The 12-month plan
September 2026 to August 2027. Three scenarios, a month-by-month task list, and an honest note about the point where delivery, not demand, becomes the constraint. Every figure here is arithmetic on assumed win rates, not a forecast.
Month 6 (February 2027): $10,988. That is 2 pilots sold in the month at $2,500 each, plus 8 Starter and 4 Pro subscriptions live, plus 2 done-for-you retainers at $2,000. Recurring revenue is $5,988 of it; the other $5,000 is pilot cash. Month 12 reaches $20,272, of which $12,772 recurs.S39
The shape of the year
Months 1 to 3: prove the offer converts
Ship the pilot SKU, open the marketplace accounts, get Proofed's account managers to send one email each into Marketing and E-Learning, and work the 25 agencies. The only question that matters is whether a stranger will pay $2,500 for something Austen has never sold before.
Months 4 to 8: turn pilots into retainers
Every delivered pilot has a renewal conversation at day 21, not day 30. This is where the recurring line either starts or does not. Two retainers by month 6 is the base case; four is the upside.
Months 9 to 12: pick the constraint
By month 9 the plan is delivering roughly 54 human-edited articles a month. Either you scale brief writing beyond yourself, or you stop selling retainers and push agencies and subscriptions instead. Choose deliberately rather than by accident.
Three scenarios
Month 1 is September 2026. Pilot revenue is counted in the month the pilot is sold, because that is when the money arrives; subscription and retainer revenue is counted every month it is live. The base case's month-6 total sits inside the $3,000 to $12,000 month-6 run-rate range in the underlying research, and the upside case's recurring line lands at $11,775 against that research's $12,000 high.S39
Base case, month by month
| Month | Pilots sold | Starter live | Pro live | Retainers live | Recurring | Total revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 Sep 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | $0 |
| M2 Oct 26 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | $198 | $2,698 |
| M3 Nov 26 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | $596 | $3,096 |
| M4 Dec 26 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | $3,093 | $8,093 |
| M5 Jan 27 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | $3,491 | $8,491 |
| M6 Feb 27 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 2 | $5,988 | $10,988 |
| M7 Mar 27 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 2 | $6,485 | $11,485 |
| M8 Apr 27 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 2 | $6,982 | $14,482 |
| M9 May 27 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 3 | $9,380 | $16,880 |
| M10 Jun 27 | 3 | 15 | 8 | 3 | $9,877 | $17,377 |
| M11 Jul 27 | 3 | 16 | 9 | 4 | $12,275 | $19,775 |
| M12 Aug 27 | 3 | 18 | 10 | 4 | $12,772 | $20,272 |
Month-12 recurring of $12,772 is an annual run rate of about $153,000. Cumulative revenue across the twelve months is $133,637, of which $62,500 is pilot cash from 25 pilots and $71,137 is subscription and retainer revenue. The conservative case totals $67,920 across the year and the upside case $296,870.
What each scenario assumes
| Conservative | Base | Upside | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First pilot lands | Month 3 | Month 2 | Month 2 |
| Pilots per month by month 6 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Pilot to retainer conversion | 1 in 6 | 1 in 4 | 1 in 3 |
| Retainers live at month 12 | 2 at $2,000 | 4 at $2,000 | 7 at $2,500 |
| Subscriptions live at month 12 | 10 Starter, 5 Pro | 18 Starter, 10 Pro | 34 Starter, 21 Pro |
| Proofed introductions | Do not convert | Two accounts convert to pilots | Four convert, one to a retainer directly |
| Marketplaces | No wins | One pilot from Upwork by month 5 | Two to three pilots a quarter from Upwork and Fiverr Pro |
| Month 6 total | $5,494 | $10,988 | $24,275 |
| Month 12 total | $11,485 | $20,272 | $42,145 |
The delivery ceiling, which is the real constraint
Revenue in this plan is capped by delivery long before it is capped by demand. Count the human-edited articles the base case commits you to:
| Month | Pilot articles | Retainer articles | Total human-edited articles | Approx words through Proofed | Your hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M6 | 20 | 16 | 36 | 54,000 | 30 to 45 |
| M9 | 30 | 24 | 54 | 81,000 | 45 to 65 |
| M12 | 30 | 32 | 62 | 93,000 | 50 to 75 |
Hours are estimated from 8 to 12 hours per pilot and roughly 4 to 6 hours per retainer month.S40 By month 9 the base case is a full-time delivery job before a single new sale is made. Three ways out, in order of preference:
- Sell agencies and subscriptions, not retainers. An agency on Pro at $299 with editing add-ons costs you almost no time and multiplies across their clients. Two extra agency accounts are worth more than a fifth retainer.
- Make brief writing someone else's job. It is the single largest chunk of your hours and the most delegable. Austen's own draft-brief tool plus a reviewer gets most of the way.
