I'm stuck, my once 15k/month business is dying
I'm an agency owner, most of the resources are people and you can't own people.
During the pandemic I had to fire 7 out of 10 staff members from my web agency because my clients stop to pay. Today we have a couple of retainers and has been like this for the last 2 years. I have no idea what to do. For people who don't know how this market works I can't just create a landing and run ads. It's much complex than this, you need sales people a good website and live projects (which we have a couples vs solid agencies who have toons) it just doesn't work, after 6 years in business I have no clue of what to do, too little money to invest but enough to pay salaries but still no growth. What would you do?
The least I can say is sell your process, worksheets, etc as trip wires or give away stuff as lead magnets.
With very little sales, let marketplaces do the sales for you. Sell some playbooks, checklists, audits under $99 on LTD sites or marketplaces where your top personas are going to find it.
Get those who are interested in more into webinars and workshops. Anything group related that can encourage people to do more.
When they get to a point of can't do as much as you, but want to, then charge them for your service.
This market is so crowded that I didn't considered but try is always good, do you know any of those sites?
I have moved away from the agency model a long time ago. I'm sorry I can't give you any quick fixes.
The easiest move from where you are is probably freelancer with a freelancer network. So you can take in larger projects and coordinate the work between people, on an hourly basis.
This will remove the constant demand for new projects and divvy up the cash flow risk between all participants. This will free a lot of headspace, but it will force you to work on an hourly too.
do you think upwork is still viable?
It has been a long long time since I used upwork (as a paying customer), I usually do Fiverr nowadays. You thinking about doing a gig on it?
I saw videos of people making 200k a year with fiverr selling simple products.
I worked in app development, product management and startup environment with private equity I see this hard to sell. Correct me if I'm wrong, on fiverr you need to sell a lot, fast and cheap
I wouldn't know, all my experience there is on the buyers side. I have freelanced myself but the old fashioned way (direct contact paid by the hour)