How to Set Up a Subscription Business

There are many benefits to running a subscription service including having a regular and reliable income and plenty of upselling opportunities. It's easy to see why people are using this model for their services and/or products. Yet there are some specific challenges and steps to complete before getting your subscription service off the ground.

Carefully Consider the Products and Services You Will Offer

First of all, you will need to give some serious consideration to the products and/or services that you will offer by subscription. Indeed, they need to be viable both for you and your customers. Be sure to consider whether you are offering a product or service that offers value through the subscription model. For example, many streaming services provide value to their customers because they offer a wide range of shows and films, many of which are exclusive. They also offer this at a low price each month, which is worth the investment in customers' minds.

Create Your Subscription Plans

Once you have worked out what your offerings will be, it's time to create and price your subscription plan. How you do this will depend on your business model. Although many find that offering a range of monthly subscription choices from low cost to higher cost is the best. (the more your customers pay, the more product or access to services they get). This type of model is so popular because it means those with different incomes can still subscribe, something that demonstrates the value of your product or service and over time can help you upsell your customers to the more expensive packages. Remember, that you will always want to make sure that you have a considerable profit on each package you sell. Especially if your operating costs are likely to fluctuate over time.

Set Up a Way for Your Customers to Pay

After setting up your subscription plans, you will need to work out a way for your customers to be able to pay. However, doing this will be a little different than taking a single payment for a one-off purchase. Indeed, you will need to make use of things like card-on-file payments which allow you to store your customer's card data securely, so they can easily make recurring payments. In this way, your customers will not have to enter their payment details every month, something that they are likely to see as a huge hassle and will act as a barrier to gaining regular customers.

Set Up Shipping

After you have found a way to collect payments regularly, it's time to focus on how you will get your products or services to your customers. Of course, if you are offering digital services, it will be as simple as providing them with a link where they can download the content. However, if you are sending out physical products you will need to secure a shipping provider. The good news is that many will now come to your home or business location to pick up packages which means sending out items much faster and easier, especially when you are working with larger amounts.

Subscription Business Models - 6 Types You Should Know Learn the 6 subscription business models that are perfect for generating recurring monthly income.