How To Build a One-Man Design Agency Doing $500k/y

Ignite Your Freelance Design Career In 4 Weeks - bit.ly/3OiYCIy
Rich’s Agency: www.richardmediacompany.com/
Rich’s Instagram: richwebz
In today's episode, I'm talking to Rich Webster, a designer making $500,000 a year as an agency owner who only works 15 hours a week! When I first heard this, I thought, "This doesn't sound possible, " so I need to check out this guy. Our conversation was so fun, and I also learned some things, so I hope you enjoy our conversation.
📽️ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Rich’s Background
07:05 - Career Growth
11:30 - Stacking Skills
13:17 - Collaborating
21:00 - Freelance vs Agency
23:17 - Growth Systems
32:17 - Knowing when to say “this is enough”
40:00 - Why I teach now
📱 Find us on SOCIAL MEDIA
Flux Academy's Instagram 👉 flux.academy
#freelancewebdesigner #freelancedesigner #webdesigner #webdeveloper

[@richwebz]

Thanks for having me Ran! Great conversation 😄

[@productivepitch]

been following your content on IG for a while and now this! Absolutely amazing to see two awesome design school of thought together and thanks for sharing your experience with the world. Keep up the great work and hope to hear more valuable content like this in the future :)

[@JeremyMuradesign]

Good to see you collabing Rich

[@arda.heredu]

Thanks for sharing

[@clemenskotoku]

Thanks for sharing your story with us

[@thevikingsock8527]

Idk man, just getting coach vibes here, show Portfolio

[@satoshi_yukamoto841]

how much of this is selling coaching/courses and how much is design work? Most of these youtubers claiming to make big money in design as solopreneurs are really selling courses and coaching.

[@RJ-ir9pj]

Exactly..

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

Yep… it was OBVIOUS he was a grifter from the moment we learned that his Twitter bio said “Work less; earn more!” The clarion call of the get rich quick scam artist…! 🙄🙄🙄

[@unclejuju12]

Ya dude probably payed to be on the show. He is a media buyer not an agency owner lol

[@prototype0398]

​@@StorytellingHeadshotsm

[@prototype0398]

​@@StorytellingHeadshotsk

[@amireljayli]

Good show! I really enjoyed the discussion and I have a couple of suggestions for you Ran. First, I think you could work on your response timing. There were a few moments in the interview where you jumped in before the guest had a chance to finish their point. This threw off the listening experience a bit. I would suggest letting the guests develop their points for a bit longer before interjecting. Second, I think you could ask more open-ended questions. Some of your questions were very specific, which limited the scope of the discussion. I would suggest asking more open-ended questions that allow Rich to share his thoughts and ideas more fully. Overall, I thought the interview was great. The content was interesting, and the guest was engaging. I just wanted to offer a couple of suggestions to help you improve your interviewing skills. Thanks for listening!

[@cheyennestreeter]

This!!! Like stop talking over people and ask more conversational questions. I think had he let him finish his statements the guest would have provided a really good conversation.

[@jessicadiaz7]

I agree! Specially with the first point

[@nerdsinthetrap7748]

Rich Webster is such a great name for this business lol … very smart guy and great conversation!

[@lukaz2040]

That was super insightful! Thank you for asking all the right questions! I wanna know more about Rich's way of building his company, im sure there is so much more to dive into, but this chat gave me the kickstart I needed, thanks!

[@vjc267]

42:42 I think it was Robert Kiyosaki, who said in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, that if your business requires your presence in order for it to function, it is not your business. It is a job you’ve created. He talks about getting your business to a point where it does not require your presence and that is my goal.

[@rb1588]

good interview but wished the interviewer didn't cut him off so much

[@callumking2152]

Would love for this to be on podcast platforms for easier on-the-go listening!

[@Chris001DooM]

hmm idk his page looks a bit amateur IMO, the logo pretty generic.. he highlight brands like google, vice, fox etc. but he don't show any related to this brands -- There's a lot of "fake it until you make it guys" nowadays -- he should be a good sales guy with a great pitch, because with that quality of works i rather hire a fiverr's freelancer

[@Am_ro12]

Excellent conversation guys, thank you for the insight!

[@juanmiguelpascual3133]

I think it would be better to actually check the facts before giving a platform such as Flux Academy. I'm not saying it isn't true that this agency actually makes this amount of money with pixelated images and a quality design so low, but it seems strange. Could it be a strategy, to gain clients? To sell a course, book, or seminar on how to do it??????? I wonder

[@brotherhood5735]

Yeah this guy clearly doesn't make $500k with his agency so he must be grifting for course sales

[@mf5049]

it is odd how his site shows 3 projects, is badly designed and unprofessional, has no 'about' copy or agency philosophy, and half of his listed clients are non profits.

