an idea you have been sitting on.
- One opt-in freebie that leads to your signature offer beats five that lead nowhere.
- Own your email list, because you do not own your social following.
- A seven-part welcome sequence does the introducing for you while you sleep.
- Ads accelerate an audience you are already nurturing properly. They do not replace the nurturing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the number 1 thing you need in business?
Sales. If you are not making sales you do not have a business yet. Everything else, the brand, the content, the group, exists to make those sales possible.
What is a buying audience?
A group of people who have a problem you can solve, who know you, and who are inclined to buy when you make an offer. It is different from an audience that simply follows you, which is why follower counts and revenue so often fail to match.
Should I build my audience or my offer first?
Audience first, then launch to it. The common mistake is building a course or group programme because the idea has been around a while, then discovering there is nobody waiting to buy it.
How many opt-in freebies do I need?
One, that leads towards your signature offer. Multiple freebies pulling in different directions make more work for you and less sense to the person opting in.
Why do I need an email list if I have a social following?
Because you own the list. A platform can go down or change its algorithm overnight, and any audience you built there goes with it.
Do Facebook ads work for building an audience?
They do when there is something worth joining at the other end. One of my private clients grew a new group to around 1,500 members in six weeks on roughly £2,000 of spend, nurtured them properly, and her launch came in at $80,000. The ads bought the attention; the nurturing earned the sale.
Building the audience before the offer?
Getting this order right, audience first and offer second, is most of what separates a launch that works from one that goes quiet. That is the ground we cover in Get Leveraged, my 1:1 consulting, for established business owners who want the thing built properly rather than guessed at. Book a call to see if we're the right fit, and we'll look at what your audience is actually ready to buy.
