“In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to take risks.”

I have heard some version of that advice many times and from many places. I believe it is true. However, I am an extremely risk-averse person! 

It would be easy to look my way and speak of missed opportunities, chances I did not take, and the like. But the simple reality is that I’ve built a stable and growing recurring income base that supports my family, allows me to purchase things I need in the business, give charitably, etc. 

And I have done this while embracing a risk-averse mentality!

If you want to jump into Subscription Web Design, but you’re not quite sure how to build the financial runway you need, this article will teach you exactly what to do. 

Step 1. Find Your Point of No Return

Having been “around the block” of business, so to speak, everyone seems to have an opinion on the best way to make the leap into a full-time living. 

The game-changer for my family has been moving full-time into subscription web design, whether you’re getting there from current employment (like I did!) or from the normal “feast and famine” web design routine you’re familiar with. 

In either case, you might find a Point of No Return. This is a positive place. This Point is the number that, once you hit it, you never have to take another traditional project fee again.

I hate math; fortunately, subscription math is pretty simple. 

You need to determine: 

1. What you need to make

2. What you want to charge

3. How many clients you need to close that distance

That’s it!

So, if you need to make $8,000/month and want to charge $300/month, you need 27 clients to meet your goal.

Here’s a caveat, though: Make this number the lowest viable income. 

In my own situation, had I waited until what I really wanted to make in order to support my family, I would have been waiting for a while. I am a person of faith, and I stepped out on faith—in a nevertheless calculated way—when I decided to make the jump. 

I truly believe one factor in the success I’ve had is making the jump at a time when I wasn’t quite where I needed to be, but where I could also meet our basic expenses. 

Step 2. Prune Your Excess

In that spirit, you must be willing to prune any excesses you currently have, in both your business and personal expenses. 

My grandmother (yours too, probably) used to say, “A penny saved is a penny earned!” It took a very long time to understand that. And her sentiments are echoed in classics like The Richest Man in Babylon and The Art of Moneygetting.

This advice strikes at our human propensity to spend a dollar the moment we have it. If we find ourselves on the hook for less, less will be spent. 

So ask yourself honestly: Are there habits, subscriptions, or tools getting in the way of my financial freedom?

If the answer is yes, prune them. Make the hard decision to cut out the “nice-to-have’s,” knowing with confidence that if you do this right, you will be able to afford them again. 

Winners embrace delayed gratification. Winners know good things come to those who wait. Winners know that time is on their side. Winners know that patience is a virtue. 

Step 3. Build and Promote Your Subscription Offering

Now, get to work. Start by designing your very own Subscription Web Design offering and promoting it to past, current, and future clients.

This is arguably the hardest step because you have to overcome a HUGE Catch-22: You need subscription clients, but if you’re on the Client Conveyor Belt, you also need traditional-paying clients in order to eat and survive. 

While I cannot directly relate to this tension, I get it. It would be hypocritical to say I have a great solution because I simply have not been there. 

Here’s one thing I know for CERTAIN, though: If you don’t promote your subscription offering, you won’t get subscription clients.

So however creative you have to get, however much you need to save up in order to feel comfortable doing it, you need to start offering subscription packages. The sooner you do, the sooner you start the Client Value Escalator and start building a more stable, sustainable business. 

Step 4. Onboard Foundation Clients

Even though I can’t relate to the Catch-22 mentioned above, I can relate to the feeling that “more money, faster” helps to close the gap between what you need to make and want to charge. 

Rant: Ever get the feeling that when people try to hype you up and sell you their programs, they’re not being entirely honest about their own path to success? Yeah, I hate that. So one of my commitments is to be completely transparent with you. 

When I made the jump to full-time, roughly half of my income came from one client—a white label client. They are still my client today and have been part of the subscription model from day 1 of working with me (the numbers have grown, of course). 

I used to view this as a disadvantage. It might be a cooler story if I had 30-50 clients out of the gate, all paying the same amount. However, my tune has changed. 

