Sunday Letters- 3 || Feb 23, 25'
Updates on building my design studio and upcoming case study.
What is in this letter:
A little math/Dilemma
Upcoming case study
In the last letter, I talked about creating a few Framer assets for the studio. I have a fair grasp of Framer now, but when I thought about it, it is too big a time commitment when put side by side with the leverage it can provide. I want to work on things with the most leverage first.
Secondly, tutorial hell is a real thing. I could convince myself that I need to master Framer in order to move ahead and avoid the actual work. I heard Tucker Carlson on the All-In podcast or Lex Fridman a few years ago, where he was telling a story about how he would start organizing his closet when a deadline was approaching to submit a new article. The point he was making was about the tricks our brain plays on us. We want to feel the satisfaction of getting something done, so we pick small random tasks to create that feeling, all while avoiding the actual work that needs to be done. That story has somehow stuck with me.
I might be oversharing here, but it is a very real phenomenon that needs to be avoided with active thought—by checking my actions and seeing if they actually move the needle in growing my work/audience.
The little math that I was talking about is that the growth of every service provider is basically a very simple equation:
More money → High-quality leads → More leads → More people in your network and social circles.
Social is what I am working on right now, but I need to work on networking and direct outreach as well. Here’s an inversion analysis on this:
Let’s say you want to make $1 million a year. This would be about $80K per month. Let’s assume your per-service charge is $5K on average—you would need to do about 16 projects a month, which sounds ridiculous. Because you would then require a team of at least 3-4 assassins commited full time. (leaving aside the problem of finding them).
So, to solve this problem, you have two choices—actually, three.
Increase your prices – Fewer projects but higher quality. You get to pick the work you want to do and double the prices, but this will also cut the number of projects coming in.( Not there yet)
Productize your service – This is the model that has spread like wildfire in the industry, but I am not sure how to approach it right now. The average price per month seems to be around $5K in the market, which is confusing to me because I have seen agencies that are actually hired on retainer charge $15K–$20K. And that’s not because they are premium—it’s because that’s the amount of work required by the companies hiring them. So, I have a hard time understanding who the actual target audience is for these $2K, $3K, $4K retainers. My guess is other project-based agencies.
Develop a standardized process for your projects – This allows you to churn them out quickly. At this point, it's no longer a service—it becomes a product because you have clear steps: first goes the bolt, then three turns, then five hammers, then goes the screw... It limits your creativity because you have a set process, but it’s good for business. For this solution, you would need standard projects that don’t require custom work. To get those, you’d need to expand your network, because high-ticket projects depend on two things:
How custom the work needs to be.
If there is a specific Hormozi-style offer.
For standard projects, the most important factor is how many people know that you do this specific type of work.
Bonus – You develop your own things with more leverage (software, platform, DTC) while providing your service. But this seems like a distraction and a way to avoid the challenge of scaling and growing.
These are the things I am deciding on behind the scenes, and I want to choose the one with the highest leverage. I’ll update on this in the coming weeks.
I am also writing and creating a new case study. I will get it done by Wednesday and post it on all platforms. Keep an eye out.
If you have thoughts on this or want to work on a website or branding project- email me at anurag@webworkshop.ca. I would love to hear from you.
Merci for reading, and I will see you next Sunday.