Turn Your Freelance Design Service into a Subscription Product

Offer your design skills as a subscription service to save time and make more money.

Major insight:

If you're a freelance or employed designer, making your skills available as a subscription service can help you save time and make more money. This business idea has already been tested, so there's no need for market validation. All you have to do is build it correctly from scratch.

To help you begin, I've prepared a business plan and a step-by-step checklist for launching your design service as a monthly subscription product. It includes my tech stack and the AI tools I use.

Here's how to turn your design service into a subscription product in six weeks or less.

Important Statistic:

Upwork 's 2022 Freelance Forward survey shows that 39% of the U.S. workforce performed freelance work in 2022, setting a record. This is a 3% increase from 2021, with further growth expected in 2023.

The gig economy is the future of knowledge work. Globally, around 46.5% of the workforce is self-employed, which accounts for about 1.6 billion people.

Why Build a One-Person Business?

I have worked as a UX designer for digital agencies my entire adult life. Initially, I created websites, then gradually moved to digital advertising and eventually to software product design.

About seven years ago, I became a freelance contractor to work remotely and travel the world. Doing my job while working from almost anywhere was a complete game-changer. However, there is one limitation: meetings.

1. Having meetings means living in a specific time zone that overlaps with your clients and colleagues.
2. Meetings mean you always have to keep an eye on the clock and calendar, which causes a subtle sense of anxiety and removes the chance for complete flow.
3. Meetings mean it's hard to get long hours of uninterrupted work done in the middle of the day. You have to do your knowledge work at the beginning or end of the day.

Don't get me wrong, I love collaborative meetings where I'm exchanging ideas with a few other people on a digital whiteboard, but let's be honest, most meetings are different.

Then there's Slack. It's a fantastic tool for asynchronous communication, but I hate having to keep it open all day and check it frequently in case someone messages me something important. Even though there are no rules around returning to people immediately, it's expected.

So, the last step in my master plan to achieve true freedom in my work and life is to convert all my meetings and messages into asynchronous communication.

This would remove all time and location barriers. I could work from as far away as Japan while using the mornings to get into a flow state and the evenings to communicate with clients, freeing up my afternoons to explore.

There would be no more Wednesday "hump day" or "thank God it's Friday." I could work weekends or take days off here and there. I could hit the gym at 11 a.m. or hike at 1 p.m. and work according to my lifestyle preferences and circadian rhythm.

After all, the goal is not to work until one day you can afford to retire; it's to enjoy your work and lifestyle so much that you never have to think about retiring.

A few weeks ago, I came across a YouTube video interviewing a designer named Brett Williams . He claims he makes over a million dollars annually through his subscription-based one-person business?designjoy.co . He treats his design service like a SaaS product that someone would subscribe to. It removes all the friction for him and his clients. No more estimating timelines and budgets or pitching on projects. Customers buy the monthly service and start submitting design requests, like Fiverrr , except he charges $5,000 per month, not $5 per request.

I became fascinated with this model because I saw so many parallels between Brett and myself, except he was able to build the life and career that has eluded me so far; no meetings and no Slack. I started researching the Productize Yourself niche and found it's based on the philosophies of Naval Ravikant . If you have not heard of Naval Ravikant, he's so intelligent and successful that you want to do anything he suggests. As I researched more, I found some great YouTube videos by a gentleman named Dan Koe that expanded on the concept.

When I dug in further, I discovered Brett Williams had just launched the Productize Yourself course . Beautiful timing; I immediately bought it and began working on an MVP landing page for my productized service. The course was worth the $150 price tag for me, but it only goes into light detail. There needs to be a step-by-step process. The course comprises audio files, mainly him reflecting on what he did and how he might do it differently.

Me being me, I built my landing page over that very weekend and figured out what steps I needed to complete to build my entire one-person business, from software integrations to finding my first clients. I planned the entire process in Notion , with weekly checklists to track my progress. I figured out what software integrations I would need and which AI tools would be helpful.

Something that Brett says led to his success was that he "built in public." That means he didn't wait until he was done to share his business publicly and get feedback; he just started creating it and getting feedback on social media.

So that's what I'm doing. I created a 6-week project in Notion to publicly plan and track the progress of building my design service as a subscription product. I'm currently on week 2. If you go to this page , you can see the project.

It's based on the Productize Yourself Online Course by Brett Williams. I've dug deeper into what steps to take and tasks to complete to build yours from scratch.

If you use Notion, I encourage you to duplicate this page in your account and walk through the project independently. Remember that the tools I chose to use are subjective, and you may want to build your one-person business differently than I did.

The following is a breakdown of the six steps needed to build your business from the ground up...

Six Weeks to Getting Clients:

Week 1: Build an MVP Landing Page

To productize your service, I'd like you to begin by packaging it into a single webpage that reads like a SaaS product someone would want to purchase.

1. Understand Your Brand
2. Write Foundation Copy
3. Format & Design Your Landing Page
4. Add Placeholder Visual Content

Week 2: Setup Software Integrations

To make the system work, you must connect several products that allow you to book leads, receive requests, and manage customers.

• Could you create accounts and connect your business?

Week 3: Create Marketing Material

This is my current progress as of the writing of this article. Now that your MVP is launched and ready for marketing, you must create critical materials that convert cold leads into potential customers.

1. Create a Demo Video
2. Create a blog and newsletter that can be used as Youtube video scripts
3. Create short-form content for social media

Week 4: Find & Attract Customers

To start booking sales calls and securing your first customers, set up a system that includes an even mix of automated cold outreach, content marketing, and networking.

1. Content Marketing
2. Network and build new relationships
3. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find potential customers
4. Create a 15min Sales Call Script

Week Five, Six, Beyond:

Week 5: Manage Customers

Your responsibilities will include handling all requests and revisions while ensuring top-quality work. Also, you'll be responsible for gathering testimonials from satisfied customers.

Week 6: Grow Your Business

Once you have a steady stream of customers keeping you busy, you must grow your business by finding, hiring, and managing a team of freelance contractors. This approach allows you to work as much or as little as you like, enabling you to balance your work and personal life better.

Beyond

This is a living document that I,?Bal Sieber , created and am maintaining as I launch my own productized design service. It serves as a roadmap for the future, capturing my journey so that others can learn from it. View this project on Notion?here .

Conclusion:

In conclusion, transforming your freelance design skills into a subscription service is a journey worth considering. It offers an exciting path towards greater income, more freedom, and the chance to operate a one-person business that aligns with the projects you enjoy most.

Reference:?View Bal Sieber’s Productized Design Service

View This Project in Notion

To build your own one-person subscription design product, follow these checklist steps after duplicating this Notion page:

• Define your niche and target audience
• Determine your pricing strategy
• Create a website to showcase your product and accept subscriptions
• Develop a marketing plan to reach your target audience
• Create a workflow and process for delivering your design product to subscribers
• Provide excellent customer service to retain subscribers and attract new ones
• Continuously evaluate and improve your product and business strategy to stay relevant and successful

Once you have completed these steps, you will be ready to launch and grow your one-person subscription design product.