You see, 30-50 clients has the potential to be an administrative burden. And thanks to the roster I had, I was able to go full-time with just 12 clients on my subscription plans. 

So I have reframed my thinking. I no longer think it was a “bad thing” that one of my clients made up that much revenue. Sure, it’s great to spread the risk more, but when I was employed somewhere I only had ONE client! How’s that for risk!?

The point: To accelerate the leap into full-time subscription web design, you need Foundation Clients. At least one, but 2-3 is preferable. 

Here’s my definition: 

A Foundation Client is a client that makes up a significant portion of your revenue and provides you with consistent opportunities for work.

There are different “types” of Foundation Clients. The two most common that I’ve seen are:

• White Label Clients: Clients whose brand you work under to produce results for their clients

• Big Fish Clients: Clients who have the time or result requirements of an in-house employee, but are willing to pay and interact with you as a contractor

I think you should embrace Foundation Clients. When you’re in a service business, there’s only so much you can do to level the playing field across your client base (though I’m a fan of that where possible). 

Foundation Clients can “jumpstart” the growth and stability of your business, so I think you should be on the lookout for them. Of course, beware that losing a Foundation Client stinks and can, obviously, cause a big hit to your revenue if they leave. 

You should plan for that, yes—but don’t be afraid to take advantage of those relationships when you’re fortunate to have them. Go forward confidently knowing they are helping to pay the bills, and roll with the punches when they come. 

Step 5. HustleMode: Create Your Temporary Schedule

You can do anything you want. You just can’t do everything you want. — Michael Hyatt

I have a love/hate relationship with “Hustle Culture.” I will expand below, but my basic philosophy is this: “There is a time to hustle; those times are necessary but should be rare.”

Anytime you are making a seismic shift in your business, you should anticipate and will be willing to dedicate time to hustle. Although the example may feel a bit grandiose, consider Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. 

He “joked” that his 80 hr work weeks have, for a season, turned into 120-hour work weeks. To be clear, I never advocate that a person work that long. But his point is pertinent even at a smaller scale. 

When change comes, it is neither unusual nor unreasonable to allow for a period of hustle. 

Practically, you should create a temporary schedule for yourself that acknowledges the needed hustle. You should get other “stakeholders” (spouses, business associates, etc) involved as well, making sure they are aware of the changes you are making and the commitment it will require. 

Then you must—and I cannot stress this enough—make sure you plan a time or a metric that signals the END of HustleMode. It cannot last forever. This is a huge temptation for people like me (and presumably you) who find working on or in the business akin to eating a delicious steak. 

Just because you could work forever does not mean you should work forever. Treat these times with seasonality and give them the respect they deserve; but no more than that.

If you play your cards right, you can work HustleMode until your curve flattens out and you don’t have to do quite as much prospecting, have as many conversations, or manage as many projects at once. 

Step 6. Move Your Dollars Wisely

When I say “last but not least,” I really, really mean it. This point could have easily been first. 

You must be militaristic about the movement of your money. While I am not a financial advisor (nor do I play one on TV), it is important that you be very intentional about your business and personal finances. 

I care so much about this that I created a module for budgeting inside of my Getting Started with Subscription Web Design course.

Consider implementing Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First system. It teaches you the importance of profitability from day 1 and keeps everything in perspective. 

You will learn how to set aside the right amount for taxes, how you should pay for contractors, how to start and stay profitable, and much more. Once you have this system down, every single dollar that comes in will be spoken for by way of what Mike calls Target Allocation Percentages. 

Hear me: This is crucial to making sure your efforts to switch to Subscription Web Design do not fail. I think budgeting is perhaps the most important part of the process. Don’t skip it.

Start!

Ultimately, you have to start. No more excuses. It’s time to put yourself out there. Start offering this to clients and change the game for your life and business. 

I would be honored to help you along the way. Join my mentorship program today to get personalized help on our bi-weekly group calls.

