6 ms·

Show HN: Just hit $15k/m running unlimited design service by myself

64 points by brettwill1025 6y ago

iwangulenko 6y ago
First of all, congrats! If you run it all by yourself, why do you write "us" everywhere?
- brailsafe 6y ago
  Presumably Brett is not doing all of the design work if any.
  - princevegeta89 6y ago
    Nopez, he's doing it all by himself. Really admirable.
    - bagacrap 6y ago
      then it seems disingenuous to write "Work with some of the best designers in the world."
      - AtHeartEngineer 6y ago
        He's very confident
- fileeditview 6y ago
  This is done often to sound more professional.
aabbcc1241 6y ago
From the pricing model, it looks like hiring more than out sourcing because it charges based on duration, not the work to be delivered.
alexmingoia 6y ago
Congrats! What’s your profit margin look like? It’s hard to evaluate what $15k/mo means because it’s an outsourcing business. How does payment work internally? Is everyone just a 1099 that you feed work to? How do you deal with international payroll? How do you source designers and assign work?
- jacobedawson 6y ago
  Great minds..
- stewdellow 6y ago
  Amazingly, he does all the work himself: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-run-an-unlimited-design-service-by-myself-927558f038 https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-run-an-unlimited-design-...
jacobedawson 6y ago
What are your margins?
partyboat1586 6y ago
How can you offer unlimited designs at $467/month? That seems very cheap. It doesn't take much for that to be negative margin right? What am I missing?
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  Prolly a limit on how quick it is done therefore a real limit on designs per month. A bit like “unlimited” shared hosting plans.
  - partyboat1586 6y ago
    Makes sense. Seems a bit like false advertising. Unlimited requests in this context doesn't really tell you how many design hours you are buying.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      Unlimited isn’t possible because of how time and limits works, right? Is there ever an opportunity to market as unlimited without it being false?
      - partyboat1586 6y ago
        Unlimited can be used honestly when it's practically impossible to reach the limit. For example if you are offering unlimited drink refills at a restaurant that is fair advertising because it's really unlikely your whole supply of soda syrup will be drained. In this case it's clearly not viable because someone could easily hit a limit for design requests where it's just not possible to fulfil them on the budget. ~$500 is nothing like a months worth of unlimited design requests even if you only make a few requests per day.
- wmeredith 6y ago
  You're missing the conflict at the core of this business model. It motivates the provider to take as long as possible without souring the business relationship, because the faster they work, the less they're getting paid. So the unlimited part is basically marketing BS.
gk1 6y ago
Surprised to learn "unlimited design service" is a thing, offered by several people/companies: https://www.failory.com/blog/unlimited-design-services https://www.failory.com/blog/unlimited-design-services
claudiulodro 6y ago
At the risk of being "that guy", this post really isn't fit for a Show HN: > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. > ... > Blog posts, sign-up pages, curated lists, and other reading material can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs.[1] This is just you sharing your landing page and bragging about how well your business is doing. Congrats on your success, though, and I expect some interesting discussion about the business model in the comments at least. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
hckr_news 6y ago
So this is basically Brett As A Service ?
brettwill1025 6y ago
Margins are nearly 100% due to the fact I do all the work myself. I mention "us" on the website for two reasons: It's weird to say "I" in this case because to a client it isn't natural to wrap your head around the fact there is one person behind the business. Secondly, when I built the service, it was my full intention of also building a team behind it (designers, customer care, etc.). I could change the website copy to reflect it's a one man show, but I look at it like at the end of the day as long as you're getting the service you signed up for, that's all the client really cares about or needs to know.

64 points by brettwill1025 6y ago

iwangulenko 6y ago

First of all, congrats! If you run it all by yourself, why do you write "us" everywhere?

brailsafe 6y ago
Presumably Brett is not doing all of the design work if any.
- princevegeta89 6y ago
  Nopez, he's doing it all by himself. Really admirable.
  - bagacrap 6y ago
    then it seems disingenuous to write "Work with some of the best designers in the world."
    - AtHeartEngineer 6y ago
      He's very confident
fileeditview 6y ago
This is done often to sound more professional.

aabbcc1241 6y ago

From the pricing model, it looks like hiring more than out sourcing because it charges based on duration, not the work to be delivered.

alexmingoia 6y ago

Congrats! What’s your profit margin look like? It’s hard to evaluate what $15k/mo means because it’s an outsourcing business. How does payment work internally? Is everyone just a 1099 that you feed work to? How do you deal with international payroll? How do you source designers and assign work?

jacobedawson 6y ago
Great minds..
stewdellow 6y ago
Amazingly, he does all the work himself: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-run-an-unlimited-design-service-by-myself-927558f038 https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-run-an-unlimited-design-...

jacobedawson 6y ago

What are your margins?

partyboat1586 6y ago

How can you offer unlimited designs at $467/month? That seems very cheap. It doesn't take much for that to be negative margin right? What am I missing?

quickthrower2 6y ago
Prolly a limit on how quick it is done therefore a real limit on designs per month. A bit like “unlimited” shared hosting plans.
- partyboat1586 6y ago
  Makes sense. Seems a bit like false advertising. Unlimited requests in this context doesn't really tell you how many design hours you are buying.
  - skinnymuch 6y ago
    Unlimited isn’t possible because of how time and limits works, right? Is there ever an opportunity to market as unlimited without it being false?
    - partyboat1586 6y ago
      Unlimited can be used honestly when it's practically impossible to reach the limit. For example if you are offering unlimited drink refills at a restaurant that is fair advertising because it's really unlikely your whole supply of soda syrup will be drained. In this case it's clearly not viable because someone could easily hit a limit for design requests where it's just not possible to fulfil them on the budget. ~$500 is nothing like a months worth of unlimited design requests even if you only make a few requests per day.
wmeredith 6y ago
You're missing the conflict at the core of this business model. It motivates the provider to take as long as possible without souring the business relationship, because the faster they work, the less they're getting paid. So the unlimited part is basically marketing BS.

gk1 6y ago

Surprised to learn "unlimited design service" is a thing, offered by several people/companies: https://www.failory.com/blog/unlimited-design-services https://www.failory.com/blog/unlimited-design-services

claudiulodro 6y ago

At the risk of being "that guy", this post really isn't fit for a Show HN: > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. > ... > Blog posts, sign-up pages, curated lists, and other reading material can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs.[1] This is just you sharing your landing page and bragging about how well your business is doing. Congrats on your success, though, and I expect some interesting discussion about the business model in the comments at least. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

hckr_news 6y ago

So this is basically Brett As A Service ?

brettwill1025 6y ago

Margins are nearly 100% due to the fact I do all the work myself. I mention "us" on the website for two reasons: It's weird to say "I" in this case because to a client it isn't natural to wrap your head around the fact there is one person behind the business. Secondly, when I built the service, it was my full intention of also building a team behind it (designers, customer care, etc.). I could change the website copy to reflect it's a one man show, but I look at it like at the end of the day as long as you're getting the service you signed up for, that's all the client really cares about or needs to know.