Something is valuable only to the degree it is scarce.  Original art is scarce because there is only one.  Diamonds are valuable because they are difficult to locate, found in only a few places around the globe, and hard to unearth.

Contrast this with what you do, or are perhaps considering doing.  Is your product or service difficult to locate? Are there only a few people in the world who do what you do? Is what you do really, really difficult?  If not it will be difficult to create value.

How To Create Value

To figure out how to create value ask yourself; How do I create scarcity? It’s difficult to create scarcity these days, especially in service industries.  Products can get a head start but won’t stay scarce long. But here are a few ideas that might help.

1. Build scarcity into your offer, by only serving a set number of clients.  Tell everyone that you will only take on 5 clients this year.  First come first serve.  Yea…takes courage but if you want to create value you need scarcity.  This model works best if you are the absolute best at what you do.

2. Produce a limited number of your product.  Michael Jordan and Nike have had success with this model.

3. Do things that others or perhaps you are fearful of doing.  Fear naturally creates scarcity because, well if a lot of people are fearful of the risk then there just are not a lot of people doing that particular thing.

One last thing…if there’s a how to book on what you offer…it’s not scarce.