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Before I show the “One Coder Agency” framework, I want to discuss some common myths about building a web agency that lasts.
There are 3 myths about building a web agency that kills it before anyone even starts.
It’s fascinating to see the 3 myths being repeated and shared through different channels throughout the internet.
In fact, this pattern has been the downfall of many people who try to build a sustainable web agency.
The reality is – clients come and go.
It’s not important to have a lot of clients.
It’s better to have a few intelligent, high-value clients who are committed to your work than to have a bunch of no-brainer clients who are in it for a low price.
This is because smart clients are usually the ones who can give you business again in the future.
Not everyone will stay – so you need to know who stays and who doesn’t.
Therefore, we should not be blinded by the idea of getting a ton of clients – this is a losing strategy.
Most mediocre clients tend to be price-driven. They only come back if you lower your price to their threshold or if you get lucky.
Remember – there is always someone willing to cut their prices further to win a project.
You don’t want to be in a price war – this will eat away your profits.
So, no point in getting a lot of low-quality clients.
Best if you can focus on getting a few well-paying clients instead, as they will be your leverage for getting more quality clients in the future.
As a One Coder Agency, we want to be smart about who we work with.
We want to build up a customer base with solid clients.
We’re not in the business to just build a bunch of websites for low-value customers.
This has been my most significant setback within the first few years of building a web development agency.
I kept thinking that if I don’t have a team, I would be doomed in the long term.
It has been drilled into my head that I need to be more professional than a single-man operation.
The thing is, you don’t need a big team to do smart projects.
In fact, you shouldn’t even handle multiple projects at once.
The truth is – one good project is better than a dozen of mediocre ones.
It’s not about how many projects you can handle or how many clients you have.
It’s about the quality of your work and the value you bring to your clients.
Therefore, it’s best to focus on building a good relationship with your clients rather than how many projects you can work on in quick succession.
It’s a matter of making sure you’re doing work that your clients will value, rather than trying to be efficient and do more tasks.
More projects don’t mean you’re more successful – it means you’re busier and adding more stress into your life instead of reducing it.
Busy doesn’t always equal effectiveness.
It is better to do fewer good projects and commit 100% of your time to them.
This is probably the biggest myth in the entire web agency industry.
If you aim to build a sustainable agency, you need to ignore everything about how to scale quickly.
You should never care about scaling your agency quickly just so you can get a lot of new clients.
Having new clients is never the end goal for a sustainable agency.
Again, the thing that’s important to you and to your clients is to make sure you continue to deliver quality work and progress your relationship with your clients.
This is the difference between being a business owner and a slave to the market.
You have the ultimate freedom in running your own business.
And when it comes to scaling your business, you don’t need to get new clients to be successful – you need to create more value for your existing clients.
What is relevant is whether you can continue to retain the clients you already have and whether you can help them scale their business.
The more value you give to your existing clients, the more referrals, the higher the quality of your new client acquisition efforts, the more likely you will expand and do new projects for your clients.
“One Coder Agency” framework is put together based on the core learnings from the book, Company of One, as well as a result of learning from my past mistakes in running a web agency.
The framework focus on three essential aspects of a web agency that wants to stay small and become sustainable:
1. Profitability
2. Sustainability
3. Attract high-value clients
A sustainable web agency must have a reliable source of income. Without that, it will be extremely difficult to stay in the game for the long term.
We also want to have a high ROI (Return on Investment) on every project we work on and be more profitable.
We would do this by attracting high-value clients that willing to invest in us for more quality work. Not by trying to add more work through more projects.
High-value clients usually are the ones who will pay you a substantial retainer or project fee in advance.
They are also more willing to pay you more than anyone else and be committed to working with you to achieve the project’s goals.
Needless to say, attracting high-value clients is the major key that leads to the sustainable growth of a One Coder Agency.
1. It’s not important to have a lot of clients. You should never care about scaling quickly just so you can get a lot of new clients.
2. Your goal is to create the most value for your clients and take good care of them. Focus on what matters – the quality of your work and the value you bring to your existing clients.
3. Focus on attracting the high-value clients and spend less time on adding more projects
Please come back in the near future for more updates
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