Grit Circle & Squad Plan — How to Form a 6-Person Freelance Team and Win Bigger Projects
Published September 5, 2026 • 6 min read
Solo work builds income. Squad work builds empires.
That's the idea behind Grit Circles (squads) on Grit&Gigs — a way for freelancers who already trade skills, earn, and review each other to come together and bid on projects too big for one person.
Here's what a Grit Circle actually is, how it works, and whether you should start one.
The Ceiling of Working Solo
As a solo freelancer, every project is a trade-off:
- You can only take projects within your single skill set
- A site build needs design + code + content — you can do one, maybe two
- Your monthly income is capped by the hours in a day
- Big clients hire teams, not individuals
A client who wants a full product — design, backend, frontend, SEO, launch content — doesn't want to coordinate five freelancers separately. They want one team, one quote, one deadline.
That's exactly the gap Grit Circles fill.
What Is a Grit Circle?
A Grit Circle is a team of up to 6 freelancers (Squad plan) led by a leader. Circles list squad services and bid on projects together. When a squad order or project is completed, the payout is split equally across the members, and each member is charged their own plan commission.
Members can join a circle by invitation or by join request — the leader approves.
How a Grit Circle Works — 3 Steps
1. Form your circle
Start a Grit Circle and invite 4–6 freelancers you trust — a designer, a developer, a writer, a marketer. Each member brings the skill the next project needs. You're the leader: only you can edit settings, approve members, and close the circle.
2. Bid as a team
Squads publish squad services and win multi-skill projects solo freelancers can't deliver — the whole circle works, the whole circle earns. Your circle's bid carries the combined reputation and ratings of every member.
3. Deliver & split fairly
Agree your payout split, deliver together, and build a shared reputation that compounds on every win. Payouts are handled transparently on the platform — no chasing each other for money after a project.
The Squad Plan — What You Get
Squads are a paid plan feature. Here's how the Grit&Gigs plans stack up:
| Feature | Starter | Pro | Squad |
| Price | Free | ₹499 / month | ₹1499 / month |
| Commission | 10% | 5% | 1% |
| Grit Circle | No | No | Up to 6 members |
| Squad services | — | — | Unlimited |
| Featured proposals | — | — | 8 per month |
At 1% commission on the Squad plan, a ₹1,00,000 project keeps ₹99,000 in the circle instead of ₹90,000 on Starter — money that compounds quickly across multiple wins every month.
The 4-Member Rule for Squad Projects
Some clients post projects specifically as SQUAD projects — jobs they want a team to deliver. To bid on those, your circle needs to be real:
That rule keeps squad rounds honest — a "squad" under 4 members is usually one freelancer wearing five hats, which is exactly what clients on the platform are trying to avoid.
How Payouts Get Split
When a squad order or project is completed and the client approves, the payout is split equally across the circle members who delivered, and each member is charged their own plan commission.
Example — a ₹1,20,000 project won by a 4-member circle on the Squad plan:
| Line item | Amount |
| Project payout | ₹1,20,000 |
| Split equally across 4 members | ₹30,000 each |
| Squad plan commission (1%) | ₹1,200 total |
| Each member keeps (before their own plan commission) | ₹29,700 |
No arguments over who did "more". No one chasing anyone for their share. The platform splits it, and the review that follows lands on your circle's shared reputation.
A Real Circle in Action
Imagine a circle called Pixel Forge — a founder plus a UI/UX designer, a backend engineer, and a content & SEO writer. Five members on the Squad plan.
A client posts a SQUAD project: "Build our SaaS landing page + billing flow + launch content" with a budget of ₹1,20,000 and a 14-day deadline.
Pixel Forge bids as one team. The designer owns the interface, the engineer builds the billing flow, the writer produces the launch content. The client deals with one circle, one quote, one delivery date.
One person couldn't have delivered that brief alone. A 5-member circle does it in 14 days, splits the payout, and adds a 5-star review to its circle profile — the same way solo ratings compound, but faster, because the wins are bigger.
Solo vs Squad — Which Is Right for You?
| Solo | Grit Circle (Squad) |
| Single-skill projects | Multi-skill, full-product projects |
| Income capped by your hours | Circle delivers, income scales with team |
| 10% commission on Starter | 1% commission on Squad plan |
| Your reputation, your reviews | Shared circle reputation that compounds |
Start solo — build your profile, get reviews, find people you trust through the work you already do together. Then, when a big project shows up that no solo offer can win, that's the moment a circle becomes the obvious answer.
How to Start Your Circle
- Open My Circle in your dashboard
- Name your circle and pick a category and skills
- Invite members you trust — or approve join requests
- Publish a squad service with one price and one delivery date
- Bid on SQUAD projects once you have at least 4 active members
Don't have a circle yet? Create your free account and start building your reputation solo while you recruit.