[@ivsonaguiar4979]

This guy obviously sell courses and design / marketing couch

[@rayane5853]

I really don’t want to be mean or anything but how an agency making so much money can have such a low website in term of UI? Not even mentioning the projects showcase in the website.

[@TheWriteStory1]

Wow, this conversation is so insightful and has helped me brainstorm new ways of thinking for my own business. Thanks!

[@ashagalloway6808]

Hey guys, I really enjoyed the info but id like to offer a bit of critique. Observation: Interviewer keeps interrupting/correcting the viewpoint of the podcast guest when it doesn't quite align with their personal worldview. I wonder how the information would come across to us as viewers if both perspectives were voiced completely, then each participant could acknowledge the contrast in opinion. I believe we would benefit from making connections ourselves as we are led into thought by witnessing your conversation. Cheers!

[@BIG5Cyber]

Rich, when you mentioned the bit about the lifestyle entrepreneur whose aim is to earn x much so they can chill and live the lifestyle they want rather than scaling indefinitely, that resonated with me deeply. For me, my work or business is there to do one thing and one thing only: sustain the lifestyle I want not me tailor my lifestyle around it. I feel like in this fast-paced, consumerised world, there's too much pressure to achieve more and more at work or in business. IMO, life is not about that; if we think back to hunter/gatherer societies, we got up early, did what we needed to do for sustenance and then came back early in the day, socialised or explored the rest of the time. Personally, this battle between scaling and "just living" is probably the reason many people fail to even get some ideas off the ground, because they know that scaling and all the headaches that come with it are inevitable and that's not what they're about but subconsciously feel they'd be a failure if they didn't build a "scalable business" so abort before they even start.

[@hyperstarter7625]

I really like the talk. But then you go on his site and style isn’t great. On mobile you see words that aren’t on the same line, bad colour scheme and even says 2021 at the bottom. How is this worth 6 figures a year?

[@Luca57893]

the best product usually isn't the most sold product. The best marketed product is. As long as your customers believe you is the best for them, doesn't mean you need to be the best overall. I will say though, I have said this to myself 1 million times, but actually believing it is hard :)

[@mattm7426]

Because he's a scammer

[@taunado]

Probably great business dev and sales skills compared to most creative people doing it alone.@@mattm7426

[@taunado]

Could be a scammer though, who knows. What makes you say that?

[@matthiewmoore7388]

People need to realize everything online is an illusion. Just work on getting better as a designer, share your work and give people value (Tips, tricks etc). It doesn't happen over night but with time you'll see clients come to you vs you hunting them down.

[@KirTitov]

Cool conversation 🙌 500k / 12 months = 41666 a month and working with 7 to 8 clients sounds fantastic. So each client should bring aroun 62k per project.

[@yofi2614]

Not exactly, what about paying all the contractors that work with you?

[@KirTitov]

@@yofi2614 I was calculating revenue per client, revenue minus expenses will give you profit.

[@yofi2614]

@@KirTitov gotchya

[@taunado]

That's an insane amount for a project? I wonder what kind of websites they are. Surely not Webflow marketing sites?

[@cheyennestreeter]

24:44 yes!!! I’m starting my my design agency and my biggest concern is pricing model as a Ui/UX designer and product designer

[@SubsonicMuzik]

A lot of red flags in this conversation, at least imo. And yes, I run a successful agency (not this account tho). As other ppl already stated 'Revenue != profit'. It's true that consulting is a big go-to as-in 'whats needed for your client', and yes, they don't know that. But this story is sugar coated all the way. Just my honest opinion. Nor the less I wish you all the best :)

[@eye-um-kat]

Felt the same and not to mention their official page and their works are just more of an amatuer type of designs and it raises a question whether did people really paid thousands of dollars for that types of low quality design? Edit: I was just curious and checked the code and found out that they just used a template from a website builder

[@zerpakia]

We're entering the era of the fake "one man million dollar business". He's just following the formula from Brett from "designjoy": Step 1 : Create an online business with "meh" designs. Step 2: Claim to make hundreds of thousands of dollars being a solo business. Step 3: Do a bunch of PR such as appearing in Flux, The Futur and other channels. Step 4: Repeat step 2-4 until enough people believe what you're doing is possible. Step 5: Wait 1 Year until you have an audience and sell a course on how to do what you claim to do in the most general and superficial way possible so it becomes ambiguous wether you're a snake's oil salesman or not. Step 6 : Buy a Porsche.

[@nikokatsantonis1664]

@@zerpakia honestly thank you for debunking. This comment brought a lot of clarity lol

[@heliosalarichard]

The 2 pieces of business advice I'd give to a younger me are this; • Order the Free Tax Kit from the IRS. • Get to know the Secretary of State of your state. The first will teach one about everything they need to know about how companies are structured. The later, at least in states like mine, could link one to far more than just funding and educational resources. Here, the Secretary of State's job is to create jobs, which means creating owners.