When you begin to think the Subscription Way, you get to focus your attention on the right things in your business. 

Instead of focusing on client acquisition, you focus on client ascension. Instead of churning and burning through clients, you get to create deep, value-driven relationships. Instead of wondering where the next dollar will come from, you go to the well of dollars already coming in and dig deeper to find more. 

Instead of feast or famine, you build Consistent Abundance.

The Client Value Escalator 

I first learned about the concept of a “value ladder” from Russell Brunson. 

It’s easy enough to understand. As the value you provide a client rises, the more money that customer spends with you. 

In order for this to work, though, you need a natural path to ascension. 

I prefer to think of this as a value escalator because it’s the opposite of the way web designers typically treat clients: As though they are on a conveyor belt. 

This is not fair to our clients or good for our business! Why, then, do we perpetuate this vicious cycle? 

Stop the madness.

The Mindset Shift 

As you go deeper into the Subscription Way, you will need to adjust your product and service offerings in such a way that they are consistent with your business model. 

Let’s say that, at least as of right now, you only offer website design services and only plan to offer website design services in the future. Right now, there are no plans to branch out into print design, email marketing, or anything else. 

That’s fine! There is a path for you here as well, though it may not be so obvious, and we’ll cover that in just a bit. 

So, what is the goal here? Well—if you are going to keep your Subscription Web Design clients coming back for more, you must give them something more to come back to.

For those in the back, let me zoom out and make one thing very clear: 

If you are choosing to go follow the Subscription Way, you are already FAR ahead of the pack.

Here’s why: 

1. You value stability over windfalls, and you’ve designed your business with that in mind. 

2. You have built-in transaction frequency, as you don’t have to work hard to get clients to spend with you every month. It happens automatically. 

3. You have built-in Pain of Disconnect. It’s painful for people to leave because they would need to find another vendor, get their own hosting, make the transfer happen, point domain names, etc. 

4. You’re creating what I call The Assumption of Continuity. Your clients will get the sense that they’ll just pay you forever to be their web guy/gal/team. (Forever clients? Heck yeah!)

5. You don’t need double-digit new clients to make ends meet. In fact, you can run a successful six-figure business on (easily) less than 20 clients. 

The problem comes in if your clients get the perception that (1) you only sell website designs and (2) they’re getting everything you offer in their subscription. 

By the way, I have made the mistake of having this perception myself and I am ashamed to say that it, in some ways, stunted the growth of my business. 

I want to help you avoid that trap, which is why are having this conversation.

The Scaling Fork

In this industry, we often treat the word “Scale” as optional. I’m not sure that’s right. 

I think in order for a business to be sustainable, it must not remain stagnant. It must grow—or scale—in at least some ways in order to not fall behind. 

So the question is not really, “Am I going to scale the business?” It’s “How am I going to scale the business?” 

As far as I can tell, a subscription web designer really only has two paths to scaling (i.e., the scaling “fork” in the road): Scaling In or Scaling Out (or both).

Scaling In 

Scaling In is the art of diving even deeper into the kind of services you already provide. In this case, website design services. We already know you do that, so let’s start there. 

Right now, you probably have two general categories of projects: Brand-new builds and rebuilds. 

The “curse of knowledge” (see Storybrand by Donald Miller) influences our thinking, and we often look at a website build as one thing that we do and do well. We take for granted how much really goes into it. 

In reality, a website build can be broken up into much smaller pieces, each of which can be sold on their own. By the way, this can even happen before the initial build. 

For example, you could create a product on the front end called an “Advanced Website Audit.” If you take to a customer who has a current website but isn’t sure what they currently need, you could offer this product as a low-cost starting point to make sure they feel confident moving forward. 

Most of this is probably work you are going to subconsciously “throw in for free” during the website build. But you could charge for this time instead.

The same thing is true on the back end, though. After a client completes a website with you, how do you keep the relationship going? 

Today, the most common way seems to be Website Management plans. This is a starting place, and I love it because it is a continuity model. 

