How This Solo Designer Makes Millions Per Year

Design agencies have struggled for years not knowing when their next paycheck would come in. Recently theres been a huge trend in agencies favoring the retainer model. The idea of productized services has come into the design market in the shape of a membership agency. This is the same idea as a retainer with a different package on it. In this video I’ll talk about the pros and cons of this style and whether you should or shouldn’t adopt this new method.
Agencies talked about in this video
www.designjoy.co
www.flowsparrow.com
www.flow.ninja
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[@ArnauRos]

Have you ever heard of this type of agency?

[@islamicshorts6847]

This is great information. I haven't heard about it.

[@reddypulavari8953]

No it's first time seeing subscription model Except for landing page and small websites

[@taylorjackson3691]

Yeah bro he got called out for being fraud on twitter lol

[@rabd3721]

@@taylorjackson3691 It seems like he may have dropped the ball on a couple of clients, but overall he seems to be handling his business quite well. It's pretty ambitious what he's doing, and he was bound to make some mistakes. But at the end of the day, as long as he's delivering design items and most of his clients are happy, I don't see the problem. I wish I had thought of this sooner.

[@waltermelo1033]

doesn't work for everyone. the agency I work tried it and it just burned out everyone because of the infinite requests. you can't be 5 people at the same time! and you can't just say. "hey client, please wait we have something more urgent to work on before. sorry for the inconvenience".

[@nomadicadi]

love the background setup man!

[@guillemrossalvador]

Thanks for the video Arnau. I thought it was super informative, and personally I didn't know about this business model, and how successful it is for DesignJoy!

[@ArnauRos]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@StephenLee529]

Great video, I watched the interview and the gentleman who owns the agency stated that challenge.

[@mrpugo]

I've been working on building my system around this way of charging. I didn't push it, but until this day, I made more than $20k. This is a great way to start building your agency, but you should be careful with your plans and pricing. Other than this, I enjoy digital products more than digital agencies, Because I create once and sell twice.

[@victoriawaschenko]

A well designed business!!! Design is the core of this agency and I LOVE it. I'm an interior designer by trade who is now in web design for my passion project and this is the perfect model.

[@chusuri]

Great video!

[@ic8586]

Great video. Thyank u

[@murphytwin]

It's not a bad idea. However, some agencies like this should consider narrowing down their selection to just a few specialized services they provide so they can focus on the balance of providing really good service.

[@ThisDesignLife]

I think he probably does from what i've heard on other interviews. Although it has a big list on the site, it's mainly UX/UI work.

[@karimijoint]

Great video to keep people up to speed on what is happening in the industry. Subscriptions, aka retainers, are generally lousy for labor. Either the client is shorted on effort, or the business is overworked. When are retainers an even exchange?

[@carltonhepburn4072]

Nothing new😊

[@DonGiannatti]

The key is knowing how much work you can handle. I am only accepting 4 clients. That's it. I also have 2 two week vacations scheduled built in that is pro-rated for all the clients. I don't need to make a million dollars and piss a lot of people off. 4 clients (my goal) is $240K a year. Is that so bad? Working on getting launched by October.

[@syed.simanta820]

How do you get cleints ?

[@alexhartan]

I always wondered how feasible this model is, and how would you scale it to meet the demand. If I were a client needing a subscription, I would use it at least half of the time, so I imagine you'd need a big team soon. Very interesting topic!

[@ArnauRos]

It's hard! But people definitely have been able to do it.

[@mattyloucas]

I'm not a designer but this content is elite - from a photographers perspective this is awesome

[@dianatrac81]

I like this idea because as a freelancer I don't like providing quotes for the same projects for different clients. I would limit the amount of clients I can take on per month. Making sure I have time for all clients and produce quality work as well.

[@tylermansmann1065]

Treating Retainers this way can be really smart. Doing it solo is not. Serious burnout central. You NEED to scale your employees to clients ratio 1:x based on how much output is needed. If you are offering unlimited designs, then you basically need a full time person on for every 1 to 5 clients you have depending on how much they need. And for $3k to $5k/month, thats a whole persons salary. So doing it all yourself is def not the way to go

[@tylermansmann1065]

And if you can't manage this, then switch to a non unlimited retainer option and cap your sales at your own capacity. Then once contracts expire, renew them at higher rates if you have others that would want to pay you more

[@alexhartan]

Great insight. Have you used both these types of retainers?

[@tylermansmann1065]

​@@alexhartan yes. I've previously used this model myself and now im on the other end of the equation as a provider for a business partner of mine who's currently doing the same since he had a large influx of new clients. I've helped him onboard new people to handle the capacity same way I mentioned here.

[@tommyleemeyer]

I know this is late to the game but what are thoughts on the unlimited design model related to scaling if you only allow for one request at a time?

[@tylermansmann1065]

@@tommyleemeyer I have seen some firms pull it off, and they often also add an upcharge to add more things to the queue concurrently. Doing things one request at a time can def reduce burnout over unlimited requests with 5-6 being queued up at once by the client.

