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Re: the example - an "agency of one" having a $1m year on $2499/mo plans means 400 client-months, or more than 33 clients a month every month. "Unlimited reque

Re: the example - an "agency of one" having a $1m year on $2499/mo plans means 400 client-months, or more than 33 clients a month every month. "Unlimited requests" for 33 simultaneous clients seems... unreasonable

marcus_holmes 5y ago
Gym model. Gyms routinely sign up more people than they have capacity for, knowing that most people will go for the first few weeks, and then stop. I bet there's a normal distribution for the work that sees new clients creating 90% of the workload, fading down towards zero as they age.
- lgas 5y ago
  Agencies (even of one) also get economies of scale that gyms don't. You have templates, pre-built components, domain specific knowledge of how to handle common problems, etc.
  - conductr 5y ago
    You also have subcontractors that you can farm stuff out to or help when volume surges. I think the “of one” is likely not always true.
    - abeyer 5y ago
      From what I've seen, it's pretty universal for contracts to individual freelancers like this to have an explicit "no subs" clause or at least require prior approval of specific subcontractors. I guess you could lie, or try to negotiate your way out of it in some cases... but I wouldn't count on that at scale.
  - lupire 5y ago
    Gyms have machines, and personal trainers have basic starter programs.
- janci 5y ago
  But who pays $2500/month for nothing?
  - vidarh 5y ago
    Some, but not many will pay that for nothing. But many pay $2500/month for peace of mind. I've had contracts like that renew for years with little work most months because a client just wanted to know I was incentivised to be available when they suddenly needed me.
sunir 5y ago
I don't know how DesignJoy works. I can say that a common model in this circumstance is the person is a salesperson who outsources the rest of the operation to a network of subcontractors, including project management, AE, and fulfillment. Sometimes this is called a "network agency".
- gingericha 5y ago
  I dug a bit deeper. Looks like it's truly a "agency of one" in that he doesn't outsource his work. Rather, the customers are given access to a queue (that they can prioritize) where only one item in the queue is actively being worked on at a time.
AlwaysRock 5y ago
Right. But you likely end up with most of these clients being pretty dormant and a few, or the new ones, being needy. If any given one is too needy then you cut them. In practice many companies have a similar model they just dont say it. I mean technically as a dev I'm going to make as many revisions to my code as is requested and I get paid the same amount at the end of the month. My team just knows if its 500 revisions then there are probably some issues with the asks or my code.
moralestapia 5y ago
I still find it very hard to believe that this guy is handling everything by himself.
- brimble 5y ago
  Sole employee![0] [0] (but sub-contracts work out extensively) Just about guarantee that's the situation.
robertlagrant 5y ago
Compared to a day rate contractor, $2499/mo is very little, so if you have bitty requests rather than a need for a full time staff member, your "unlimited" could easily be not very much, but still better than finding someone to do your on and off work.

marcus_holmes 5y ago

Gym model. Gyms routinely sign up more people than they have capacity for, knowing that most people will go for the first few weeks, and then stop. I bet there's a normal distribution for the work that sees new clients creating 90% of the workload, fading down towards zero as they age.

lgas 5y ago
Agencies (even of one) also get economies of scale that gyms don't. You have templates, pre-built components, domain specific knowledge of how to handle common problems, etc.
- conductr 5y ago
  You also have subcontractors that you can farm stuff out to or help when volume surges. I think the “of one” is likely not always true.
  - abeyer 5y ago
    From what I've seen, it's pretty universal for contracts to individual freelancers like this to have an explicit "no subs" clause or at least require prior approval of specific subcontractors. I guess you could lie, or try to negotiate your way out of it in some cases... but I wouldn't count on that at scale.
- lupire 5y ago
  Gyms have machines, and personal trainers have basic starter programs.
janci 5y ago
But who pays $2500/month for nothing?
- vidarh 5y ago
  Some, but not many will pay that for nothing. But many pay $2500/month for peace of mind. I've had contracts like that renew for years with little work most months because a client just wanted to know I was incentivised to be available when they suddenly needed me.

sunir 5y ago

I don't know how DesignJoy works. I can say that a common model in this circumstance is the person is a salesperson who outsources the rest of the operation to a network of subcontractors, including project management, AE, and fulfillment. Sometimes this is called a "network agency".

gingericha 5y ago
I dug a bit deeper. Looks like it's truly a "agency of one" in that he doesn't outsource his work. Rather, the customers are given access to a queue (that they can prioritize) where only one item in the queue is actively being worked on at a time.

AlwaysRock 5y ago

Right. But you likely end up with most of these clients being pretty dormant and a few, or the new ones, being needy. If any given one is too needy then you cut them. In practice many companies have a similar model they just dont say it. I mean technically as a dev I'm going to make as many revisions to my code as is requested and I get paid the same amount at the end of the month. My team just knows if its 500 revisions then there are probably some issues with the asks or my code.

moralestapia 5y ago

I still find it very hard to believe that this guy is handling everything by himself.

brimble 5y ago
Sole employee![0] [0] (but sub-contracts work out extensively) Just about guarantee that's the situation.

robertlagrant 5y ago

Compared to a day rate contractor, $2499/mo is very little, so if you have bitty requests rather than a need for a full time staff member, your "unlimited" could easily be not very much, but still better than finding someone to do your on and off work.