But there’s more to be done here. We’ll use a tangible example below, but first, let’s talk about Scaling Out.

Scaling Out

Scaling In is for those who do not want to bridge too far into digital marketing. It focuses on-site. 

Scaling Out is for those who do want to make the leap and convert their web design business into a digital marketing business, where web design is just one service in a comprehensive list of many that help your clients grow.

While Scaling In and Out share many similar products and services, some are going to be reserved for Scaling Out, such as social media management, email newsletters, and reputation management. 

Of course, these things hook into your clients’ websites, but the setup and management of those require a different skill set than web design. 

We made the decision to Scale Out our business, with a Signature Process we developed called CREST:

1. Conversion-based website

2. Review and reputation management

3. Email newsletter

4. SEO’d Blogs

5. Tracking and testing

Each of these high-level activities can nest into additional opportunities (and sometimes do). But, our focus is less about going deeper into those areas and more on branching “out” from one step to the next. 

You can do the same whether you decide to Scale In or Scale Out! It all starts with creating a signature process of your own.

Your Signature Process

Every web designer should have a Signature Process. This is something that will help you design a consistent experience for your clients and help you show up with confidence from the very first sales opportunity. 

To really work, your Signature Process needs three elements: 

• A Path of Ascension

• Scheduled Checkins

• Languaged Frameworks

A Path of Ascension is like a map. It’s the intentional journey you’d like to take clients on. It’s definitional. It clarifies what you want to do, what you can deliver on, and vice versa. 

This path should make sense given the structure of your business, the needs of your target customer, and the overall expectations of your industry. 

Your path could include a mix of services such as:

• Full website design

• Landing page design

• Blog design

• Blog writing 

• SEO Tune-Ups

• Ongoing SEO

• Weekly/Monthly Blogging Packages

• Monthly Maintenance Plans

• Plugin Setup Packages

• Email Opt-In Creation

• Email Newsletter Creation

• Facebook Ads

• Review and Reputation Management

• A/B Split Testing

• Heatmapping and Optimization

• And more! 

Feel free to use my list above as a starting point and add/takeaway services until you have the largest menu possible of services you are willing to do. 

Bonus if you are currently able to do them, but don’t let that stop you! You can always learn and/or find help. Trust me, your business will be better for it in the longterm. 

Now, you’re going to choose between 3-5 of those services and create your Signature Process. Arrange them in ascending order of value, such that as you provide the relevant value for the service, you are charging the appropriate price, and moving deeper into the relationship. 

The Scheduled check-in is like a waypoint. The thinking here is simple. If you don’t connect regularly with your clients, you can’t take them to the next step of your process. 

In my opinion, this connection should look phone/video calls on a scheduled interval (monthly, quarterly, etc). I recommend quarterly. 

This gives you a chance to create human connection, check in with your client, get a pulse for their business, and if appropriate, offer them the next step in your process. 

Languaged Frameworks are like tools. A book could be written on this topic (and has been). This is how you differentiate and make everyday “boring” services sound new, fresh, and exciting. 

It will give your clients the sense that you are knowledgeable, original, and able to help their situation. 

Let’s do it together, shall we? 

Putting Your Signature Process Together

In our example, you’ve decided to add the following five services to your Signature Process: 

1. A website audit

2. Website design

3. Website maintenance

4. Email opt-in creation

5. SEO reporting and monitoring 

This terminology is something we understand and we will have to explain it to our clients. If we have to do that anyway, why not make it our own? 

We can differentiate and bring a unique offering to the table by “Languaging” and clarifying. 

So our Signature Process could become:

1. Website Effectiveness Audit

2. Custom Website Build

3. WebCare Monitoring & Maintenance

4. LeadGrabber Email Upgrade

5. Search Optimization Pro Package

By the way, nothing sacred about these names. I could have spent 10 minutes and come up with 5 different renditions of each. 

The point isn’t necessarily what each service becomes, the point is that it becomes something relatively unique. 