- Cap retainers at four and put the rest on a waiting list. A waiting list is a better position than a slipped deadline, and it is a real argument for the $2,500 price.
The selling calendar
| When | What is happening in the market | Do |
|---|---|---|
| September and October 2026 | UK university recruitment cycles run toward the next intake; several education targets cite September 2026 entry targetsS38 | Education outreach is time-sensitive. A pilot refreshing ten course pages before an intake has an obvious deadline attached |
| Mid-November to mid-December | Marketing budgets for the next calendar year are being set | The best six weeks of the year for a retainer conversation. Push renewals from pilots hard here |
| Late December | Agencies and in-house teams are shut or skeleton-staffed | Do not run outbound. Write briefs, build collateral, apply to marketplaces |
| January | New budgets are live and content calendars are empty | The strongest cold month. Front-load the priority-1 targets here |
| March and April | UK financial year end; agencies push to close client work | Overflow capacity is an easy sell to agencies in these two months |
| Any month | A target posts a content roleS38 | Reply within a week. A job ad is the only trigger in this market with a genuine clock on it |
| Continuous | Google spam updates land periodically and the category panicsS36 | Have the scaled-content-abuse answer ready in writing. It is your best inbound moment |
Month by month
- M1 Sep 26Ship the SKU and open the channels. Merge gtm/pilot-offer, run pilot:sync-price, set STRIPE_PILOT_PRICE_ID and PILOT_NOTIFY_EMAIL, and buy the pilot yourself end to end to prove the webhook provisions ten slots. Open the Upwork agency account. Apply to Fiverr Pro. List the MCP server in the connector directory. Draft the two Proofed account-manager emails. Target: 0 revenue, 30 first-touch emails to agencies.
- M2 Oct 26First pilot. Work the 14 priority-1 agencies and the 8 priority-1 education accounts. Proofed sends its first introductions. Publish the pilot page's gap report as the free artefact. Target: 1 pilot, 2 Starter, $2,698.
- M3 Nov 26Deliver the first pilot properly and write it up. Everything you learn here rewrites Chapter 9. Ask for a reference at delivery, not later. Target: 1 pilot, 3 Starter, 1 Pro, $3,096.
- M4 Dec 26First retainer, from the first pilot. Run the renewal sequence at day 21. Do not run outbound over the holidays; spend the fortnight on collateral and marketplace applications. Target: 2 pilots, 1 retainer, $8,093.
- M5 Jan 27Hardest push of the year into fresh budgets. All 57 priority-1 targets worked. Measure the real reply rate and replace the estimates in Chapter 11. Target: 2 pilots, $8,491.
- M6 Feb 27Second retainer. Read the numbers. By now you have real model cost, real editing cost, real hours per pilot and a real reply rate. Rewrite Chapter 4 from measurements. Target: 2 pilots, 8 Starter, 4 Pro, 2 retainers, $10,988.
- M7 Mar 27Agency push. Agencies are closing client financial-year work and need overflow. Aim the whole month at the 25 agency accounts and the reseller trial framing. Target: $11,485.
- M8 Apr 27Three pilots a month becomes normal. If it does not, the offer is wrong, not the effort. Change the price or the segment, do not send more emails. Target: $14,482.
- M9 May 27Decide the constraint. 54 human-edited articles a month. Either delegate brief writing or stop selling retainers. Target: 3 retainers, $16,880.
- M10 Jun 27Publishers and e-commerce. The slowest and largest segments, worth starting six months before you need the revenue. Target: $17,377.
- M11 Jul 27Fourth retainer, and the waiting list. Start quoting $2,500 as standard if the win rate has held. Target: $19,775.
- M12 Aug 27Rewrite this guide from data. Every red pill on the sources page should be green or deleted. Target: $20,272, about $153k run rate.
What to do this week
Merge the pilot branch and buy your own pilot
Nothing else on this page can start until a stranger can pay you. Merge gtm/pilot-offer, create the Stripe price, and run one real checkout to prove the webhook opens ten slots and sends both emails.S3
Write the two Proofed emails and get them approved
One for Marketing and Advertising, one for E-Learning. One sentence each, from the account manager, not from you. Get the account managers' agreement before you write the list (Chapter 6).
Open the Upwork agency account, $20
It is the only channel where a company can sell a productised content service at its own price. It is also the cheapest experiment on this page.S30
Send 15 emails to priority-1 agencies
Fourteen of the 25 agencies are advertising for writers or content staff right now.S38 That ad is the opening line and it expires, so check each one is still live before you send.
Run credits:usage once, on anything
Even before the first pilot, get familiar with the report you will be reading every Friday for the next year. It arrives with the pilot branch in step 1; /admin/costs shows the same spend today.S7