Funding his experiments with a $130k/yr micro
agency
Benas Leonavicius stumbled into SEO and built a micro agency TalkThrive that brings in $130k/yr profit — while allowing him enough time to experiment with fun new projects, like his faceless YouTube channels.
Here's Benas on how he did it. 👇
Pocket money
My dad launched his own company straight out of high school, so entrepreneurship always felt normal — not risky. I always knew that I did not want to do the usual 9-5. I tried working at some corporate jobs, but didn't like them.
More than a decade ago, I stumbled into SEO while writing articles for pocket money. That curiosity snowballed into a micro SEO agency that now runs at an 80% profit margin and crossed €130k in annual profit last year.
Right now, I split my week between serving a handful of long-term SEO clients and quietly building a new project aimed at helping other freelancers hit the €10k/month milestone. I also share more about that on my personal YouTube channel and I have a faceless YouTube channel that I built from the ground up.
Blood, sweat, and tears
Because I was offering a service, I invested sweat instead of capital. I did this in the way of case of studies.
I offered aggressive pilots, documented every win, and turned each result into a story I could reuse in pitches.
We operate on pure service retainers. Average engagement is €1–4k / month. I run 4–6 clients at a time — that's the max that I can work with without scaling to a full-blown agency. I don't want to do that. It's tempting to hire full-time team, but contractors keep margins healthy.
As far as the stack, it's minimal and I like to keep it that way. It's a combination of Gmail, Loom, Stripe, and the whole suite of Google Workspace. I made a video on my YouTube channel where I go much more in-depth about that.
Building momentum
Two main tactics gave me initial momentum:
Upwork → referrals loop. Upwork gave me volume; stellar delivery converted those early clients into referral machines.
YouTube course serendipity. I joined a video course to sharpen editing skills and ended up signing two coursemates as long-term clients.
I may sound like a broken record, but I also made a video about this, haha!
Building a network
More than building a business, I was building my network. I was creating strong relationships with clients so that I could start getting strategic referrals.
It wasn't long before I started working with a very well-connected group of keynote speakers. Keynote speakers are kind of like influencers in that they usually have a big network around them. So once you work with one of them and provide an amazing experience, it's very easy to get an introduction to another.
I treat every client call like we’ll still be talking in five years — and many of them still are. These relationships have brought me more business than any other channel.
And we all know that word-of-mouth is more powerful than any cold email. Feel free to check out more here.
Borrow audiences
Borrow audiences. Partner with course creators, newsletters, or communities where your target users already hang out, especially effective for services.
One thing I like to do is join paid courses where you can stand out to clients. This will give you direct access to potential clients. Be human and build relationships. It's easy to stand out. People will start asking for your services naturally without you needing to pitch anything.
This does not apply only to paid courses with communities, but also to other private areas where you can communicate with people (private Slack groups, newsletter comment sections if based on Substack, etc.).
Client churn anxiety
Early on, I over-promised, took any project, and felt perpetual scarcity. I was super anxious about client churn. The fix was niching down, requiring 6-month retainers, and setting a maximum number of clients to ensure focus.
If I started over, I’d build a referral engine sooner and set a “no single client > 40% revenue” rule from day one.
Case studies and margins
Here's my advice:
Prove it once, then package it. One solid case study beats ten blog posts.
Don’t skip margins math. A sexy top-line is useless if you need a 20-person payroll to keep the lights on.
What's next?
I plan to keep the SEO agency intentionally small and run it at $130k+ yearly profit. The rest of my time is focused on building a personal brand within the freelancing space on YouTube and focusing on building faceless YouTube channels.
You can follow along on X, LinkedIn, and my website. And here's my freelancing YouTube channel.
Leave a Comment
Love how you’ve built a lean, high-margin SEO agency by focusing on case studies, service retainers, and referral loops. The balance between delivery and network-building is textbook sustainable freelancing
Thanks 🙏
Had the opportunity to interview Benas almost 2 months ago!
He shared with us how he discovered his true calling in SEO, pivoting from freelancing to now running a successful SEO agency.
Truly remarkable!
For those who are interested, you can check it out here or go onto IndieHustle.co to read more.
Thanks, AJ, for reaching out and publishing the interview!
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Love how you’ve kept things lean, human, and profitable..
Thanks, Parag 🙏
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Love this story — especially the balance between running a lean, profitable agency and making space to explore new projects. So many great takeaways here on building trust, leveraging networks, acquiring agency clients, and staying small on purpose. Inspiring stuff, Benas! Thank you very much for sharing!