[@hello-brightmatters-studio]

My big question is, as a solopreneur, we only have one body, and 24 hours in a day. I don't know how the Designjoy guy runs this kind of business by himself. Yeah, absolutely true - how to still work with integrity and quality for the customer.

[@TheMrNomadus]

Probably templates + speed + outsourcing.

[@Bobby_Davis]

I wonder if people using this sort of model are leveraging contractor arbitrage. That seems like the best way, i can't imagine he is servicing every client.

[@sixninestore]

Do design Part for one time cost and get monthly charge for services like SEO and SMM etc.

Hurry to hear other feedbacks because for me I don't understand the concept of "Unlimited feedback". For me is important to have a scope and don't cross the border of this scope. With this concept of Unlimited feedback, you are giving a lot of freedom to the client reducing your expertise, finally you just "move" things till the client is happy. And should be the opposite, it's you with your expertise who should drive the client to one direction, wich reduce a lot the amounts of feedbacks. Great Video Arnau, see you soon 😊

[@ArnauRos]

I think this model works great for those basically wanting to hire an in-house designer or developer. Having someone on the team who is always working on new problems. That way you're not just a 'pixel pusher' doing whatever the client tells you to until the very end. Feedback loops are the worst in my opinion, interested in your opinion if you would ever consider this model for your agency?

@@ArnauRos totally agree with you 😊 I don’t think I will use this model for my client. Because even if all the client I have are for long term collaboration, there is not so much need after deliver the website. And I like to let breath the client a little bit and work together again few month after and improve what we’ve done. I give also the time to do introspection and see what can I improve and what was good. You said you are implementing this method in your own studio? How is going? What the best point for you?

[@cruztube23]

These people are thinking as businesses (as agencies) and not as freelance designers. What does that mean? If I'm a designer I do projects by myself and my time is therefore limited. If I'm an entrepreneur I hire designers to work for my clients. From that standpoint it's more than logical to have subscription based pricing. Why? Salaries are mostly monthly based and fixed, so it's good to know how much earnings to expect! On one side: This solves the problem for succesful designers who work too much and are thinking about hiring. But many of them don't hire because every month pays differently, it fluctuates. Or maybe an agency, that has 2 inhouse designers, but have a lot of months where they need 5 for example. It's a tricky situation. Sure, people can hire freelancers when needed but that's a headache of its own, you know what I mean. Hiring is way better. And the subscription-based stable income eases up the decision of hiring. Logical. Therefore, If you have (for example) just 10 yearly subscribers, each paying you 2500 a month, which delivers 25k a month, that means you can hire 3 designers, with combined salaries of 12.000/month. (One designer can handle 3 serious projects a month, depending what you sell of course.) Add up your costs of running the business, let's say 3k/month. And you're having a stable profit of 10k a month. If you DON'T do subscriptions, you still have to pay your 3 designers 12k/month, but imagine only one client doesn't pay on time, or you don't find new work as fast, or your currents projects are small-money projects... That bad month can set you back really hard. I've been there and it's frustrating. I'm not into drooling over an idea, but membership based pricing makes so much sense in many aspects. Then we come to the question: who is this for, who is suited for such a pricing model? My opinion is that you have to be a well respected designer with years of experience and a spectacular network of clients, who want to grow. You don't grow with only working with an existing number of clients, you grow with new ones. And who is the front runner for new (better paying) clients, a junior or a safe senior designer? That's what I mean. Plus selling a subscription to an old client is much more easier becasue he knows what he gets.

[@ArnauRos]

Thanks for taking the time to comment! Subscription based is great for respected designers, or those with a good run of managment only services. I agree!

[@PeterRychlik]

Wow i was a little surprised to see Flow Sparrow featured here. I know the guy who started it, we live in the same city and used to DJ at the same shows back in the day. I had no idea they were doing that well, and had a seven figure run rate. I saw those prices and often wondered how they managed to retain clients at such a high monthly rate, when sometimes I struggle to sell a one-time design fee of less than that.

[@ArnauRos]

Small world!

[@PeterRychlik]

@@ArnauRos Yup, super small world! Never ceases to amaze me.

[@angelo5269]

Very good video, but for the prices indicated it makes only the design of the site or that it makes the development also?

[@ArnauRos]

He also has development services available if Im not mistaken

[@adeyemoademola2869]

Can something like this be done with framer?

[@ArnauRos]

yes

[@TheFreesoulTV]

You did put one more R on the Sparrow link, and there is a blink one xD😅😂

[@ArnauRos]

Fixed! :)

[@jimmoefoe1471]

How are taxes calculated for these guys? Will a LLC help people reduce in paying taxes?

[@ArnauRos]

Not sure, it’s best to speak to a tax advisor about that

[@user-zq1mw5eo1n]

Interested...how can I start it?

