Hey everyone,

I started planning to start my design subscription business 4-5 months ago. The preparation and launching took me almost 3 months.

What methods I tried

Then I started digging to acquire clients. I tried posting on Linkedin, X, Facebook Page, Reddit, Indie Hackers, Hackernews and some other platforms.

I am also trying FB boosting, Dribbble boosting, and X ads. I tried cold emailing too, but this needs another level of expertise, I think in the future I might hire people to do cold emailing.

Wait I forgot to share my website, here it is 👉 Pentaclay

What methods I might try next

I’ll try influencer marketing, shoutouts, and paid featured on various websites in the near future. Maybe after getting 2 more clients. This will help me gain some cash to run these.

How I got my first client

Two months ago a prospect messaged me on LinkedIn. I convinced him to jump into a call, I hadn’t released my design subscription website yet.

After two months of back-and-forth communication, and cold follow-ups, finally he subscribed for a 15-day trial subscription for $1090. That’s a clear win for me.

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I know taking this long to land a client won’t be feasible for this business, but for starting or for may be first 5 clients I need to dig this way.

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Let me know your thoughts 👇 Thanks.

    • evenceena@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Just realized that your monthly price is over $1k and it’s just single customer, kind of shocking in a good way.

      Can you explain how and why you charging that much? And how do you think it will be sustainable for growth?

      • pentaclay@alien.topOPBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Thank you. You raised a good point 😊

        Here’s my rational thinking behind this 👇

        Before jumping into the pricing section you need to elevate the client’s interest to work with you. It can be with your landing page, portfolio, testimonial, or a 15-minute intro call.

        Let’s talk about pricing, suppose you need to hire a full-time designer and you’re from the UK and the US, you need to pay more than $5000 a month even for 2-3 years of experience designer. Plus, you need to provide benefits.

        If you’re considering hiring remotely from ASIA, nowadays you won’t find an experienced designer below $2000, hiring remote designers starts from $2500-$3000 a month.

        Plus, hiring full-time might take months to onboard a talented designer, and if you find out he/she is not suitable for you, you can’t lay off him within 3-6 months in most cases. Now calculate the financial loss.

        Considering hiring a freelancer? 😯

        Suppose you need a logo, a business card, a 12-page website, and some marketing materials like Facebook posts, Linkedin posts, etc.

        Now you need to look for freelancers, might need to hire 2 freelancers, and need to estimate/bargain each item’s price separately. Now calculate the total price, it will be more than $2500.

        🏆 Why subscription business is better? 🏅

        ✅ You can research 10-15 design subscription businesses within a couple of days. Jump into a call with all of them within a week.

        ✅ If you’re not still convinced, I do offer a trial package of 14 days for $490 only. It’s super cheap to test out a design agency or 11 years experienced designer like me.

        ✅ Onboard designer in hours

        ✅ Get designs within 48 hours

        ✅ No month-to-month contract, cancel or pause anytime.

        I understand your question, but when you connect all these dots you’ll find it super cheap and affordable.

        Now tell me is my pricing high? 👇

        • evenceena@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Sorry late response, this is my new account. Thanks for detailed response and it kind of make sense, yours even seems cheaper comparing similar services that I just encountered on Twitter which starts at 4100$.

          • pentaclay@alien.topOPBEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            There are services that offer $4990 & $6490. It all depends on your experience and business position whom you target as your clients.