Charging Subscription For Design Services: (w/ DesignJoy)

Making 100k a month is unheard of in the design industry, but today Brett Williams founder and operator of Designjoy shares his journey to building his 7-figure subscription based business.
If you're looking to build your freelancing business check out our free workshop: bit.ly/3Cbe8QG
You can find out more about Brett and DesignJoy here:
DesignJoy 👉 www.designjoy.co/
Brett's Twitter 👉 / brettfromdj
#webdesignerfreelancer #websitedesigners #freelancerdesigner #freelancewebdesigner

[@endesign5944]

maybe one long term idea could be...if Brett had something like a DesignJoy Academy...it could be a group of remote designers that Brett has curated/given the stamp of approval for being "good' and who need the opportunity to learn/gain experience helping Brett. When Brett is sick or needs to save his marriage/go on holiday, instead of giving a full refund he could suggest to clients to try the Academy group. Brett could still be a one man band, the Academy would be a sub-brand.

[@jordanislandwebdesign]

I think the issue is he wouldn't be able to manage them, he's not an "in charge" kind of person

[@infowazz]

there is a lot he could do. sell a course. he could make tons of money making a course i think but he's already doing damn good. sometimes its not good to chase money.

[@AC-id5ow]

Sounds too good to be true. The work looks very templatey and similar to each other. Something has to give with this model, either the quality of work, or work-life-balance.

[@sarangbhirad]

He probably chose work-life balance and gave his clients what they wanted. So no need for customisation or personalisation.

[@nicandcarla]

The interviewer was amazing! Thank you for asking every question that popped in my head 😁

[@MrInsider33]

The question that burn most to me sadly didn't get asked: How do you handle if you have 30 clients having a design request that takes 2 days each? Some would have to wait 4+ weeks, but as I client I wouldn't want to wait when I am subscribed to such a service. So is he betting on clients not regularly submitting design requests?

[@filiphies6738]

Exactly, I can't imagine designing over 30 projects in just 2 days

[@ArnauRos]

Just posted my own take on this type of service. Extremely insightful conversation! Can't wait to see who you bring on next 🚀

[@JairoSaysHi]

Really interesting concept, definitely see how it can be a valuable marketing play! I agree with the sentiment around burning out, but this guy is also doing what he loves most, designing! Sounds like a win to me. I think there's a difference between a design task like email templates, social media post, blog visuals etc and designing a brand identity for a client in 2 days. I don't know if you're giving that client a valuable truly unique, researched and timeless approach for the brand if it takes you 2 days. Espcially considering you have other clients on the same 2 day timeline. But overall really amazing from an entrepreneurial standpoint!

[@infowazz]

he has to be damn good for this to work.

[@porthospatel1683]

well like he said, a complete brand package takes longer. the 2 days is for most tasks

[@studiomonty]

What I don't understand is, he typically finished in 1 or 2 days, mobile app and web design is included, how can someone design a complete web project without any meetings, and doing it in 1 or 2 days? I can't imagine there's a lot of strategy or uniqueness behind the design, I could be wrong but it seems incredibly fast

[@trainfarb]

I heard him describe this on another podcast. He will break up a large project like a web design project into smaller chunks. 1-2 days would be maybe the onboarding flow, then the client would review, then the next sprint might be the profile page, etc…hopefully that makes sense

[@KEWENAYCH]

I’m pretty sure he does have a clause, smaller projects get turned around in 1-2 days however larger projects may take longer

[@vinceb2942]

Great interview and I'm glad Ran pressed him a bit on thinking long term. Brett is obviously very smart and successful, definitely more than I am. I just hope he has a healthy work/life balance as the way he's going doesn't seem very sustainable. Hiring a couple freelancers would help tremendously to let him take sick days/vacations and service his clients when he can't be available. It's a win win for a relatively small fee and minimal management. People burn out in this industry all the time and I hope he doesn't!

[@infowazz]

I burned out just working for 1 company. The workflow was insane and constant deadlines. It was more of a production position. I thought he had freelancers.

[@infowazz]

I just heard about this on Codie Sanchez channel. She was talking about other great ideas and then Design Joy was last. Totally mindblowing!!! I can't believe he runs it on his own, that is crazy. I guess that makes sense in terms of having more control. But it seems so time consuming. I thought he had a bunch of freelancers doing the work.