Glad to hear this! Thanks for the comment 🙏
I am so honored to be featured here on IH!!! I remember when I first discovered IH in 2020, never did I think I'd have my own success story here years later! If anyone has any questions, feel free to post them here, and I'll respond as many as I can.
That’s inspiring! Turning pocket money writing into a high-profit SEO agency shows real entrepreneurial spirit. Great to see you now helping freelancers hit big milestones while also growing your YouTube channels. visit
this is a great reminder that lean, focused service businesses can be both profitable and liberating. Your approach—investing in case studies, leveraging Upwork to referrals, and borrowing audiences—is a masterclass in low-overhead, relationship-driven growth.
What stands out is the intentionality behind staying small and optimizing for high-margin freedom instead of agency complexity—a smart move many founders overlook in the race to scale.
Also love the strategic use of communities and courses to generate inbound work—something many early-stage SaaS and service founders underutilize.
Curious — how do you decide which side projects are worth pursuing while keeping agency performance steady? That balance is often tricky.
Thanks for sharing the blueprint
Love how you’ve built a lean, high-margin SEO agency by focusing on case studies, service retainers, and referral loops. The balance between delivery and network-building is textbook sustainable freelancing
Really inspiring to see how you've balanced financial stability with creative freedom. Managing a $130K/yr micro-agency while funding experiments is an excellent example of sustainability and innovation. Thanks for sharing your journey.
Thanks, I am glad you liked my story!
same experience. my dad also ran his business and told me i should do the same. which made me thing it should be easy. but turned out that requires a lot.
Yes, this is not easy for sure. It takes a lot of time and effort to get everything going. It's quite straightforward, but not easy. However, once you go past the initial hurdles, it does get easier with time.
I worked as a micro design agency years ago, but the propensity of time wasters eventually killed it off.
So thank you for the video. Maybe I'll give it another try!
Yeah, you really need to be selective with the clients you work with. Better yet, you need to dial in exactly what your ideal client avatar is and only target those people. Then you minimise the time wasters.
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Inspiring!
Thank you 🙏
I simply capped the number of clients I work with. Also, I restructured my offer so that the client's work does not take too much time for me. Right now, my split looks something like 60% client work and 40% my own projects.
"Really interesting model, James! As a web app security freelancer, I’ve seen a few early-stage founders run into security issues right before launch. Curious if you ever get requests for security reviews?"
Really admire how you’re openly sharing the gritty parts — from client churn anxiety to staying lean by design. That kind of honesty is rare and super valuable to solo founders trying to avoid burnout while staying profitable.
Thanks, Dustin! Yeah, that gritty part is what I personally seek when looking at stories like that, so it just made sense to share what I love reading myself.
Exactly — it's the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it feel real. Appreciate you sharing it so transparently. It's reassuring for those of us building in the dark, figuring it out as we go. Keep it coming 🙌
Really inspiring journey, Benas. Love how you focused on high-margin, low-scale operations rather than rushing to build a large agency. The way you turned case studies into growth tools and leaned on referrals and tight client relationships is gold — especially the “treat every call like we’ll still be talking in 5 years” mindset. Definitely picked up a few smart ideas from this. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you 🙏
Congratulations man !
Thank you 🙏
Love that! Micro agencies are such powerful vehicles for funding creative freedom. Curious — what kind of services are you offering?
SEO is my primary service that I offer.
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Love that! Micro agencies are such powerful vehicles for funding creative freedom. Curious — what kind of services are you offering?
I mainly offer SEO - Search Engine Optimization as my primary service.
Really inspiring to see how steady effort and smart experimentation turned into a $130K/year micro agency. Shows how powerful it is to start small, stay focused, and keep testing what works.
Yeah, consistently played a big part here. For the longest time, I was stuck in $2k to $4k range, but eventually, after countless mistakes and experiments, I found what works and then propelled me to $10k and beyond.
Insightful.
Thanks!
I am very inspired by this story. I am looking forward to the product.
Glad you liked it!
I actually started freelancing with some of the first clients before I joined Upwork. At that time, I viewed it as a side thing. It was people I knew, friends of friends, and just everyone around me. That's how I got my very first clients. Then I joined Upwork and took my freelancing full-time. The "real" first clients outside of Upwork I made were with cold email outreach. Back then, I was sending quite a lot of emails to everyone, and I signed my first few clients this way while still doing Upwork.
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