4 ms·

If DesignJoy is making $1M a year selling $2500-$3000 month subscriptions, and there's only one person doing the work, then he's got around 30 clients for whom

If DesignJoy is making $1M a year selling $2500-$3000 month subscriptions, and there's only one person doing the work, then he's got around 30 clients for whom he is doing "unlimited" work every month. As a contractor, I once had 9 ongoing projects for about 2 weeks, and that was an insane amount of work and context juggling. Handling 30 active clients for a year, let alone a career, seems impossible. So either the clients aren't asking for much (which is most likely) or I'm missing something. I assume many bigger companies would happily replace a staff member, or a staff member's valuable time, with a ~30k/year contractor. Critically, these companies wouldn't feel the need to "get their money's worth" by keeping the guy busy every day. However, the smaller companies most freelancers see as their bread and butter are more cost sensitive, and will nickel and dime you as much as possible. Are there enough big, monied companies to constitute a "storm", which I take to mean a shift in the business model for freelancers and boutique contractors? I dunno about that. I'd guess no, offhand. Seems like DesignJoy has create a neat niche, which is awesome for him! I don't think it scales to the "disruption" level as this article implies.

mejutoco 5y ago
IMO some people have an unhealthy need to find the best deal possible (usually the cheapest), even if it takes so much time it is not worth it. The same way that some public contractors offer the cheapest rate knowing that it will be inflated, or that low-cost airlines sells you the cheapest ticket, later adding extra luggage, food, and healthy credit card processing fees, a strategy is to give these people what they want. I could believe after they have their unlimited service, a lot of the customers do not make use of it. In many of these cases the decision making at the client might even be the bottleneck.
paulcole 5y ago
Until proven otherwise I'll assume any agency-of-1 will end up outsourcing to contractors at some point.
- datavirtue 5y ago
  Winner!
- jonwinstanley 5y ago
  Which, if done right could be very profitable
- julienfr112 5y ago
  And goodby quality
- davidgh 5y ago
  You mean, become a typical agency?
- Msw242 5y ago
  DesignJoy is hiring, so you're not wrong!
  - paulcole 5y ago
    Are you affiliated with them in some way? I love the non-answer to this question on their FAQ: > Who are the designers? > Designjoy is a solo company, meaning that you'll be working directly with the founder.
    - Msw242 5y ago
      Nah but Brett was talking about it on Twitter https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ
autokad 5y ago
if you look at the security space, this is exactly what cloudtrike is, or at least is aiming for. They want to do your SIRT, your red teaming, your malware collection, etc etc. Then you got microsoft with teams, office, and such trying to be the agency of one for your collaboration needs. Google is fighting to be your one stop shop for advertising. I do agree we are moving towards agencies of one.
- majormajor 5y ago
  The "one" in the article means one person doing all the work. Not a big org providing SAAS or such like MS/Google. I don't think it would work for something like software, where the last 10% takes 90% of the time. Maybe you could do it for prototypes, but do any companies really need a "constant prototype" contractor?
  - autokad 5y ago
    One person doing all the work and needs of a project does happen, but its rare. I would just be cheaper to hire someone full time, so this usually happens in specialty software where its hard to keep hiring head count to do it. > I don't think it would work for something like software Except that it happens all the time. its fairly prevalent. > Maybe you could do it for prototypes, but do any companies really need a "constant prototype" Absolutely.
mikewarot 5y ago
Elsewhere on the web, he explains his business model: "There seems to be some correlation between size of the company and the quantity of their needs. The smaller they are, the more needs they have. The opposite is true as well. So yes, many clients pay $2k+ per month and may use the service once or twice a month, equating to under an hour’s worth of work." Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/designjoy-crosses-70k-mrr-someone-pinch-me-18f17779fb https://www.indiehackers.com/post/designjoy-crosses-70k-mrr-...
- yourapostasy 5y ago
  The big companies are paying for on-demand access as insurance. They aren't stupid. They fully understand they're paying $2K+ per month and only using service for an hour or two each month. What becomes challenging at those rates and client densities is managing a tail risk of a collision of multiple big clients suddenly wanting services at the same time. You're just playing chicken with that happening, until you can scale your offerings and revenue up to where you can reduce client density to where you can handle the crunch better when it happens.
  - makeitrain 5y ago
    Or in that moment you realize demand for your service exceeds supply and the correct response is to raise your rates until you have a reasonable workload. If they won’t pay $5k+ monthly retainer for someone who knows how to build their system, surely they have a cheaper alternative. Meanwhile the clients with budgets you really want to work for are happy to pay your fees because they’re cheaper than your comparable salary. If you’re selling a monthly retainer and hit that collision you describe, you’re in a fantastic position to negotiate rates. Better to be on a use it or lose it commitment than accruing unspent hours, otherwise yeah you can get screwed.
- _tom_ 5y ago
  Sort of like keeping someone on retainer.
rco8786 5y ago
This is kinda brilliant. Every SaaS has some % of customers who pay month over month even though they rarely or never use the service. If you can just get a few of those customers at a price point that is extremely meaningful to you as an individual but the customer is big enough that it’s not meantinful to them, you can fire all the actual customers and coast.

