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Turned $300 into a $2,500/mo business in 94 days

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share some juicy numbers since I know this community likes this kind of stuff. I recently launched a UI Design agency. Did it for mainly two reasons:

  • Saw an interview of a guy running one and doing over 1M/year (wont name drop to give them SEO juice lol but you'll recognize)

  • Remembered my experience as a technical SaaS founder. How much I sucked at design and how difficult it was for me to find good design skills I could afford.

Figured there's a need in the market and I could compete to fulfill it. Partnered with a designer friend of mine where he'd fulfill the work and I'd do sales & marketing. Well anyways, we launched on June 29 and we crossed the 2.5K/mo mark as of the end of Q3. Here's the quarter performance:

June -> $89
July -> $978
August -> $1,894
September -> $2,517

We're growing about 60% MoM. We did $8,383 in contract bookings in Q3 and have $3,057 left of unrealized revenue.

We're on track to do over $4,000 in October if we can work fast with our customers to complete those outstanding projects.

As part of token of building in public transparently, I decided to hold some sort of Earnings Call as if I was a public company where I go over all our numbers, strategy, customer acquisition, big mistakes, etc... with a Q&A at the end.

Thought this would be fun to do and also a great way to connect with other Entrepreneurs. Come if you're available!

It's scheduled for Monday 9, October (tomorrow) from 12:00PM to 1:30PM CST. Here's the link:
https://t.co/V3yVMi5402

on October 8, 2023
  1. 1

    Great story! Thanks for sharing!

    I run this wiki/directory where I curate stories of indie founders running one-person businesses.

    Would love to feature your story if you're interested?

    Cheers!

    1. 1

      Sure! I responded to your email. Talk soon

  2. 1

    I have the same question, what was your main acquisition strategy (channel/tactics)?

    1. 1

      I got the majority (75%) from Upwork and trying to connect with clients who need my type of service.

      I got another 24% from referrals in our warm networks. People knew we started Appshine and also knew someone who needed design and made the intro (without us asking at all; it just happened).

  3. 1

    Congrats Verdi on your success!! Just curious to know how you got your customers? Any insights would be appreciated.

    1. 1

      I got 75% of my customers from Upwork by grinding to send proposals.
      I got 24% of my customers from referrals of people in my (and my partner's) warm network who knew that we had started Appshine.

    2. 1

      I'm also very curious about this ;)

      1. 1

        Hey guys. First, thanks for reading!

        My customer acquisition looks like this for Q3:
        ProductHunt- 1%
        Referrals 24%
        Upwork outreach 75%
        ---
        So the overwhelming majority has come from me just grinding on Upwork to find and land clients looking for what I sell