Scale is Not an Option

At the end of the day, you must scale. Whether In or Out, it matters not, but scale must be the goal in order to craft amazing relationships with your clients and build stability into your business. 

It probably goes without saying, but for any services you decide to add, do your best to offer it within the context of an additional subscription! 

Consider the email opt-in service. Sure, you could do that one time, charge a nice little fee for that, and it’s not. But you know as well as I do that new lead magnets need to be created fairly often. 

Why not offer a subscription service that delivers a new lead magnet with an email autoresponder each quarter? (Heck, I might do that!)

It’s all about being creative and serving your customers at a high level. You got this!

Subscribe now

Alex Hermozi is a very successful business owner kind enough to share his best insights on YouTube, TikTok, and wherever else he can. This video is just one more proof that the subscription model is here to stay, even in web design. Watch it and feel free to comment on this thread to discuss!

In my Getting Started course, I describe a few different ways to get started in Subscription Web Design. 

The ideal, of course, is that your entire offering—including the design and build of the site itself—is wrapped inside of a subscription program. 

That’s how you create stability in your business and a longterm mindset with your clients. 

But for many, the decision to move quickly into a full-fledged subscription web design model is a bit nerve-racking. 

Fortunately, there is a way to get started that requires little adjustment to your overall business and will be easy for clients to understand. 

What Happens When You Don’t Manage a WordPress Website

Let me tell you a story. 

When I first began offering website design services in the mid 2000’s, I did not have the subscription model in mind. 

As a result, I did not have any systematic way of following up with clients after their project was completed. Sure, if they came back to me, I would be willing and available to do work for them. 

But this rarely happened.

Plus, I was busy with other new projects that came along, so it was not feasible for me to keep track of those clients and reach out to make sure things were okay. 

To make matters worse, this was at a time when it was not as easy—or as common—to log into a website and make changes as it is today. These days, it’s almost like editing a Facebook page. 

Even WordPress was relatively new back then, though, and people didn’t know what they were doing. 

So while I never followed up with clients, they did not end up doing much on their own, either. 

This is the death knell for a website.

Murphy’s Law took over. Sites got neglected, out of date, infected with malware, and completely shut down. Or in the case of one website I designed for a pastor, redirected to a pornography site. 

Yikes. 

It was not a pretty picture, and it was entirely my fault. There was nothing built into my process for working with those clients long-term. 

Introducing CarePhase: The Website Management Model

Before diving “whole hog” into the Subscription Web Design model, I decided to latch onto a trend I was seeing in the web design community. 

They called it a “maintenance plan.” I never liked the term (more on that later), but it was a neat idea. 

The premise was this: For a relatively small monthly fee, we’ll keep the website updated, backed up, and maintained from a security perspective. 

Doing this would ensure that could at the very least keep the website from getting hacked and infecting other sites on the server (yes, this was before moving away from “shared” hosting). 

And it worked! 

It didn’t really help with people using their website. It did, however, keep the status quo. As long as we were keeping a good eye on the website itself, it would not get hacked and everything was hunky dory. 

Over time, I pretty much dropped the word “maintenance” from my vocabulary where possible and opted instead to start using the word “management.” 

Website Maintenance implies reactionary work—Website Management implies proactive work. And, also over time, the work became more proactive in nature. We started to include an hour of small changes to the site throughout the time period and implemented a discount on additional services rendered. 

Here’s what was cool: 

When we did finally take the plunge fully into subscription web design, we developed a four phase system to take clients through:

1. Collect

2. Create

3. Critique

4. Care

And with that, the “CarePhase Website Management” plan was born. This is exactly what I teach students to do in our course and mentorship program.

What is Subscription Web Design?

If you’re new to the concept of subscription web design, allow me to explain: 

Most website designers are living in the “feast or famine” cycle. One month, you might have five projects come in…and then the next three months, nothing. 

This is, sadly, the world most web designers live in. And I don’t think this is okay. 

