I got my first $999 client for my subscription design business - here's what I did.
Hy Everyone,
I started a subscription design agency Buildfast, in Jan 2023 leaving my full time job and being a developer and designer by profession, I had 0 sales or marketing skills.
Methods I tried
I tried the following things but nothing worked:
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Linkedin
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X
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Indie Hackers
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Approached YC companies which were recently funded
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Approached Startups that just started in last 1 year and received funding
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Approached various marketing agencies to partner with them, for outsourced design partner
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Companies hiring for UI/UX designer on contract position
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Fetched Lead contact and email through apollo -> Hired a cold calling guy on fiverr -> Asked him to call everyone on the list (after the service I felt I got scammed)
I didn’t go with the Ads as I didn’t have much savings remanning. Also, I think ads don’t do any good to business unless you spend a lot through a good strategy
Got my first project gig
After trying different ways for a couple of months, my friend referred me to one of his client who is looking to build his website. When I met the client he told me his budget was $300. Even-though I knew the value of my skills, I took to the project to start some revenue.
More project gig and first client acquisition
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Second client: $300 (friend referral)
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Third Client: $400(Coworking space I go to)
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Fourth Client: $480 (Coworking Space I go to)
The third client got really impressed by our service and post support which led them to buy our design subscription.
Things I am trying
Although, one client is not enough but atleast we got the kickstart. Here are the following things I am trying in parallel:
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Trying different marketing strategies to find what works.
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Tried hardcore sales -> Cold Calling ( I came to conclusion it is not for me)
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Started taking communication classes ( Being an introvert and for my business. It’s the must. highly recommended for someone who falls in the category)
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Linkedin valuable content generation
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X Valuable content generation
Things I will try in future
In future, I might deploy my own sales team for cold calling, cold emailing and social media marketing but at the moment I plan to find 4-5 clients who subscribe to my agency subscription.
My key learnings:
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Starting a business is easy but getting a client is 100 times harder
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If you are new to business, don’t let single lead get out of your hand. You don’t know who they may refer.
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Take the work even if it doesn’t pay according to the value you provide, it helps pay the bills.
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Getting organic clients is hard.
Taking communication classes is so underrated. Being able to effectively communicate ideas to potential clients or partners is immensely important. In my own self-reflection, I've found that this aspect of things is kind of everything. No matter how awesome your product is, it won't matter if you can't tell people about it or elicit feedback in an effective way. Even if you aren't an introvert, I think there's a lot for all of us to learn about how to communicate with one another!
introvert here
Hy Jitesh, What are you building?
Congrats on your success, Uday! Your journey with Buildfast is genuinely inspiring, especially your resilience and adaptability in facing the initial sales and marketing challenges.
It's impressive how you utilized your network and coworking spaces to land those early clients. Your approach to taking on projects, even at lower rates initially, is a smart strategy for new businesses looking to build a client base and reputation.
I'm curious, as you expand your marketing strategies, how do you plan to leverage your current client experiences to attract new ones?
Best of luck with Buildfast - looking forward to seeing your agency grow!
I don't have any Idea how I am going to move forward with marketing. Currently, I am highly active on X to make my personal brand and, soon I will start LinkedIn as well.
In addition to it, I a have rolled out a referral system for our current clients. We give them about 20% of the project no matter subscription or the project basis.
But them also, they don't have people who are looking for a website at the moment. I want leads to come organically.
Nice work, and cool to see how you tried many approaches to get clients and it finally paid off.
yes, but the work is still in progress.
Your site is pretty much a direct copy of Bruno Agency's site. The typography, layout, colors - the design is a direct copy.
Google "Bruno design membership" since I can't post links yet.
If you don't have the time to custom build your own site, then why not just buy a template and launch your site in a couple of days?
I didn't focused much on making my website fancy. I like their landing page. So, I just tweaked it according to my agency. Although I changed a couple of section.
My main focus was marketing at the moment.
If you like their landing page, why not make something inspired by it.
Purchase a template for Framer and launch your site in an hour.
There are many options but copying someone else's work is unethical.
Our Site is built in Nextjs and, from my previous startup experience. I found that I spend a lot of time building rather than marketing which result in no users.
So, I went with the solution that allowed me to be fast with the product release. If you see clearly. I didn't copy. You can say I took the inspiration and most of sections resembles with it.
try searching on twitter. lots of people look for design help. companies announce they just raised a round (might need design help), or even on spare time you can create a design for someone in hope that they see it and bring eyeballs to you
gl
Yes, I have high hopes with X. So, I am mostly focused on X and LinkedIn. Just received my first organic lead 2 days before from twitter, although it was not for subscription but for a single landing page redesign
Congratulations on launching your design agency, Buildfast! It's impressive that you've taken the bold step of starting your own business despite having limited sales and marketing experience. Your determination and willingness to try various strategies demonstrate a commendable entrepreneurial spirit
Thanks Miller!!, I really appreciate your support. Still a long way to go ahead.
100% on point 2 of your learnings. When I started doing design and website development full time I couldn't get any clients from social. It ended up being a huge waste of time and now all my leads come through referrals.
Yes, I also learned it the hard way but, It is definitely worth it at the end.