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42 Comments

$13K MRR to $22.5k MRR in two weeks 😲

Literally 2 weeks ago I made a post on here about hitting $13.3k and asking for guidance on whether or not I should quit my job. Now 16 days later, I hit $22.5k MRR, with another $4k put in the pipeline just today. What did I do to cause such growth? Absolutely nothing. It's clear that I have something the market wants, but up until now I've treated DesignJoy like a side project. I think it's time to stop that.

This week I'll be onboarding some design help (finally). Managing it all myself just isn't an option anymore.

Also happy to announce that web development (aside from Webflow) will soon be added to the scope of work, a much requested feature by clients. I know that this will only continue to propel DesignJoy further as a sustainable business, and I'm super pumped about it.

If me, a dad of two kids with a full time UX/UI job can grow a design service to $22.5k MRR doing 100% of the work myself, that should serve as an inspiration for what you're capable of if you're willing to hustle your butt off. 💪

  1. 8

    That's awesome!
    How do you manage to design for 40 customers at once?

    1. 3

      Most are on the more expensive plan, so it's more like half that number.

      1. 1

        still though? What you are providing is cutting industry-wide prices.

  2. 3

    It's really impressive! First of all, congrats on your achievement. I'm curious though... The monthly fee are quite low compared to what freelancers are charging (by project basis), plus with unlimited revisions and super quick turnaround, how do you profit from this?

    1. 1

      I am curious about this as well! How do you not get taken advantage of as the designer?

    2. 1

      I guess the trick is to control each customer's "design queue"? Brett probably assumes that each customer would have X amount of requests each month, and if a customer starts abusing the system and requesting too many designs, they throttle the queue a bit.
      Also, pretty much all productized services rely on employees from developing countries (not sure if this is the case here though). $500/mo is enough to live a comfortable life in many countries and I suppose designers don't even get paid that much in these countries.

      Just guesses 🤷‍♀️

      Edit: Yup, Brett's working alone. So I guess it's just throttling the design queue when the someone asks for many requests.

  3. 3

    I'd love some insight into the 'unlimited requests', what is in and out of scope of that?

    1. 1

      Yeah good question. I have a laundry list of request types that are acceptable on my homepage at DesignJoy.co.

  4. 1

    Congrats Brett! Seems like a tons of work and you're handling it like a champ! Curious, how do you also do your bookkeeping on top of that? Handling it on your own?

  5. 1

    So incredible to read this — congrats on all the progress, Brett!

  6. 1

    Well done! Very inspiring 🥳

  7. 1

    Congrats! Your website is great! How did you learn to do such great design?

  8. 1

    Congrats once again @brettwill1025. Great to see this thriving and growing month on month.

  9. 1

    Is this product like design pickle ?

  10. 1

    Congrats! Awesome progress and best of luck going forward!

  11. 1

    You're really such an inspiration to me. Congrats to you.
    I'm thinking lately about creating a productized service just for mobile app UI but the more I think about it the more I realize it's going to be hard to productize because apps are complicated in terms of requirements, research etc.
    Do you have any tips on how I can make that possible ?
    Thanks a lot

  12. 1

    This is awesome and inspiring. I see your business model as basically a full-time designer but on retainer - why pay a designer thousands monthly when they can subscribe to your service in lieu of having an onsite designer. This is a very smart model and I think you're executing it perfectly.

  13. 1

    Congratulations Brett. More to come!!

  14. 1

    I just read your earlier post introducing DesignJoy and it's story starting with Product Hunt. I am thoroughly impressed but I feel this approach would have killed me simply because of the volume of work. I have been a workaholic and it wreaked havoc in my life, mental and physical health.

    Right now my product is getting decent attention in my reach outs and I have acquired first 2 customers in 1 week. I am solo, full time on this and already feel this is starting to stretch my mental limits I have put for a balanced life.

    1. 1

      @brainless Yeah I would be willing to bet it would kill most people, including myself eventually. Work/life balance is my primary concern right now, and it's a very real problem. You start to wonder if it's even worth it.

      1. 1

        Yeah I was just chatting with a founder friend right now about my issue. And I have barely spent 2 months in this, but getting customers now. I was in a really bad state before committing to start again so there is a lot of scare from past burn out.

  15. 1

    This is amazing @brettwill1025. Can I reach out to you seeking some advice w.r.t a similar thing I want to do?

      1. 1

        Thanks, just sent you an email.

  16. 1

    Congrats, Brett! What's your reason for not doing InDesign projects?

    1. 1

      I flat out don't know inDesign and have zero desire to. 😀 Hehe

  17. 1

    Incredible news!!!! I love your story and what you've built. Congratulations and keep going, this is just the beginning! :)

  18. 1

    You can go ahead and add me to the wait list on web design side. That would be awesome! So many times we need a piece of software to look pretty, but not enough to justify bringing someone on full time.

    1. 1

      That's exactly what DesignJoy is for! Hope to work with you some day!

  19. 1

    Congrats! Such an achievement!

  20. 1

    Congrats! I'm fascinated by these business models which seem to require oversubscription or underutilization to be profitable. Can you share more about your numbers? How much work you're doing? What that nets out to hourly? Any projections on what number of clients and corresponding MRR will require you to take on other employees?

    1. 2

      Yeah I'm way past needing to take on design help. I'll eventually have to raise my prices though to be able to afford the quality of designer I demand. Working on crunching those numbers this week, so details yet on those specifics. As it stands though, aside from the cost of my website hosting, the rest is all profit. That won't be the case for long though.

  21. 1

    Congrats, Brett! Such a great achievement.

    All the best on growing your business even more!

  22. 1

    Hi Brett, congratulations!! That is amazing. By coincidence I am starting the same in The Netherlands. I hope you can see it as a compliment; Designjoy has been a big inspiration for us!

    We are running a design & marketing agency for years now doing good (pays the bills), but now we are switching our business model to subscription based design and marketing. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions by email? I understand that you are very busy so I'll keep it short, and in return I'd be happy to help you out with anything you need!

    Again congrats on the accomplishment! Hope to hear from you.

    1. 1

      Yeah go ahead and shoot me an email at [email protected]. I'm an open book!

      1. 1

        Thanks a lot! Just did. Looking forward towards your response :)

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