You may have already heard of a freelancing arrangement known as subscription services. It has been gaining momentum for some time. I'll explain what Freelance Subscription Services are and whether you can use this method.
Freelance Subscription Services are when clients subscribe to a freelancer's services much like you subscribe to any music streaming service: the client pays a fixed monthly fee, and the freelancer provides an unlimited number of requests and revisions during the paid period.
The frequency of payments can vary: monthly, quarterly, or even once a year. It depends on your field of work and the benefits both you and the client are willing to receive when choosing a longer payment interval.
The Benefits of Freelance Subscription
Undoubtedly, there are numerous advantages, among which is a predictable income. If you have a sufficient number of clients, your revenue stream becomes stable and levels out over time.
Furthermore, as a freelancer, you don't have to worry about a client 'adding more' revisions to the order, for which it's unclear whether additional fees should be requested, especially if the project becomes challenging.
Long-term collaboration, facilitated by the Subscription format, strengthens the bond between you and the client, resembling more of an ongoing partnership. At the same time, you have the freedom to choose both clients and projects – the best of both worlds.
This is also beneficial for the client: the budget is entirely clear and transparent. If someone has worked with you for some time, they already have an understanding of your speed and capabilities, allowing them to plan their tasks accordingly.
How Much Can You Earn
There are cases when freelancers take on more than 30 clients, each of whom can pay around $5,000 per month.
I must say that these are more of the exceptions and usually occur due to the nature of the industry or the freelancer's exceptional professionalism and efficiency. In my opinion, the ideal scenario is having 4-5 clients willing to pay you around $5,000 per month each.
This way, you won't have to work round the clock, and earning $20,000 to $25,000 is more than sufficient. If you don't achieve this level of income within the first three years of work, consider it a target to strive for.
Again, don't forget about maintaining a work-life balance. While the subscription service provides stability, if your income is consistent, in the short term, consider enhancing your skills, and in the long term, gradually raise your rates by about 15% per year.
By the way, raising rates applies to any type of freelancing. In January, notify your clients about the rate increase, give them a month or two to adjust to the idea, and then, actually raise your prices.
How to Start Freelancing with a Subscription Model and What You Need for It
Here are two separate important aspects:
- Skills
- Tools and Equipment
Skills
Like in any profession, you need to be a skilled. This doesn't mean that if you're just starting out, you should forget about Freelance Subscription. Instead, it's advisable to approach this area more cautiously and not make it your primary focus.
The thing is, clients willing to engage in this kind of collaboration initially understand the value of this scheme. Even in cases when the subscription cost is relatively high, say $2,000 to $2,500 per month, the range of clients will be significantly more demanding (difficult to handle) than those willing to pay $4,000 to $7,000 per month.
For a client, paying just $5,000 per month for the opportunity to work with a stable, predictable professional is a gift.
Speed is also crucial. Speed can make a significant difference in any professional's work. It's something you need to focus on separately. Without going into too much detail, I'll say that speed generally leads to the quality of work. It's better to work in smaller, more frequent increments.
Tools
We tend to complicate things we know little about, but to start working with a subscription model, you don't need much.
Traditionally, just like for standard freelancing, you need a website where clients can read about the services you offer, see a few of your best work examples, and learn about subscription options. Even a one-page landing page will do the work.
The subscription setup process is usually quite simple and happens outside of your portfolio website. Clearly, you need to find a suitable payment processing service where you can create a subscription product and provide a link for direct subscription pay.
Tasks processing can be managed using a service like Trello. You only need three columns: To do, Doing, Done. Learn how to create a separate board for the client, so when they add a new task to the queue, it appears on your board in the 'Doing' column.
Orders are executed simply one by one. You can promise that processing an individual request will take about one to two days. Of course, it depends on the task, but if it's too large, you either take a bit longer or break it into smaller tasks, so you can show parts of the completed work to the client.
Rules
It's essential to adhere to a few rules that you can explain during a scheduled call, before a purchase, or on the portfolio website page (and this is the only part that need to have an actual call, it convince the Client that behind the curtain sits actual person and does the job)No calls or task discussions with the client tasks on any circumstances.