Not only is bad for the designer because of the instability, but it’s bad for the client as well! I have lots of names for “traditional” website design, but my two favorites are: 

1. Pay and pray

2. The client conveyor belt

Fact is, the traditional model puts clients in a situation of paying huge up front fees and then praying their designer keeps their word and stays in communication (which is sadly rare). 

And then, because the web designer has to eat and feed her family, she is forced to quickly move on from that project to another. And if there are no leads in the pipeline, she has to get that thing filled up through uncomfortable networking events, etc. 

Now—look, if you’re in business at all you have to have leads, convert clients, etc. The subscription model does not get you out of that. 

However, it’s an entirely different experience. This model assumes long-term relationships with your clients. It assumes clients will pay you month after month, year after year, and as you add more/improved services to your offerings, you can gain more wallet share from them.

This is a radical departure from the way most web designers work, which means you may be thinking it is risky or scary to jump into. 

And while I’d say “come on in, the water’s fine!”, I totally understand your hesitation. 

This is your business and your livelihood, and it can be risky to try out a new business model. 

So putting it all together, I recommend you at least get STARTED with a website management plan.

Website Management as the Gateway to Subscription Web Design

This is a fantastic middle ground, because you will not have to worry about changing up your entire business model. 

When you add website management, you are telling your client: “Look, after we launch this website, it will stay up to date, performing well, backed up in case there’s any issues, and we’ll even make small changes and updates for you every month.” 

And there’s lots you can do here. 

For example: 

• You could offer a quarterly call to check in with the client (which would allow you to offer new services, etc. as well).

• You could include the management plan for the first 6 months after the website, giving them time to see the benefits so you can ask they continue after the 6 month period. 

• If you plan to offer additional services in the future (like SEO), you could include reports for free each month that would show them the advantage of taking you up on those offers. 

Once you build up a website management recurring income base from your current and past clients, you can begin to consider making the move into full-fledged subscription web design. 

Making the Jump from Website Management to Subscription Web Design

To be clear, website management never leaves your portfolio. We signed a new website management client just the other day, with the hopes that he would eventually become a client in one of our subscription web design plans. 

(Btw, there’s no trickery here. We’ve talked about this. The fact is he already has a website that he needs help maintaining now.)

In other words, website management is a great way to take on new clients without having to redesign their website, and since they’re used to a subscription plan with you, it will be an easy transition to move their website rebuild into that model as well. 

Step 1. Your Livability Quotient: Decide how much money you and your family need to live on a regular basis.

One of the biggest mistakes most business owners make is letting their business run their life instead of the other way around. 

YOU make the rules.

Let me be abundantly clear: Your life is more important than your business. Never sacrifice your family for your business. 

So first things first, decide what your family needs. Think about not only maintaining your standard of living, but account for the fact that perhaps you’d like to increase it over the next 3-5 years as well. 

Step 2. Identify Your Upsell Targets

Yet another huge mistake small business owners make is focusing all their time and attention on getting new leads and prospects. 

New leads and prospects matter, for sure, but a fundamental premise of subscription web design is putting your current clients first. 

It might surprise you to know that in the year 2022, I have only onboarded four new clients. 

You read that right. 

Most businesses could never afford to take on only four new clients in a calendar year. 

But we are not most businesses, and you don’t have to be either.

To put this in perspective for you, given the average cost of a website these days, most “traditional” web designers would need between 35-45 NEW clients to hit the numbers we are going to hit this year. 

We took on four. 

How is this even possible? It’s because of subscription web design. 

By working deeper with current clients, offering them new services they need to market well, etc., we are able to have more intimate relationships with them and work closer. 

The lesson: Look at your current and past client roster and identify opportunities to move any of them into subscription web design plans. 

You could: 

1. Go back to your traditional clients who aren’t on website management plans and make them a good offer to get on your plan.

2. Go back to clients you worked with years ago and check on them. They may need a redesign (you could offer them a full-fledged subscription web design plan) or maybe they have other business activities going on you could help with. 

