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·
      10 months 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·
        10 months 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·
          10 months 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·
            10 months ago

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