[@rmadaconcepts9117]

Super interesting approach, I love the idea of not needing a team. I think at 5k I'd be okay with 3-7 clients. I'd probably burnout at 10 plus and work would start to suffer a lot.

[@infowazz]

i would love to do what he is doing but at a smaller scale like u are saying. then i would do something else like marketing to bring in more money.

[@aqleemasajid]

I am working on something very similar. A subscription based platform where I will be converting Figma designs to real web pages (React, angular, html, css, bootstrap). I will be launching it this week. So excited :-)

[@FluxAcademy]

Go for it!

[@marginandcolumn]

You can see from his "portfolio" (aka a Figma file of pretty pictures) that not much thought goes into the work produced... it's all very basic and templatey (and trendy looking). If his clients are ok with this then hey, more power to him!

[@toonice555]

I was thinking the same thing but he's making tons of money so maybe that's what clients want. He mentioned in another interview that he admits he's not the best out there and that his clients value speed with decent quality over waiting longer for the best quality.

[@babtherex3799]

Being a good designer is also learning how to make complex things simplier

[@babtherex3799]

Being a good designer is also learning how to make complex things simplier

[@thehyperluz]

Welcome to the real world where good design doesn't mean sh*t, it's all about commercialism these days 🤷‍♂️ a real f*cking turd to swallow.. gotta keep the dope designs for the personal project..

[@FelipeMassara]

Agreed

[@kirk1257]

Great interview and approach though! I'm wondering how Brett manages big design tasks if, let's say, more that 3 companies come with a very short deadlines and big amount of work simultaneously? 😅

[@sheenaoosten]

Interesting interview Ran! Am just wondering how much of the design work is custom and how much is template tweaking? 🤔 i really hope he doesn't make himself sick with that crazy workload and stress! There's more to life than making money 🤷‍♀️

[@FreedomWillReign]

That is inspirational AF! I really liked the info. I love hearing about someone winning in life!

[@cripz1436]

Sounds like an awesome thing! Great video!

[@suzanne8637]

Amazing concept, very inspiring. Brett looks tired tho, hope he's not overworking and burning himself out with the model.

[@saf1999]

And he runs it alone. Very impressive 🔥

[@digimat77]

love how this guy says over and over that he does this all alone. I don't believe anyone who says the same thing over and over again, usually means they are full of it.

[@thiagolacerda8302]

this

[@whiteswordwarrior9995]

Great interview, we at SilverLine Studio currently adapted our whole business model too thanks to Brett. We're alot cheaper tho lol...

[@wallisjg]

This chat has made me consider my workflow and inspired me to consider moving in a new direction! Great content as usual Ran! The Flux channel is really starting to change thing up!

[@infowazz]

subscription plan for marketing........target high paying clients who could do 5-10K a month.

[@Gladwebs]

Very great conversations guy's, super insightful 😃

[@Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeko]

I still dont understand why he wouldn't hire another designer? Its not that hard. And would free him of so much time and avoid design burnout and lack of inspiration from repetitive tasks.

[@FutureWealthCircle]

LOVE this guy's storyy!!

[@OCH22]

This was simply amazing to watch!

[@dickydesign]

super fun know the back story.

[@SiXiS4]

he could invest in bandwith if he makes 100k a month

[@pratikrajsah]

We need more this kinda content ❤️

[@ChaiandCookies]

Do you think there is a subscription-based model for SEO services?

[@thorminator]

sounds like a recipe for serious burnout

[@EvanBivins]

Great interview.

[@aliwaqas7047]

Really curious as to what sort of deliverables he's dealing with. I have one client that takes up all my time (around 180 hours). From packaging design to CG animations and everything in between (social media content, corporate media). Maybe I'm slow but producing CG content and ideation just takes too much time and since I base a lot of what I do around sound brand strategy and competitor analysis, I can't think of on-boarding a single client as it will start to eat away my personal time. Anybody care to shed some light as to how I can scale considering that I'm offering design services alongside brand strategy.

[@flannigan5893]

He could easily sell for 7 figures, probably low 8 figures to be honest at that MRR.

[@tientcheufansi8181]

nice tuto bro, that solved!

