Projects With Good Grain Creative

Since 2020, churches have asked us for one thing... Projects. A way to pay for a website development, graphic design, photo editing, or video editing projects without having to sign up for a subscription.

Now it's taken us a few years to crack this code, but when we did, we didn't just get one product set, we got two.

Think of it like traditional vs. contemporary, both work, but they work differently and they appeal to different people.

Our Traditional product set comprises of up front payments, you pay for what you need, and then it's delivered to you. You can do this for Websites, Photo Editing, Video and Graphic Design Projects. Add as many as you need to a cart, and you're good to go!

The contemporary product set, comprises of a "Buy Now, Pay Later Concept" or rather, "Buy Now, Pay as You Go for a year", essentially, we break project cost into 52 weekly payments. When a church pays for the project, they pay the first fifty-second of the full price, and they keep paying in small weekly increments over the course of one calendar year. The payments end on the fifty second payment automatically, no subscription management required, just pay the little bit up front, and keep paying that little bit consistently over the course of the year until it stops automatically.

Now there are two things we accomplish by doing both. First, we make our services more widely available to churches everywhere by not requiring a subscription. Yet additionally, through the "Buy Now Pay as you go for a year", Good Grain Creative makes a way where churches can get the projects they need, without a subscription without breaking the bank all at once. We present an innovation in the church content production space that allows for churches to be cash flow conscious without compromising on creative value.

If you are a pastor or a creative contractor, you know what a big deal this is.

Simple market forces, between buyers and sellers have been especially prominent in the church space for a while. There are countless stories of Churches skipping out on payments because they didn't like the price after the goods were delivered, and there are countless stories of contractors ripping churches off because of their reputation to skip out on payments.

No one on either side has been fair to the other. Ever since the DSLR Revolution that saw a commoditization of commercial video proliferating in church spaces, churches like any other buyer has wanted the best value deal, the most for the least money, and the vendors have wanted the opposite, they want to do as many quick, profitable jobs as possible so they can stay afloat. Both will cite scripture to each other to stake their position as Godly and it just gets resentful really fast, but it's stayed resentful. I know countless creatives that will work with anyone but a church because of how typical this situation is. I know countless of churches, especially church plants that wish they could find vendors willing to work with them for a reasonable price or reasonable arrangement.

The Buy Now, Pay Later Culture affords us an opportunity to apply similar principles to different circumstances, to expand assumptions, and set a different table for churches and creatives to sit at. There are a countless scenarios and applications for this but the bottom line is this, we can have both. Churches can have a cash flow conscious solution, and creatives can charge prices that they believe best reflect the value of their work and effort.

Now for the creative, I know what you're thinking, I'm still a creative I was in corporate video, and church video for 10 years, that's great but I only get a few projects and I need all of the cash once the project finishes to survive. These arrangements will only be taken advantage of by a few clients. Additionally, if this pricing structure makes services more approachable, you'll see a higher demand arrive on your doorstep allowing you to provide more services. You'll see a net gain in cashflow, you might just have to wait a little longer for it to all fall into your pocket, but if more work is coming in, and those payments are good for the next year, at some point, contractors will be making more than enough to get by and get ahead. It's simple economics, it's already been 10 weeks into 2023, when Good Grain has launched these new services and we've already landed more work a la carte, than we would have if we had demanded up front payment or all at once payment upon invoice for the same services. The market is ready for cash flow sensitive solutions and churches are eager for them, and creatives should be too.

In the end, it's a win win win win. More work for creatives, more flexibility for clients, and more consistent cash flow for creatives, and more accessibility for potential clients.

We expect that these project contracting options will allow Good Grain Creative to reach more churches, make a greater impact for the Kingdom and make the company healthier in the process through the expansion of opportunities provided to ministries to start and finance these projects over time.

If you are a pastor and are interested in any of the project contracts I've mentioned in this post, scroll down, to explore some options!