🚀 $0 → $10,000/month as a Design Agency Founder

I started as a student making $33/month, yes you read that right. $33/month when I was student at the same time Brand Promoter at Airtel. And from that time I was just curious how can I earn money using freelancing.
I tried lots of skill like, youtubing, marketing, development, seo, blog writing, affiliate marketing etc. But then I tried Logo Design, Graphics Design etc. First I started with Graphics Design and I worked for Logo, Business Card, Letterhead & Packaging.

My first breakthrough (it was small, but everything changed)
I got my first client from social media cause I used to post my designs consistently on social media. And that project was about $5 only. But that client gave me something more valuable. Yes he gave me consistent work. Thats when things started to shift.

• Switch to UI/UX Design
  After Graphics Design I noticed that using photoshop I can design website and that heat me again. I started learning that and did the same as a UI/UX Designer. I shared my design on social media regularly. That magic happened again. Alhamdulillah got lead from social media to design their website.
  From their, the growth was slow. Painfully slow. It took me 3 years to reach $1K per month. 7 years to hit $5K and 9 years to finally cross $10K per month as a agency founder. There was no viral moment, no secret hack, just consistent work and patience. The biggest driver of growth for me wasn't ads or cold outreach. It was referrals. Doing good work lead to trust and trust brought more clients.

• SaaS Product Design Agency
  Today I run a SaaS Product Design Agency https://panze.co/ with a team of 12 people, generating more than $10K per month. I didn't rush to build a team. I only started hiring when the work overloaded and can't handle alone.
  My system is simple

I don't rely on complicated tools or invest too much on tool. I use https://taskip.net/ to manage tasks & operations(bought lifetime deal to reduce monthly cost), https://agree.com/ to manage my project agreement(using free), https://discord.com/ to stay connected with my team about project chat (using free) & https://www.slashit.app/ to handle quick responses and keep communication efficient (I built this for my internal purpose). Thats the tech stack I am using to manage my entire agency.
Looking Back

I made a lot of mistakes that slowed me down. I tried to focus on too many things at once, spent time teaching juniors too early and even tried to build a community before I had solid foundation. If I could start over, I will focus on only 1 goal at a time.

If you are starting from zero, my advice is simple. Get really good at one thing, share that work consistently on social media and focus on getting your first client. Ignore negetive feedback from people who aren't where you want to be and use that feedback as a motivation for you.

My numbers are simple and real. I started with $5 project, moved to around $500/project and now charging avarage $3000/project. Today I am at about $10K per month. It took 9 years to get here.

There is nothing special about my journey. The only difference is that I didn't stop.