Starter Story - Work less, earn more

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And now, let's dive in:

Work less, earn more – The productized services formula 

Traditional service-based business approach:

1. A potential customer knocks on your door
2. You have a meeting to assess their needs
3. Then you spend some time creating a proposal with a solution and its price
4. They give you feedback
5. You make some changes
6. Hopefully, you seal the deal and start working on the project

But wait a second. It seems that you’ve already been working a ton before getting paid.

Agency owners, tired of doing all that previous unpaid work (sometimes you won’t even win the client), came up with a new formula and package services as a product.

This way, instead of customizing each service for each customer, the same service is offered to all customers. Making it easier for customers to choose the service they need and for businesses to provide the same service to all customers. 

Productized services can take advantage of some of the benefits of a tech-driven startup:

Scale easier: If you sell the same products, it’s easier to develop systems and grow faster and cheaper.

Predictability: Hello, MRR (monthly recurring revenue). Standardizing products will allow you to implement marketing strategies that scale. Increase the budget and predict how many new customers you’ll get.

Its biggest downside?

Limited flexibility. Offering predetermined packages and limited customization can limit the ability to fully meet the needs of all potential customers.

What type of businesses can benefit from this model?

Almost every service-based business can turn at least one of its services into a product.

Here are some examples of founders making thousands per month with productized services:

$10K/month WordPress support

Just like most of these founders, Daniel started working freelance gigs.

After noticing he was essentially doing the same work for very similar clients, he decided to package his services.

First, offered the subscription to existing customers. Seeing how well-received it was, gave him the confidence to start a business around it.

Going from $8K to $25K per month in a weekend 

Luís had the idea of productizing some of his agency’s services.

With his expertise, he put together an MVP (landing page, email sequence, and onboarding) in just a weekend.

The result was a huge bump in the monthly revenue.

A former human rights lawyer started a $10K/month copywriting subscription service 

She started a business and went from charging $0.02 per word to offering a $2,999 monthly subscription. 

Huge difference!

This “graphic design as a service” biz generates $17K/month 

These founders also took the subscription route.

For a fee, you get unlimited graphic design services.

Big secret: “unlimited” sounds great on your marketing, and clients won’t abuse the service. But it’s a great way of selling that you’ll be there to do all the work they require. 

$40K/month creating niche content agency 

After years in the business, Katrina realized she was only trading her time for money. Which won’t ever allow real growth and was leading her to burnout.

A book gave her the inspiration to transition from agency to productized services.

She’s built a business operating system with dozens of articles and screen recordings that has allowed her to train hundreds of employees completely hands-off.

Next level: Turn your service into an app

This founder created a Shopify app and, in just 7 months, reached $12K MRR 

Complete automation, that’s the end goal.

Realizing the vast majority of customers asked for the same services, he decided to build an app for that.

Of course, an app won’t be enough for some clients (you can keep offering agency services), but this move allowed him to reach hundreds of new customers.

Productized services offer you the ability to quickly start your business and generate income immediately.

Instead of spending hours creating and delivering services, productized services are pre-packaged and ready to go. This saves you time, effort, and money. Plus, you can offer your services on a subscription basis, so you can get recurring income for months or even years to come.

Want to discover more profitable business models that 6 and 7-figure founders take advantage of?

Get full access to our database with 4,000+ business case studies and 8,000+ business ideas.

Discover how founders:

👉 Come up with money-making business ideas

👉 Start their businesses (even while working a full-time job)

👉 Get their first customers, and what marketing they use to grow

And find out exactly how founders went from idea to thousands of customers.

All the systems and strategies to build a successful business can be learned, so why not learn them from others who have already done it?

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