[@x3notrone]

There is no form or button on the freelance material page on your webpage

[@kyler.6645]

That's a lot of clients.

[@jonahgade6567]

I don't understand how it says paid quarterly/paid annually when it says $XXXX/m, and when you go to pay, it has you pay for the monthly amount instead of the yearly/quarterly amount.

[@ricflomusic]

I'm trying to understand how this is set up too!

[@KarimaKhan]

if you pay quarterly, you save X amount per month. It's to show the comparison in savings against the pay-per-month situation. They will be BILLED quarterly.

[@BGary65]

I was wondering the whole time how can he manage 30+ different clients by himself?

[@zshn]

No one asks him his worst client experience.

[@YaYousef5]

I paid for Brett's course. The majority of it is 5 minute audio recordings of him saying the same things he says in interview videos. There's 6 "video" lessons which are 5 minute Loom recordings. He doesn't show any actual numbers. He doesn't show any actual clients. He doesn't show actual proof that he's doing this with anyone. He also states blatant lies like he still uses the free version of Trello but that's impossible because it only allows 10 members/guests but he says he has 16 clients. So he's lying that he uses the free version or he uses the cheapest $5/month option and invites them as guests which you can have 1 guest per board, but I'm not sure why he doesn't just say that. I'm happy the course was only $100 but it was honestly a waste of money and while Brett is smart to share the idea of his system he falls flat in actually showing any proof that he's doing it. He also hasn't responded to anyone in the course community for over 7 months despite it saying he was active "1 hour ago." There's a number of people in the community who have said they've requested a refund but hasn't gotten a response from Brett about it.

[@syw569]

I am glad someone said the truth.

[@Stracciulein]

genial

[@productnerd]

Man this is borderline a scam. One person, 30 Clients and a promise of unlimited tasks for 3k? Like.. kudos to him for taking advantage of not-so-smart clients

[@kyler.6645]

He may just be really good and fast..

[@DerekBodily]

Value is in the eye of the beholder. To have that much recurring revenue, his clients are obviously seeing the value from it. And if he's getting most clients from the communities he mentioned, I imagine they are plenty smart, and fully aware of available offerings in the design industry.

[@Benga-Eno]

It’s like the “eating as much as you want” concept. In the end, there’s a limit to what you are capable of / need. As a company, you don’t need to design something daily. He did a great job. His clients are not stupid. They just don't know how to design, so they're hiring him...

[@harshrajvamanjoor]

There are similar websites like penji and design pickle that do the same thing but with help of freelancers, not solo

[@rabd3721]

I mean, as long as he's delivering work on time, and clients are willing to pay what is essentially a retainer, I don't see a problem? If you're a startup, and you don't want to pay for a big salary+benefits, but you also want something more consistent and reliable than a freelancer on occasion, then this seems like a decent middle ground. There's absolutely a market for it. Of course if I were him, I would put a cap on how many clients I take on, unless he's willing to hire staff. But overall, I think it's a legitimate approach to design.

[@FelipeMassara]

Honest question: HOW can a human deliver 20+ design projects in 2 days?

[@hippowafflesify]

I do not understand how he can say "alone" when in multiple tweets he says he has designers under him that work on the projects.

[@DesignRobot_co]

What tweets?

[@minnnjupark]

jesus christ lol he looks like he does not want to be there

[@doity]

Don't agree

[@sleepnabox]

overworked lol. Rather be sleeping.

[@ChristopherStetson]

Looks more stressed than uncomfortable imo

[@jordanislandwebdesign]

Some of the stuff he says I think is awesome and other stuff is just crazy, if he gets sick he just refunds clients? Surely he must loose alot of clients through that?

[@HelloMeow]

booom

[@daliborhajdinjak7424]

It's sad that you're allowing this guy to promote his course and business on your platform. Your expression shows how little you trust him given your experience working with clients. Just look at his portfolio and you don't need to look any further... Where are all the projects and clients? Where are the recent works? Where is the quality? Anyone who's even slightly in the design business, whether it's a studio, agency, or freelancer, knows that there are processes and things we can't control when working with clients, and this guy apparently works with 35 clients as a solo player. Sad!

[@toonice555]

Hey can you explain what you mean? Genuinely curious

[@ham2956]

🧢

[@MIRVECTORA]

😆🤣😂😅