3. Assuming your past and current customers are satisfied, go back to them and simply ask if they know of anyone else who could use your services and request their contact information.

It’s infinitely easier to work from your current base of clients to increase revenue and offer new services than to start from scratch with a cold lead. 

Step 3. Jump Off the Dock

At some point, you will have to decide that you are only going to offer subscription web design services from now on. 

An acceptable middle ground is to offer some clients the choice between the traditional “milestone” payment model and the subscription model. 

However—I have personally witnessed that to be less effective, because now you are giving them a choice. And the confused mind always says no. 

I would rather you show up with leadership and confidently recommend the subscription web design model with a list of solid reasons why. 

As long as you have the financial runway to make it work, begin offering subscription web design exclusively and watch your stable base of recurring income grow. 

One of my students, April, pointed out that she no longer views a sale as “I made $X this month!” Instead, it’s “I added $Y to my annual income.”

That’s the shift, and it’s a big one.

When you can operate from that mindset, the world is your oyster. You got this. 

You have what it takes to be a successful subscription web designer, and it all starts with implementing the website management model and moving forward from there, one step at a time.

I’ve been privileged to work with and around a lot of web designers over the past seven years of running my own small agency.

We make a lot of promises. Some bold, others conservative, but still we want to set our brands apart by making a promise to our clients and keeping our work.

And yet—despite all the tools at our disposal—we often have trouble delivering on those promises.

Know what I mean?

What are Brand Promises?

In case you don’t quite know what I’m referring to, allow me to explain.

Have you ever said something like this when trying to sell a client?

• We always answer the phone!

• When you work with us, we want to parter with you in your success

• We have a great team of people at our disposal to help accomplish your goals.

• Etc.

Most of us have. And to be clear, I know that you mean it! I always meant it too, even when I did not fully deliver.

One thing is for sure—if it’s left up to human will or effort to make good on brand promises, it will be much harder to accomplish.

The reason is simple. Often, willpower just doesn’t work!

Example: The Profit First Model

In my opinion, one of the best modern business writers today is Mike Micalowicz. His book Profit First became an instant classic, and is helping a new generation of business owners become profitable from day one.

But the model itself is quite simple, and can be boiled down to two very basic insights:

1. The Backwards Formula: Income – Profit = Expenses

2. Bank Balance Accounting: Humans naturally bank by the numbers in their bank account.

Both insights trade on scarcity and the removal of willpower from the equation.

In the case of #1, rather than using willpower to stay on top of your expenses and (hopefully) secure a profit at the end of a fiscal period, the model asks you to take your profit off the table first.

Your expenses will be naturally constrained at that point, due to the scarcity involved. Translation: If there ain’t no money in the account, you can’t buy the thing!

Of course, this insight relies on the assumption that you don’t have some amorphous pile of money that you’re allocating in your mind. This is where the bank accounts come in.

By keeping operating separate from profit, and both of those in separate accounts (ideally at separate banks!) from expenses, you will only spend what is there to be spent in your expense account.

When it’s gone, it’s gone, and given Mike’s model, it is both a psychological and physical pain in the butt to transfer those funds and save the day.

Willpower in Branding

I am suggesting there is a connection, here, with the way most web designers make brand promises.

In the absence of a real mechanism to facilitate delivery on your brand promises and marketing efforts, all that’s left is human will.

If you don’t make the calls, do the followup, stay on top of your team, stay on top of yourself, etc., it doesn’t get done.

Here is where the Subscription Web Design model can really, really shine.

Brand Promises in Subscription Web Design

Like I mentioned above, I am pretty sure you truly want to be able to deliver on the brand promises you make.

What if your team really was different? What if you really did answer when someone called? What if you truly cared beyond the initial sale and were highly available long into the future?

This is more than possible with Subscription Web Design, it is a necessary assumption of the model.

Subscription customers pay every month, month after month, until they cancel their plan. I recommend a contract with an 18-month minimum.

