Last week, I shared a real conversation I had with a client who needed to rebuild some of the tech behind her business on a very tight budget. We gave ourselves a challenge: if $9 a month was all we had to spend, how much could we actually accomplish with GetOiling’s Seed plan? The answer was quite a bit. Read that article here.
That conversation made me want to take this a step further. What happens when your business starts needing more room, but you still aren’t ready for a larger tech investment? What does spending an additional $20 per month actually unlock?
The goal of this series isn’t to convince you to upgrade. It’s to understand what you’re paying for, use the tools available to you, and move up when the limitations of your current plan actually begin getting in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Before We Talk About Starter, Let's Talk About Making Money
Not every business needs a full website or the ability to accept payments online right away. Maybe your business grows primarily through one-on-one conversations, referrals, in-person services, networking, speaking or educating. Maybe right now you simply need somewhere for people to find you, join your email list, download a free resource, read your content and book a conversation.
If that’s the season you’re in, Starter may give you plenty to work with.
However, if you’re actively trying to expand your reach and build an audience, I do think it’s worth considering how you could eventually create something people can purchase online. That doesn’t have to mean building a giant course. It could be an eBook or downloadable guide, an online workshop, LIVE cohort, mini course, program, educational training or another digital resource that allows you to package what you already know and offer it to more people. The list could go on.
At the end of the day, we are in business to make money, and creating a digital offer gives you another opportunity to do that.
So here’s an important distinction before we go any further: if you already know that you NEED or WANT to accept payments online through your platform to automate and streamline the purchasing experience, I would skip Starter and begin with GetOiling’s Basic plan.
Could you stay on Seed or Starter and still sell something? Absolutely. You can use an outside payment option such as PayPal or Venmo and manually manage what happens after someone pays. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially if you’re testing an offer or only making occasional sales. But if integrated payments are already a priority, Basic will probably make more sense. We’ll get into that plan next.
If that isn’t where your business is right now, that’s okay too. For the business owner who wants to expand their reach, build an audience, share free resources, communicate more consistently, build connections, and begin automating some of the work behind the scenes, the Starter gives us quite a bit to work with.
Who Can Use GetOiling’s Starter Plan?
Just like Seed, Starter is one of GetOiling’s lower-cost plans available to people with a Young Living customer/member number. You do not have to be actively building a Young Living business or be a Brand Partner to use GetOiling.
That distinction matters because GetOiling’s sister platform, AttractWell, does not offer the lower-priced Seed and Starter options. AttractWell plans begin at the Basic level.
If you already have a Young Living customer/member number and are building another type of business, whether it has anything to do with essential oils or not, GetOiling may give you access to a more affordable starting point for your business technology.
Starter is normally $29 per month. When you sign up through my referral link, you can currently get your first month for $1, your second month for 50% off, and then pay $29 per month going forward.
What Do You Actually Get With the Starter Plan?
Compared with Seed, Starter gives us considerably more room to grow. Some of the features that stand out most to me include:
- Up to 500 contacts
- 500 marketing credits per month
- 2 custom landing pages
- 2 calendar booking links
- 1 marketing automation
- Scheduled email and text messages
- Email open and click tracking
- 5 hosted videos
- Zoom for up to 5 attendees for up to 24 hours
- 1 Custom GPT and quiz/assessment
- A blog
- Lead capture and downloadable resources
- Contact management with tags, to-dos and follow-up plans
There are additional features included, but these are the ones that immediately stand out to me when I look at Starter through the lens of creating a simple, functional tech stack.
At this level, we aren’t just establishing an online presence anymore. We can start connecting the pieces into a system.
500 Contacts Is Great, But Watch Your Marketing Credits
Seed allows up to 100 contacts, while Starter increases that to 500. Interestingly, though, your contact limit may not be the first reason you outgrow Seed.
Your marketing credits might be. One marketing email sent to one person uses one marketing credit. Seed gives you 100 credits each month, while Starter gives you 500.
Let's say you start sending a weekly newsletter. With only 25 subscribers, four weekly emails would use approximately 100 marketing credits in a month.
Grow your list to 50 people, and those same four emails require around 200 credits. At 100 subscribers, you could use roughly 400 credits simply sending one weekly email to your full list.
That doesn’t include additional marketing communication you may want to send as people opt into your free resources, join a waitlist or otherwise enter your world.
This is why I don’t look at Starter as simply giving you “400 more credits.” It gives you more capacity to actually communicate with the audience you’re working so hard to build.
You could realistically outgrow Seed before reaching 100 contacts simply because you’ve started consistently using your email list. That’s a good problem to have.
Two Landing Pages Can Create a Simple Customer Journey
Seed gives you one custom landing page. Starter gives you two. On paper, that may not sound like a dramatic difference, but strategically, that second page gives us much more flexibility. If we use your first landing page as a simple homepage, it can introduce who you are, explain what you do, connect visitors to your content and social media, and invite them to join your weekly newsletter.