[@ArnauRos]

I have a beginner freelance playlist!

[@lironlevi]

It's an interesting model. I think the reason it works for him is because of the high price tag he is requesting his clients to pay. This type of monthly payment is normally reserved only for very large corporations that don't mind "wasting" this amount of money. These large corporations usually don't attempt to get their money's worth to the last dime. If he would attempt this model with medium size corporations (small size corporations would flat out reject this monthly payment) then I think he would immediately be flooded with tons of design requests and very unhappy customers due to not being able to service them in a timely manner. The problem with getting such contracts with large corporations is that its much more difficult than the other business types I've mentioned. I'm not sure how he managed to pull this off - probably an interesting subject by itself.

[@avivshvitzky2459]

It's all great, but I can't even land 1 client, so what this helps me XD

[@ArnauRos]

Take a look at some of my more beginner friendly videos!

[@bpsujith]

I would like to be a full-time freelancer. What is the best option to get works ?

[@ArnauRos]

Check out my freelance playlist!

[@beataddiction6954]

Subscription is nothing new. Every where I look online it's subscription, software, courses etc. Personally as a consumer I don't like subscription but hey that's life. As you said the temptation for a web design service is to take on too much work and therefore quality of service to the client suffers. Greed?

[@ArnauRos]

Perhaps!

[@katscandance]

I’m starting to hate the subscription base model 😭

[@wer70546]

I don't understand what's the point? the client can arrange the work on time and material. why do you need a subscription?

[@ArnauRos]

Some clients prefer to have you on retainer because they need consistent support, this makes it easier on their end as well.

[@wer70546]

@@ArnauRos but TM seems to be more flexible. since the client pays for the number of hours that I worked on the task.

[@ArnauRos]

Yes, but you’ll never become wealthy by selling your time alone. You need to create systems to leverage your skill set

[@wer70546]

@@ArnauRos 100% agree! a subscription is more profitable (here, of course, the question arises about honesty, if you have 100 clients and you do it alone for one client task per month). I just wanted to know WHY customers want to subscribe. what is their benefit? for me as an entrepreneur - yes, it is beneficial. but what for it to the client?

[@manel5686]

bro can you mention some resources that allowed you to learn design please ?

[@ArnauRos]

For web design my main resource was youtube, flux, thefutur, and trying things out myself.

[@my_codingchannel7479]

perhaps lower the bass on your mic

[@ArnauRos]

Done in newer vids :)

[@lilacDaisy111]

I watched an interview of his, and I can't see how the figures add up. 20 clients at a time x 2 hours per job every (he said he's super fast) spat out every 48 hours. When does he sleep!!!

[@ArnauRos]

Apparently hes decreased the number of clients, and now he works even less, but makes like 40k a month. No clue

[@TCakes]

It's all a huge lie lol. He sells courses that design twitter eats up. Lie about how much you make and ignore those who question you

[@roter13]

Your are gorgeous. Just thought you should know.

[@Alex-uo4qq]

It's waaaaaaay harder to find someone willing to pay $5000 a month for a subscription fee.

[@ArnauRos]

Different type of client!

[@justicechinedu2828]

Hire a team.. simple solution

[@ArnauRos]

yep!

[@marzoval9551]

Brett was making at least $5000/mo PER CLIENT, and getting overloaded because of the unsustainable promise of unlimited requests. Why why why does he insist on being the solo designer of the company to handle all these requests in just 48 hours?? He clearly makes more than enough to at least pay a junior designer or two (or outsource to Fiverr or something) to offload the work so his brand's reputation doesn't suffer. The whole setup of that business model just screamed unsustainable from the get go.

[@TheMrNomadus]

I'm more than sure he outsources some stuff

[@ArnauRos]

@TheMrNomus you’d think so! But he says he takes care of all of it so who knows

[@simbarashemaunga5575]

It works but it's scammy

[@ArnauRos]

why is it scammy?

[@whiteswordwarrior9995]

Who the f pays 5000 a month for a website WHAT

[@ArnauRos]

Companies making a lot of money with a high priority for design :D

[@ninja_tony]

Almost every major corporation in the world.

[@flor.7797]

Got my stipe account banned immediately by selling $4500 retainer 😂

[@Bazlightyear007]

“tAKiNg ThE wOrLD bY sToRm!” 🙄 got any more cliches to sensationalise and overuse?

[@ArnauRos]

Nope just those two! :)

[@testy8736]

Bro... Why dont you just stay quiet about this type of information? Is it really wise to share this type of information? You have to learn to keep some things to yourself.

[@isaachamilton3518]

If he doesn’t make a video on it someone else will. Why don’t you keep your ridiculous opinions to yourself, bro?

[@ArnauRos]

I think its good to tell others about it! We can all benefit from it :)

[@testy8736]

@@isaachamilton3518 I understand there are people taking stupid actions seeking love. You want to know what I know and trust me. I don't give a fck about your love

[@invasoria]

This dude, lol.