There I am, just checking my inbox and I am slapped in the face with hype. Hype that kinda gives me the pips to be honest.

There is a lot of hype about online memberships – The membership hype right now is kind of like the online course hype that was happening a few years ago.

Remember that?

Back then, your Facebook feed would have you believe that you can could earn 6 figures by creating a course about ANYTHING.

Fast forward a few years and the fad has changed: now it’s memberships.

And why not?  The idea is that people pay you a monthly or yearly fee, you create the content once-and-for-all and then all you need to do is just show up in a Facebook Group, host the odd call and Bob’s your uncle.

Brilliant!

Well… yes and no.

Before I launch into full-blown stats and facts about memberships though, I’m gonna drop a little truth bomb for you here:

If you have never run a launch before, I question whether launching a membership is the best place for you to start.

Imagine, you’ve poured hours over late nights creating your awesome thing, only for it to flop because it simply didn’t suit the stage of business you were at.

Exhaustion, tears and frustration is not what we need more of!

Grab your cuppa and let me throw some numbers around and show you what I mean: Memberships usually have a monthly fee of, say, $50-$100 with a discount if you pay upfront such as $500 if you pay for the full year.

So if you want to have a $5K launch, this is what it might look like:

Sell to 10 people x $500 upfront = $5000, but you have to repeat this again in the next month or two because you need to keep some income coming in

Sell to 5 people x $50/month = $250 + 5 people x $500 upfront = $2500 
TOTAL: $2750, but hopefully with recurring income from those 5 members paying monthly

Sell to 10 people x $50 = $500 upfront and you seriously better hope those guys hang around for a few months!

Why did I only pick the number 10 for number of registrants? Two reasons:

Launching requires learning. I think I remember reading that Denise Duffield-Thomas sold
only 3 spots the first time she launched Money Bootcamp.

Remember the average conversion rate is about 1% of your list and, if you can run a killer webinar/challenge, etc – around 5% (again, by the way, this assumes you’ve done it a few times and can convert well!).

So, unless you have a list of over 1,000 subscribers or you can draw a big crowd to the webinar/challenge AND convert it well, 10 sales is probably not too shabby.

I remember the early days in my business when I first started to put myself out there, I was super excited to get just 1 person showing interest in what I had to offer.

Okay, still got your coffee?

Now let’s compare online memberships to something a bit different here: a small group course or program capped at 10 people.

A small group can be a lot less intimidating and it’s much easier to gauge the group’s response and improve the course before you launch it again.

Also, if people know the group is capped, they are usually happy to pay a little bit more. Bonus reason to have it capped at just 10 registrants? Confidence!

Say you sell this course for $500 (which, by the way, as a guideline, is 50% of the equivalent program working with you 1:1).

Using the same sales numbers as before, you might get:

–  10 people x $500 upfront ($5000)

–  5 people x $180 @ 3 fortnightly payments = $900 + (5 people x $500 pay in full = ) $2500 ($3,400)

–  10 people x $180 = $1800

With this example, you still have the potential for $5000 upfront and you don’t have to worry about people dropping out after a month or two.

But here’s why I love this concept so much more when your sales numbers are still fairly low:

You only have to deliver content for 6 weeks to get this income, and

later on, when you are ready to create that membership hub, you already have some content so you aren’t starting from scratch.

Phew, glad I got that off my chest!


So now you know that a small group program is a WAAAAY better idea, here’s how little launching can help you bring your small group program to life

A little about me

I'm a business strategist and mentor for mums in business.

My mission is to help mums to create fun, flexibility and financial reward in their business.

I tie together my career in planning and implementing multi-million dollar projects, my Masters in Business Administration and my passion for helping mums to be Better Than Busy.

Find out more about me HERE