A consultant described a framework she had built over three years. It was finished. It worked. Nobody outside her own engagements had heard of it. It had no trademark and no price.

Her question was five words: "What do I do with this?"

The decision in front of you may be a proposal, a renewal, or a licensing conversation with a buyer before the year closes. The framework will be in the room either way. The question is how it arrives. Either the buyer can name it and pay for it, or it disappears into your hours.

Why it lands

If you use a method on every engagement and have never written it down as yours, this is that moment. None of this is a personal failing. Nobody teaches the last step.

The belief that stops you

"It isn't ready." Three years of use says otherwise. A client has already paid for it, inside your hours. Waiting does not make it more finished. It keeps it priced as time.

The steps

  1. Write down what it is, on one page. (45 minutes) Its name, the problem it solves, its steps in order, and what the client has at the end. Example: "A five-stage review that finds the vendor clauses most likely to cost the company money, done in two weeks."
  2. Date its history. (30 minutes) When you first built it. Each engagement it was used on, by date and by client role. A dated record shows the framework existed before this buyer.
  3. List what it produced. (45 minutes) One line per engagement: what the client kept or avoided, in the client's money where you have the figure. Where you do not, write what happened and leave the figure blank. Do not estimate.
  4. Separate it from the hours. (20 minutes) In the next proposal, the framework gets its own line, by name. The hours to apply it get another. A method on its own line can be priced, licensed, or protected. A method inside a day rate cannot.
  5. Take the ownership questions to an attorney. (one call) Whether to register the name, and how the contract treats who owns the method, are legal questions. Write them down before the call. The price is a separate question, and it is yours.

See the difference? Before, the buyer pays for your time and gets the framework with it. After, the buyer can see what it is buying.

Translation: a framework with no name and no line on the proposal is priced at zero, however long it took to build.

The example

Black Women’s Wealth Lab® is a federally registered trademark. Cynthia Barnes, its founder, filed it herself. A name on the register is a record that the name is hers. It does not put a price on what the name stands for. That is separate work.

Your template

The framework's name: ____________
The problem it solves, in the buyer's words: ____________
Its steps, in order: ____________
What the client has at the end: ____________
First built (month, year): ____________
Engagements it was used on (date, client role, what it produced):
  1. ____________
  2. ____________
  3. ____________
The next decision it goes into: ____________ (proposal, renewal, license)
The person who signs: ____________
The date: ____________
Questions for the attorney: ____________

What the record does not do

The page names the framework, dates it, and lists what it produced.

It does not say what the framework is worth to this buyer in dollars. That number comes only from valuing the documented record. Not from what a similar course sells for, and not from your day rate.

Before the next proposal or license goes out, give the framework its own name and line. Have it valued before you price it.