When I take on a new client, two things are true:

1. They are going to be with me for at least 18 months, per our agreement.

2. I am on the hook to deliver a level of service for which I want to get paid each of those 18 months!

See that?

There is now a contractual obligation for every party in the deal to keep their word, be highly available and responsive, and make good on any promises made during the sale.

Warfare: Willpower vs. the Model

Practically speaking, you might be wondering what it looks like to implement this model and make good on your marketing.

This is where it gets really cool.

Let’s consider the “our people are different” angle, first.

In a traditional web design model (I call this the “pay and pray” mentality for reasons we can discuss later), the business owner will likely be paid in draws of some sort, the first of which will cover his or her team member expenses and the final which will end up producing the profit for the project.

(YUCK, by the way. That sounds awful.)

You probably hire awesome people. I don’t doubt that. But the fact is, they are not incentivized to care beyond the initial “churn and burn” of the project.

Once this project is done, you’ll have to move onto another pretty quickly, or else they will not get paid. (This criticism won’t apply as strongly if you hire full-timers, but that’s a minuscule percentage of you.)

When your client comes back and needs something, they are perceived as “needy” instead of appreciated. I know, because I’ve been there.

Don’t tell me that mindset doesn’t happen.

It. Does.

Can that be overcome? Yes it can. With willpower. But then you’ve made willpower—which we know doesn’t always (or even usually) work—the controlling factor in your client’s perception of your company.

Not good.

But in the subscription web design model, there is a built-in assumption that the client will not only be coming back, but will be in regular communication with your team moving forward.

The fabric of the business is built around working closely in relationship with each of your clients. And everybody is getting paid to take part in that relationship—including you, the business owner.

Let’s take one more example.

You want to promise a 24-hour response time with clients, but don’t have a mechanism in place for quick responses to client questions.

So, a client whose site you finished up a couple of months ago reaches out for a small request. (I mean they are still a “client” right? Even though they aren’t paying you? That’s a good question…)

You see that email or phone number come through, but you are slammed with current paying projects. The client is a bit long-winded, and even though it’s probably a 15-minute or less fix, they will take an hour to tell you about it.

And…you ignore them. Not intentionally. In your mind, you snooze them. But deep in the recesses of your brain, your subconscious is actively working to make you forget about them!

Remembering them stirs up all kinds of negative emotions:

• It will take an hour to learn about a 15 minute problem.

• Are you gonna bill them for the call? It’s just a call…

• The work will take 15 minutes. Should I create a todo for my web design or just “do it myself”?

• Gosh, it’s only 15 minutes! I can’t bill them for that time.

• and on and on and on…

Suddenly, that 24-hr response time is out the window. The client reaches back out in a week and half to ask if you got their message.

You did. But you didn’t. And now, any trust you’ve earned is potentially broken.

What does it take to finally make that call? You guessed it! Willpower.

On subscription web design, though, they paid the same amount this month as the month you wrapped up their project!

You remember your invoicing software sending you a notification that they paid their bill for the month, and you even recall that brief sense of satisfaction that you haven’t touched their website for the past few months, yet the payments have kept rolling in.

Strangely, you feel a sense of obligation to get back to them. Remember—you haven’t worked for them in a while, yet they are paying you! You owe it to them to respond promptly.

What a different subconscious conversation! Instead of mustering up the willpower to be responsive and overcoming internal objections, you feel fundamentally compelled to answer.

Oh and by the way, there’s no internal warfare at all, because your subscription plan includes up to one hour of work on their website per month. That 15 minute fix is no problem.

Bill them for the call too. If they take an hour for the call, then 15 minutes for the work, bill them an hour and 15 minutes, pro rate the one hour of included work, and you will be left with 15 minutes of work on their next month’s bill.

No games, no tricks, just the relationship you’ve built, backed by the details of your ongoing subscription web design project.

It’s a beautiful thing and a much less stressful way to do business.