Right now is a very hard time to start an agency. I agree about AI not replacing design yet. However, the demand is at a very low point relative to the high sup

Right now is a very hard time to start an agency. I agree about AI not replacing design yet. However, the demand is at a very low point relative to the high supply of agencies. The main thing that matters is how you are going to find clients. If you already have potential clients lining up to pay you, maybe it makes sense. Agency clients generally choose who to work with based on trust and word of mouth referrals. This is especially true for design which does not have any licensing as a quality gate keeping device. Instead, there are just many more agencies than there are demand for because of the ease of starting them, so clients generally go with who they know. Another thing is that there are marketplaces like Clutch, Behance, Dribbble, Upwork, etc, but they are a race to the bottom with price. If you live in a very low cost of living country, that might be ok. For anyone in the US, it's not ok. Feel free to reach out if you want more thoughts on this as I am actively researching this topic for a book and ran an agency for awhile. forchrisroth@gmail.com