Should I sell AI services as one-off projects or a membership?
Short answer
Both, in that order. Land the client with a one-off build, then move them onto a membership. Project work has no compounding and no floor, and when you build it for them you own every fix. A membership sells access, coaching, support and building help while the client keeps ownership of what gets built.
Use the project to get in the door, then move the client onto a membership. The project is the hook. The membership is the business.
Why start with a project at all?
Because a project is what the client is asking for. You hear what they want short term and charge $1,000, $5,000, $20,000, whatever you think you can get. Those numbers were me thinking out loud while advising someone, not a price list I've sold from. The job gets you trusted. It shouldn't be the whole relationship.
What's wrong with staying project-only?
- No compounding. Every project starts over.
- No floor. When the project ends, so does the revenue.
- You own the fixes. This is the big one.
"If all you're doing is teaching, coaching, supporting, and building some stuff for them, but it's on them, it's just part of your membership, it doesn't mean we're going to fix it. The problem is when you build for them, now you're responsible for the fixes."
If you built it, every break is your problem, on a fee you already collected.
Are AI agents reliable enough to sell done-for-you?
Not yet, in my experience as of mid-2026. My own Slack-to-music automation went from brain dump to finished MP3 in five minutes. Then a coding agent change meant to fix a Slack reply issue broke the whole flow, it couldn't correct itself, and diagnosing it took hours. A peer who deploys agents for clients told me his break daily, and the gap between the demo and production is wide.
That's why my membership model is to teach workflows and provide tools while carrying zero responsibility when something breaks.
What does the membership actually sell?
Access to you and your team: coaching, support, building help, templates. The customer keeps ownership of what they build. And clients mostly don't care who answers. Nobody's going to care whether it's an employee, me or you. That's what lets the membership grow past your own calendar.
- One engine, small modifications. Build one general system and change about 10% per industry, a car dealership version, say.
- Ship reusable builds to everyone. Anything one member gets that others could use goes to all of them.
- Use case studies. The first customer's results sell the next one.
What should the membership cost?
My sketch is two tiers, about $400 and about $1,000 a month, with the cheap one strictly group. Details in what an AI membership should include and cost.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From peer and partner calls in April, June and July 2026. Last updated .