Your second landing page can then have one specific job.
Maybe it houses a free resource and captures leads. Maybe you’re teaching an upcoming class or promoting an event. Or maybe you have an idea for a future paid digital product, workshop, mini course or program that you haven’t built yet. Create a waitlist.
Instead of spending weeks building something and hoping people want it when you’re finished, start talking about the idea and give interested people somewhere to raise their hand. Your setup could be as simple as:
PAGE ONE: Your Online Home — who you are, what you do, your content, ways to connect and your newsletter signup.
PAGE TWO: Your Focused Conversion Page — your lead magnet, waitlist, upcoming event or whatever you’re actively growing.
We aren’t creating more pages simply because the plan allows us to. Every page gets a job.
Starter Gives Us More Automation
This is where I think the jump from Seed to Starter gets particularly interesting. Starter allows you to schedule email and text messages in advance. Instead of relying on yourself to remember every communication in real time, you can create it when you have time and schedule it to go out when it needs to.
If you send a weekly newsletter, write it ahead of time and schedule it. If you have an event coming up, prepare your communication before you're in the middle of hosting the event.
Starter also gives you one marketing automation. I actually like that limitation because it forces us to ask a strategic question: If you could automate ONE repetitive process in your business right now, which one would make the biggest difference? We don’t need 47 automations simply because technology allows them. We need the automation that removes unnecessary manual work and creates a better experience for the person on the other side.
Booking, Zoom and Video Can Work Harder Too
Starter gives you two booking links, which creates more flexibility if you offer different types of appointments. You might use one for a discovery call and another for an existing client session.
Once someone books, the appointment can automatically be added to your connected calendar, they can add it to theirs, and the system can send reminders and follow-up communication. Those transactional booking emails also do not use the marketing credits you need for your newsletters and other marketing messages.
Starter also expands Zoom access to up to five attendees, with meetings lasting up to 24 hours. That creates possibilities for small-group coaching, mini educational classes, client meetings, masterminds or private workshops.
And remember, Zoom doesn’t have to be used only for live meetings. You can record yourself teaching, share your screen or slide deck, create tutorials, download those recordings and repurpose them elsewhere.
Starter also gives you space to host up to five videos directly within the platform.
Instead of focusing on the limitation of “only five,” ask yourself: What are the five most valuable videos I could create for my audience? Maybe it’s a welcome video, an educational training, an explanation you repeat constantly, or a video that accompanies one of your free resources. One tool can have multiple jobs.
There’s Even Room to Experiment With AI
Starter includes one Custom GPT, along with the ability to create a quiz or assessment. Again, I wouldn’t create one simply because it’s available. Ask what purpose it could serve in your business.
Maybe it helps someone determine which resource is right for them. Maybe it supports an assessment you already use. Maybe it creates another interactive way for people to engage with something you teach. The same philosophy applies here as everything else: If the tool doesn’t have a job, we don’t need to use it just because we have it.
So, When Does Starter Make Sense?
I wouldn’t upgrade from Seed simply because Starter has more features. I’d upgrade when those features begin solving problems you’re actually experiencing.
Maybe your marketing credits can no longer keep up with your growing email list. Maybe you need a second landing page for a lead magnet or waitlist. Maybe you want to schedule your marketing ahead of time, automate a repetitive process, host a small-group Zoom or create a more organized booking experience.
That's when the additional $20 per month starts making sense. And remember the distinction we made at the beginning: if you're already at the point where accepting payments online and creating a more automated purchasing experience is important, I'd start looking at Basic instead.
That's where our next conversation gets really interesting because we can stop asking, “How much can I do for as little as possible?” and start asking:
“How much of my tech stack could I consolidate into one platform?”
Upgrade With Intention
Seed can be an incredible starting point for $9 per month. Starter gives us considerably more room for $29. There’s no prize for moving to the bigger plan faster.
Use the plan that supports the season you’re actually in. Use the tools you’re already paying for and push them as far as they can reasonably go. When the limitations begin getting in the way of your growth, upgrade with intention.
That’s how we simplify the tech without limiting the business. Want to Give Starter a Try?
If you have a Young Living customer/member number and Starter sounds like the right fit for where your business is right now, you can use my referral link to get started. When you sign up through my link, you can currently get your first month for $1, your second month for 50% off, and then it’s $29 per month going forward.
And if you’re still wondering which plan you actually need, remember:
Don’t choose the plan with the most features. Choose the plan whose features solve the problems you actually have.
AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER:
I’m a proud affiliate for some of these tools and products that are suggested on this page and throughout my site. Meaning if you click on a product and make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. My recommendations are based on knowledge and experience and I recommend them because they are genuinely useful and helpful, not because of the small commission that I may receive.
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