You work during your working hours, if the client is on fire - it's not your concern, you do everything as efficiently as possible, without breaking your own life.
Tasks are documented in a card, and the client decides how to explain them to you. You complete the task based on the information provided. In most cases, you'll have to make many assumptions, and given the possibility of an unlimited number of revisions and requests, it's better to start working on the task and deliver something along the way as you see fit. In this case, it's better than asking a lot of questions.
You don't integrate into the client's process, you don't adapt to their team, their software, and their corporate chats. You only communicate with one responsible person who provides you information in a way that suits you.
If you start adapting to the client, communicating with multiple managers, working in their software, it will complicate the execution process for you.
You focus on your task, and they handle everything else. As strict as it may sound, in my opinion, it benefits all parties involved.
Financial Aspects of the Subscription System
The subscription format encourages long-term collaboration, but it doesn't mean that the client will be with you forever. Besides, one of the peculiarities is that Client can pause the subscription. I assume that different payment processing services may limit this option, but generally, it works like this.
Regardless of whether the subscription is on pause, the client will definitely pay for at least one month to start working with you.
Approximately half of the clients will do this - try to buy some time to make the paid amount fully worthwhile.
Another part of the clients, undoubtedly a smaller portion, will continue to use your services without putting the subscription on pause and won't burden you much with work requests. These are the features and differences in business types and their relationships with service providers.
Suitable Fields for Freelance Subscription Work
Here, you should decide for yourself, but I'm sure that the following fields will definitely be on the list: creative and artistic services, web developers, copywriters and content marketers, various types of digital marketing, and technical support.
In my observation, specialists offering a wide range of services are in demand. This makes sense from the client's perspective when they see that one person can cover the range of services offered by studios.
Studios are also formed when a group of freelancers with various skills join forces to attract clients. This is an area I would like to study in more detail.
Conclusion
Overall, I see Freelance Subscription Services as an excellent alternative to the traditional approach of being an independent specialist. Furthermore, no one is forcing you to give up the traditional process of individual orders. It all depends on your willingness and preferences.
That's all for today; see you in a week,
Dmitry.
Freelance Subscription Services are when clients subscribe to a freelancer's services much like you subscribe to any music streaming service: the client pays a fixed monthly fee, and the freelancer provides an unlimited number of requests and revisions during the paid period.
The frequency of payments can vary: monthly, quarterly, or even once a year. It depends on your field of work and the benefits both you and the client are willing to receive when choosing a longer payment interval.
The Benefits of Freelance Subscription
Undoubtedly, there are numerous advantages, among which is a predictable income. If you have a sufficient number of clients, your revenue stream becomes stable and levels out over time.
Furthermore, as a freelancer, you don't have to worry about a client 'adding more' revisions to the order, for which it's unclear whether additional fees should be requested, especially if the project becomes challenging.
Long-term collaboration, facilitated by the Subscription format, strengthens the bond between you and the client, resembling more of an ongoing partnership. At the same time, you have the freedom to choose both clients and projects – the best of both worlds.
This is also beneficial for the client: the budget is entirely clear and transparent. If someone has worked with you for some time, they already have an understanding of your speed and capabilities, allowing them to plan their tasks accordingly.
How Much Can You Earn
There are cases when freelancers take on more than 30 clients, each of whom can pay around $5,000 per month.
I must say that these are more of the exceptions and usually occur due to the nature of the industry or the freelancer's exceptional professionalism and efficiency. In my opinion, the ideal scenario is having 4-5 clients willing to pay you around $5,000 per month each.
This way, you won't have to work round the clock, and earning $20,000 to $25,000 is more than sufficient. If you don't achieve this level of income within the first three years of work, consider it a target to strive for.
Again, don't forget about maintaining a work-life balance. While the subscription service provides stability, if your income is consistent, in the short term, consider enhancing your skills, and in the long term, gradually raise your rates by about 15% per year.
By the way, raising rates applies to any type of freelancing. In January, notify your clients about the rate increase, give them a month or two to adjust to the idea, and then, actually raise your prices.
