Creative news fork

How to Adopt a Membership / Subscription Business Model

Dec 9, 2022

Contents

Reader Disclosure

    It's a lot easier and more affordable than you'd think!  

This guide will provide you with information to help your business make the transition to a membership-based model.

In the beginning, we'll discuss some benefits of the membership model prior to taking a look at businesses that are well suited to moving to membership. In the end, we'll give you ideas on how you can change your business.

If you're looking to end trading time to earn money and add a new revenue stream to your business or even move your business away from the current structure and establish a membership website, this guide can help.

Let's begin...

Benefits of the Model of Membership

One of the most attractive benefits of changing to the model of membership is the potential for recurring income.

Recurring Revenue

If you are able to sign users on a subscription basis and receive payments at regular intervals, on a consistent basis.

Predictable Income

Recurring revenue is a guarantee. If you're working as an independent contractor or managing an agency, you'll be acquainted with the cycles of feasting and feasting.

One month you might have more work than you can handle, other months you see a dip in your income. A membership plan can create a predictable revenue stream which can make budgeting more efficient.

Passive Earnings

One of the major benefits of the membership model is the possibility of the possibility of earning passive income. Although your venture will likely need a significant amount of effort up front, as well as ongoing maintenance and upgrades in addition to the admin tasks associated with the growing number of clients The potential for an income stream that is passive is higher than if you're just an ordinary service provider.

If you take a few days, a week, or perhaps a longer time off from work, depending on how you've setup your membership-based business, cash will continue to come in from your existing members and sign-ups from new members.

Scalability

If you've been operating in a company where you're your main asset and the person that does the majority of the work, then another benefit of the membership model is the greater opportunity for growing and outsourcing.

If you're in the business of offering an online education program (more membership site ideas are available later in this post) You can employ employees to assist with managing your training course as you concentrate on creating content.

If you offer access to certain assets for instance, stock images or code snippets that are available on an annual basis, for example hiring people to help with creating these things.

The model of membership offers plenty of opportunities for automated processes, making it easier to scale and outsource than a regular freelance gig.

Recycle and reuse your Content

Instead of developing a amazing WordPress website for a single client, then moving onto another project You could create the highest-quality WordPress theme that you can make open to all of your clients.

Similar to other items that you might create for clients on a one-off basis. If you're providing services for coaching or consultation to clients, it's possible to reuse the knowledge in the form of videos or other training content that you make available on your membership website.

Instead of working on a one-to-one basis with those you help by working on a membership website model, it let's your repurpose and reuse your talents, knowledge, and other assets to work in the context of a one-to-many connection.

Now that we've uncovered some of the main benefits of the membership model we can look into what sorts of businesses can make this transition.

Businesses that are able to transition into the Membership Model

It's a good thing that, with some imagination, the majority of companies can move to a membership model one method or another.

Coaching and consulting

Those who are experts in their field or possess enough expertise to ensure that customers are already paying them for their services, make the perfect candidates to adopt the concept of membership.

Sharing your knowledge and experience and making it available through an online paywall can be a great way of helping more people while also earning recurring earnings in the process.

Service Providers

Professional service providers like freelance graphic designers and coders can transition their business to the model of membership too.

Designers and illustrators could start a subscription service where their subscribers have access to a certain number of stock images or editable templates every month, in exchange for a recurring fee.

The developers could develop products that are similar to the ones they develop for their clients and make them available to their members.

Product Businesses

Also, it is possible for the creators of physical items to make the transition into a subscription model. Subscription boxes are becoming increasingly sought-after.

Instead of offering products that are available for purchase for a single purchase, you could switch to letting your customers join, sign up and become members who then get products on a regular basis.

It has been successful for beer, clothing, coffee, and books to name just a few. It doesn't require you to be the creator of the products, just someone who knows how to curate an attractive monthly subscription box.

If you're still not sure the best way to move your company to a membership model the last section of this article has some tips on using your abilities and expertise to start the new initiative of membership independent of your existing business.

Ideas for Transitioning to the Model of Membership

Offer Productized Services

A possible alternative is switching from providing bespoke services to offering a standardized service. One example of this could apply to freelance writers.

Instead of approaching each customer in a different way and giving them a personalized service based on their specific needs, try creating just one package and marketing that towards your intended audience. This could for example be a subscription plan with 4 blog articles of 500 words each month, at a predetermined cost.

With a productized service, your customers register, sign up for the subscription program. Even though you write unique content for each member, everyone gets the same amount of material that is the same in every month. This removes a lot of the negotiating and other time-consuming duties that go with giving every customer something unique.

Another benefit of offering productized services as part of your membership plan is that you'll operate using strict guidelines and protocols and not treating each assignment as an individual task. This means that outsourcing and scaling are simpler since the staff are able to use these processes to provide the same service to all of your members. Like companies such as Design Pickle have shown, this approach can be used with graphic design so there's the possibility that it can work for your services.

Create Educational Content

As mentioned earlier, if your customers pay you to learn, you are able to make money off that expertise and share it with the members who pay.

Create an Community

The role you play could include organizing and hosting online events, or something less hands-on like facilitating the interaction of your members. Transitioning fully to a membership-based model using this strategy could mean the addition of more features and content to your community, so that it becomes more useful which allows members to pay more for membership access.

Start a Completely New Venture

There may not be the way to allow your firm to move to membership but you'd still like to reap the advantages of the model of membership, such as recurring revenue as well as serving a larger audience.

If so then it's time to begin a completely new venture within a sector that's not related to your current business, or, at the very least, separate from the business. Do you have any hobbies or areas of expertise that you think people might be willing to pay to connect with you about or learn from you?

Maybe you're an experienced pianist and want make money from this passion by creating online learning materials for others to learn how to play. You might be a fan of fitness and want to inspire others to get healthy and fit.

You could even create your own membership website which is distinct from your company, but that teaches others how to start working in your current field. In the case of a freelance photographer instead of converting your business to the member-based model, you might create a separate membership website that teaches others how to start a career in freelance photography. Perhaps a site for membership that helps your audience to take better pictures is a more appealing way to earn money for your expertise.

With the right tools and commitment to creating relevant content and an eagerness to promote your site to the right group, creating a successful membership site is possible for lots of individuals.

Don't forget that you don't need to be the best within your field of expertise, you just need to understand more about the people you're helping.

Final thoughts

This guide to how your business can transition to a membership-based model provided you with the advantages that come with it and also given you some ideas on what you could do.

This won't be an easy task, and it will take away from your time that you invest in your enterprise. The rewards could be worth it, particularly when the notion of regular revenue and predictable income, as well as the ability to scale and generate an income that is passive, appeal to you.

 Can your business transition to a membership-based model? Let us know, and ask us any questions you may have in the comments section below.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow the blog via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram as well as LinkedIn! And don't forget to subscribe in the box.