Brett Williams of Designjoy is the king of the design agency of one.
But despite being one of the most well paid designers, most people are skeptical. And honestly, I was, too. So, I took it upon myself to binge over their tweets, YouTube, and podcasts he was on to study exactly how—and see if I could find a repeatable framework I could use myself to achieve a sustainable, and successful, design agency of one.
I’ve made $72,000 in the last 4 weeks as a designer working 5 hour days. No weekends.
— Brett @ Designjoy (@BrettFromDJ) April 25, 2023
If that doesn’t motivate you to start productizing yourself, I don’t know what will.
Hundreds of hours later, here's what I learned:
Quick Stats About Brett
Here are a few data points to give you context, in case you're unfamiliar with Brett:
- His agency cost $177 a month to run ($2,124 yearly)
- So far, in 2023 he has made $532,400
- He had nearly no social media presence for years
- He has clients that tell him he's too cheap
Needless to say, he's one of the best at successfully running a design agency of one.
So... what can we learn?
Brett's 3 fundamentals for achieving a successful agency of one
From my research, all of his success can be boiled down to three simple fundamentals:
- Subscription based model
- Positioning
- Fast turn around
Pair this framework with an unmatched work ethic, and you get a potent combination for rapid growth.
Let's dig in:
1: Fast turn around
For Brett, everything begins with his ability to quickly turn around quality custom work for clients.
The reason is because it's dead simple for clients to see the value. This is what separates him from the competition, and makes him stand out so much compared to the average agency. You can be onboarded into Designjoy and get items in queue the same day. Most agencies take weeks to onboard new clients.
To do this, Brett does the following:
- He only allows clients to have one request in queue at a time
- He uses his intuition when clients are missing information
- He allows for unlimited revisions
Simple, but highly effective.
2: Positioning
The next thing Brett focuses on is positioning.
This is limiting what he offers, what he uses for deliverables, and telling clients no if it's not in his offerings. He is a specialist at certain things, and can systematize certain elements while delivering custom work for his clients.
Which leads us to…
3: Subscription based model
But the real reason Brett is so successful at being a design agency of one is because he is obsessive about:
- Having an incredibly high quality marketing site and portfolio
- Has a streamlined onboarding workflow
- Customers can pause or cancel at anytime
This, combined with the fast turn around time and great positioning is what makes him so successful.
It took him many years to create this model. He's had ups and downs. There is a lot to learn there. Give the above and try, and maybe you will be the next king of the design agency of one!
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