How to Start Freelancing with a Subscription Model and What You Need for It
Here are two separate important aspects:
- Skills
- Tools and Equipment
Skills
Like in any profession, you need to be a skilled. This doesn't mean that if you're just starting out, you should forget about Freelance Subscription. Instead, it's advisable to approach this area more cautiously and not make it your primary focus.
The thing is, clients willing to engage in this kind of collaboration initially understand the value of this scheme. Even in cases when the subscription cost is relatively high, say $2,000 to $2,500 per month, the range of clients will be significantly more demanding (difficult to handle) than those willing to pay $4,000 to $7,000 per month.
For a client, paying just $5,000 per month for the opportunity to work with a stable, predictable professional is a gift.
Speed is also crucial. Speed can make a significant difference in any professional's work. It's something you need to focus on separately. Without going into too much detail, I'll say that speed generally leads to the quality of work. It's better to work in smaller, more frequent increments.
Tools
We tend to complicate things we know little about, but to start working with a subscription model, you don't need much.
Traditionally, just like for standard freelancing, you need a website where clients can read about the services you offer, see a few of your best work examples, and learn about subscription options. Even a one-page landing page will do the work.
The subscription setup process is usually quite simple and happens outside of your portfolio website. Clearly, you need to find a suitable payment processing service where you can create a subscription product and provide a link for direct subscription pay.
Tasks processing can be managed using a service like Trello. You only need three columns: To do, Doing, Done. Learn how to create a separate board for the client, so when they add a new task to the queue, it appears on your board in the 'Doing' column.
Orders are executed simply one by one. You can promise that processing an individual request will take about one to two days. Of course, it depends on the task, but if it's too large, you either take a bit longer or break it into smaller tasks, so you can show parts of the completed work to the client.
Rules
It's essential to adhere to a few rules that you can explain during a scheduled call, before a purchase, or on the portfolio website page (and this is the only part that need to have an actual call, it convince the Client that behind the curtain sits actual person and does the job)No calls or task discussions with the client tasks on any circumstances.
You work during your working hours, if the client is on fire - it's not your concern, you do everything as efficiently as possible, without breaking your own life.
Tasks are documented in a card, and the client decides how to explain them to you. You complete the task based on the information provided. In most cases, you'll have to make many assumptions, and given the possibility of an unlimited number of revisions and requests, it's better to start working on the task and deliver something along the way as you see fit. In this case, it's better than asking a lot of questions.
You don't integrate into the client's process, you don't adapt to their team, their software, and their corporate chats. You only communicate with one responsible person who provides you information in a way that suits you.
If you start adapting to the client, communicating with multiple managers, working in their software, it will complicate the execution process for you.
You focus on your task, and they handle everything else. As strict as it may sound, in my opinion, it benefits all parties involved.
Financial Aspects of the Subscription System
The subscription format encourages long-term collaboration, but it doesn't mean that the client will be with you forever. Besides, one of the peculiarities is that Client can pause the subscription. I assume that different payment processing services may limit this option, but generally, it works like this.
Regardless of whether the subscription is on pause, the client will definitely pay for at least one month to start working with you.
Approximately half of the clients will do this - try to buy some time to make the paid amount fully worthwhile.
Another part of the clients, undoubtedly a smaller portion, will continue to use your services without putting the subscription on pause and won't burden you much with work requests. These are the features and differences in business types and their relationships with service providers.
Suitable Fields for Freelance Subscription Work
Here, you should decide for yourself, but I'm sure that the following fields will definitely be on the list: creative and artistic services, web developers, copywriters and content marketers, various types of digital marketing, and technical support.
In my observation, specialists offering a wide range of services are in demand. This makes sense from the client's perspective when they see that one person can cover the range of services offered by studios.
Studios are also formed when a group of freelancers with various skills join forces to attract clients. This is an area I would like to study in more detail.
Conclusion
Overall, I see Freelance Subscription Services as an excellent alternative to the traditional approach of being an independent specialist. Furthermore, no one is forcing you to give up the traditional process of individual orders. It all depends on your willingness and preferences.
That's all for today; see you in a week,
Dmitry.
