Isn’t it easier when everything’s in one place?
That’s why we keep our clothes and shoes in closets, instead of strewn random places like the top of the fridge and the air vents. Usually.
Point is, curation makes everyone’s life 1,000 times better the more it’s implemented. And now, businesses who either need or provide creative services paid via monthly subscription fee can take advantage of a new platform providing that careful selection and categorization.
Flat Monthly Fee is a company that groups creative services such as graphic design, blog writing, video editing, and so forth while including easily found criteria like refund policies and cost per month before you read through a brand profile.
The advantage to small businesses needing to hire out these services is clear. You’re in a spot where you need more than one-off creations, but not quite yet in a place to hire “STAFF staff”, so you log on here, browse around and find a portfolio that suits.
But I’m way more interested in the secondary benefits to smaller-scale creative ventures. Short story short, the rise of this platform could lift YOUR small business boat as a creative individual or small collective. Much like using Unsplash as a portfolio site, an account with FMF seems like it could get your growing business seen by other growing businesses, as well as help garner work for terms of at least 30 days.
As great as this all seems, I do have a few qualms regarding this new-fangled creative industry catalogue.
Firstly, it’s not immediately clear on the website how one’s business gets a profile set up, pushed ahead, or paid for. For now, contacting the site owners directly seems to be the way to go, but it IS odd to me that sliding into their inboxes is the only way to see whether or not you find their terms amenable.
Secondly, it’s pretty obvious that most of the services there now are being run from non-Anglophone countries. Don’t get me wrong, xenophobia and creativity mix just as badly as sad, racist oil and water do. But for jobs that require a certain mother tongue, business owners seeking creative services may be SOL on FMF for the time being.
Because Flat Monthly Fee is a new kid on the block, I’m willing to accept that the training wheels aren’t completely off yet. If we all waited until everything was perfectly streamlined before debuting it, nobody’d get ANYTHING done, ever. As the company finds its way through feedback and new iterations, I figure they’ll get around to making improvements as needed.
For the time being, it still may be worth your time to get in touch with the curators as part of your publicity strategy! Early adoption has its perks. It just means you may have to change a digital diaper now and again.
You can't spell "Together" without TGOT: That Goth Over There. Staff Writer, April Bingham, is that goth; and she's all about building bridges— both metaphorically between artistry and entrepreneurship, and literally with tools she probably shouldn't be allowed to learn how to use.