mejutoco 5y ago

IMO some people have an unhealthy need to find the best deal possible (usually the cheapest), even if it takes so much time it is not worth it. The same way that some public contractors offer the cheapest rate knowing that it will be inflated, or that low-cost airlines sells you the cheapest ticket, later adding extra luggage, food, and healthy credit card processing fees, a strategy is to give these people what they want. I could believe after they have their unlimited service, a lot of the customers do not make use of it. In many of these cases the decision making at the client might even be the bottleneck.

paulcole 5y ago

Until proven otherwise I'll assume any agency-of-1 will end up outsourcing to contractors at some point.

datavirtue 5y ago
Winner!
jonwinstanley 5y ago
Which, if done right could be very profitable
julienfr112 5y ago
And goodby quality
davidgh 5y ago
You mean, become a typical agency?
Msw242 5y ago
DesignJoy is hiring, so you're not wrong!
- paulcole 5y ago
  Are you affiliated with them in some way? I love the non-answer to this question on their FAQ: > Who are the designers? > Designjoy is a solo company, meaning that you'll be working directly with the founder.
  - Msw242 5y ago
    Nah but Brett was talking about it on Twitter https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ

autokad 5y ago

if you look at the security space, this is exactly what cloudtrike is, or at least is aiming for. They want to do your SIRT, your red teaming, your malware collection, etc etc. Then you got microsoft with teams, office, and such trying to be the agency of one for your collaboration needs. Google is fighting to be your one stop shop for advertising. I do agree we are moving towards agencies of one.

majormajor 5y ago
The "one" in the article means one person doing all the work. Not a big org providing SAAS or such like MS/Google. I don't think it would work for something like software, where the last 10% takes 90% of the time. Maybe you could do it for prototypes, but do any companies really need a "constant prototype" contractor?
- autokad 5y ago
  One person doing all the work and needs of a project does happen, but its rare. I would just be cheaper to hire someone full time, so this usually happens in specialty software where its hard to keep hiring head count to do it. > I don't think it would work for something like software Except that it happens all the time. its fairly prevalent. > Maybe you could do it for prototypes, but do any companies really need a "constant prototype" Absolutely.

mikewarot 5y ago

Elsewhere on the web, he explains his business model: "There seems to be some correlation between size of the company and the quantity of their needs. The smaller they are, the more needs they have. The opposite is true as well. So yes, many clients pay $2k+ per month and may use the service once or twice a month, equating to under an hour’s worth of work." Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/designjoy-crosses-70k-mrr-someone-pinch-me-18f17779fb https://www.indiehackers.com/post/designjoy-crosses-70k-mrr-...

yourapostasy 5y ago
The big companies are paying for on-demand access as insurance. They aren't stupid. They fully understand they're paying $2K+ per month and only using service for an hour or two each month. What becomes challenging at those rates and client densities is managing a tail risk of a collision of multiple big clients suddenly wanting services at the same time. You're just playing chicken with that happening, until you can scale your offerings and revenue up to where you can reduce client density to where you can handle the crunch better when it happens.
- makeitrain 5y ago
  Or in that moment you realize demand for your service exceeds supply and the correct response is to raise your rates until you have a reasonable workload. If they won’t pay $5k+ monthly retainer for someone who knows how to build their system, surely they have a cheaper alternative. Meanwhile the clients with budgets you really want to work for are happy to pay your fees because they’re cheaper than your comparable salary. If you’re selling a monthly retainer and hit that collision you describe, you’re in a fantastic position to negotiate rates. Better to be on a use it or lose it commitment than accruing unspent hours, otherwise yeah you can get screwed.
_tom_ 5y ago
Sort of like keeping someone on retainer.

rco8786 5y ago

This is kinda brilliant. Every SaaS has some % of customers who pay month over month even though they rarely or never use the service. If you can just get a few of those customers at a price point that is extremely meaningful to you as an individual but the customer is big enough that it’s not meantinful to them, you can fire all the actual customers and coast.