[@lg8159]

Great interview! But looking at some of the negative comments below I am a bit nervous about my own interview with Ran that will be published tomorrow 😂 but hey… I had so much fun and it was my first interview ever. Great experience!

[@Immigrantlovesamerica]

I looked at your site. It’s fantastic. And you sound genuine. I think you’ll do great. This guy didn’t pass the sniff test and his website is godawful.

[@noelr1010]

Just by looking at this guy and hearing him talk for the first 2 minutes, I know he's full of it. Sure, there are people making bank as a one man agency, but he's not one of them. And I mean, solely off of design / development and not some corny ass course.

[@crooker2]

I have a one-person "agency" and I gross about 200k per year. It's the delegation part that is hard. How to price products that appeals to a client, and still pay your team enough to keep THEM happy... While still taking some home for yourself. So having a 500k or 1M agency is fine... But how much of that are you taking home? I haven't found the balance between gross and profit when it comes to bringing in other people.

[@designanddevelop585]

Agreed. I am curious too about the profit as $500k could mean $100k profit if you're paying contractors well etc...

[@crooker2]

@@designanddevelop585 There's a fine balance between doing everything yourself (and keeping your gross minus expenses) or sharing the load (meaning increasing prices, and moreover, dealing with a different level of clientele) is something I haven't yet mastered. I'm a bit of a control freak, so I do like to have my hand in the final product... though I don't want to be a micro manager. But doing everything else means I'm the only one who can take the blame if it goes wrong (or credit if everything goes right). I work in a very competitive market. There are lots of designers and while I don't fight for the bottom of the barrel, I do have to be sensitive to the cost-consciousness of our local clientele. Working in Webflow has certainly helped my output, but I have to be VERY careful explaining to clients that I use webflow to build projects much more quickly WITHOUT giving the impression that "Webflow is much easier, so I can milk you for more money". The main problem with working by myself is... I am not an expert in everything. So I can't be a full service shop on my own. I get by with design (and I do have a freelance designer that I'm trying out), development and on-page SEO. But I can't offer marketing services like off-page SEO, Social Media or SEM without simply recommending other local businesses to do that. It IS hard to make money when you're sending your clients somewhere else, and it COULD be inconvenient to the client to have to deal with multiple agencies for all of this stuff. BUT I do ok money-wise, and I can work my own hours. I'm just REALLY REALLY busy all the time. :)

[@dougscott188]

You have to offshore labor in order to scale due to wages and taxes.

[@kameraadthomas]

@@crooker2 just get a couple of marketing interns lol (thats a joke, dont O_O)

[@RJ-ir9pj]

Crooker - hey i run an agency doing roughly 120k per year - 95% profit. Mind if i shoot you an email as im looking to take on a bit more work? Ralph -Novatur Design

[@heliosalarichard]

Good timing for me as I was looking to renter this space and the game has changed.

[@heliosalarichard]

Maybe the game hasn't changed after all.

[@SqueakyWeasel247]

As a traditionally trained Creative I understand that the streamlining (automisation) of the design business (especially using AI to replace/displace trained "human" talent) is something I may find repulsive but also realise the futility of rebelling against it is pointless.

[@akselpd]

Ran, I feel like you interrupted Rich so many times that wasn't necessary.

[@msrumedia5616]

Yeah a little too much of his own thoughts forced in there but I guess it's more a podcast then an interview? Not sure if that makes a difference tho lol

[@apostolis_23]

Nice chat guys but man…let him finish his point. 🙃

[@Homo_neanderthal]

Dude stop interrupting guests

[@jprescottirl]

It was bugging me too! glad i wasnt the only one to notice!

[@FluxAcademy]

haha! I'm so bad at this!

[@Immigrantlovesamerica]

He was rambling on for hours though. He had to jump in at some point.

[@maxh.2293]

stop. interrupting.

[@softwareEngineerGuy]

I'm glad someone else mentioned this. we have come here to receive the expertise of the interviewee, the host talking over him just throws off the flow of the conversation and is quite annoying. Let Him Cook!

[@maxh.2293]

@@softwareEngineerGuy, for real. I opened this video only cause I know the guest. Instead, had to listen to this dumbass host who just can’t shut the hell up.

[@jr_omw]

I don't know RIck... his website says it all.

[@whatthefails7212]

Amazing podcast, thanks for the valuable info 🙂

[@markbovell6494]

Hiya my friend, you ask US for ideas on future video guides, well heres a MASSIVE one, as no body seems to give that Clear Version, they just talk about it but never show us. How about you show us your process from start to finish, the whole process of "Handing off your Wordpress site to a client" Even down to the "Final" configurations of the working site, there you wanted a challenge :) I know it could be to long, but can it be as a few linked video guides? Please.....

[@MoneyBizzz]

Thanks for the tips, Flux!

[@mateusvidal3187]

Great interview! You should do it more times Ran. I like it indeed!

[@ukaszwrobel1145]

I'm sorry, but the guy's portfolio is at the level of people from college in my country ... How do companies come to someone like that and say they want to overpay so much for something that doesn't look good? I'm curious but at the same time disgusted. :)

[@brianm3160]

Sales

[@ukaszwrobel1145]

​@@brianm3160 If I was a serious company and I saw a website like this, I wouldn't pay a penny. And the guy earns 10x more than the average designer :)

[@brianm3160]

@@ukaszwrobel1145 he probably has good client feedback and track record

[@ukaszwrobel1145]

@@brianm3160 good for him, but its unfair.

[@Eduthedude]

Skills, Results, and Sales are all different things. To succeed you need all 3. Skills is only 15% of the job. Results are 50% and Sales are 35%. You're not looking at whether something looks pretty or not, that's not design, that's just a part of design. You're looking at whether it achieved its goal. And he does exactly that.

[@Onlylovelystuff]

As one of the best creative directors in the world, one that has worked in the top ad agencies in London for 17 years, and won tonnes of awards. And not to sound rude, but with MUCH better creative work that Rich, where would I start to become a one man agency?

[@edanbenatar]

I want to start doing similar interviews on my channel. What's the best way to record these?

[@contra_hq]

Super valuable information, thanks for sharing! 🚀

[@nohand2257]

He's making 500k/y with with design agency and his name is rich webster haha

[@johnfritztibay4109]

What happen to his site?

[@FelipeMassara]

BS!!! Has someone saw his portfolio? Daaamm is to bad. This guy sell courses. PERIOD

[@BenitoFlores-y6p]

I enjoyed the interview but how often does he have to be interrupted. Sheesh!

[@imohs]

As a designer, I'm happy for him, of course, but I don't think he can make $500k/year; such an amount is impossible, especially working that many hours. I think it's just publicity. I hope I'm wrong, and he enjoys his half a million, but this doesn't inspire designers who have been in the industry for over 20 years.

[@Withnohelp]

Him and brett from designjoy need to be stopped with all this cap.

[@brotherhood5735]

I think im gonna make a video on this. I used to call out shopify grifters and quit but these dudes make me wanna get back into it lol

[@Withnohelp]

@@brotherhood5735 do it much needed in this space for sure

[@Barnabassteiniger]

Why?

[@sauravchoudhury6314]

Very disappointed with @flux to have associated with such average portfolio 😮

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

I’m about 5 mins in to the place where he says “Design is all about just copying other people’s work…” And it strikes me that this should be titled “How to learn the type of “design” skills that AI is perfectly optimized to Decimate in the next 2-3 years.”

[@JeffBarron1]

Even da vinci learned by copying, whether one becomes a master or not depends on a psychologically disorder level of forsaking all else, genetics and luck. Masters are masters because their art is their master.

[@msrumedia5616]

Did he say that? I think it was said when you're starting out that's a good way to learn

[@mattm7426]

That is why nobody will remember your name@@JeffBarron1

[@cheyennestreeter]

I love this video… I just wish you wouldn’t talk over your guest… we miss a lot of good things because you talk over them and then there’s two people talking. So at points it’s hard to listen to.

[@Nickporter17]

Hi, when you taking about editing is that video or what?

[@yofi2614]

Video

[@Nickporter17]

@@yofi2614 cool

[@Barnabassteiniger]

Is that whiskey you are drinking?

[@sheissnd]

Oh my goodness I couldn’t finish watching out of feeling anger for the man being interviewed. No hate you have to start somewhere but if I were asked to be interviewed by you and this is the example I saw that would turn me off so fast. You have to learn to listen, repeat, and then share your thoughts or move on. That poor guy was interrupted every question. This was more like watching two guys on a zoom than a professional interview.

[@dylantyler2366]

12:40 How will copywriting not be replaced by AI, it already is.

[@itsghous]

side note: they both look like brothers from another mother 😅

[@jaykaralkar]

The only way to work less is to hire people who will design

[@ThierryC-te3rx]

The guy is named Rich... Web(mas)ter... Go figure !

[@karlhudson7209]

This guy can talk forever. Jeez.

[@Moderntractiondotcom]

Not sure why this is even titled “One-Man Agency” which is a contradiction. Is that click bait? And when anyone doesn’t actually talk about take home profits, it doesn’t really share the reality of the situation or useful.

[@meetmeonthe50]

18:50 Not True. That mentality is only applicable when you trade time for money. Aim for ways to make money while you sleep thru residuals

[@FARAS_STUDIO]

So basically he's no one-man agency since he delegates so many tasks. He is one owner of an agency. He doesn't run social media and yet he's over 200K followers on instagram. Hm

[@holyshiet787]

He hires 5$ Indians and Filipinos from Fiverr to do all this