Running A $30,000 MRR Website Design Agency at 19
How this 19 years old pivoted and succeeded after failing twice
Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?
Hey! I'm Mark, a 19-year-old guy living in Kazakhstan and growing his $30k/mo agency.
I've been in the UI/UX sphere for over 5 years already, and opened my latest agency in November of 2024 (after completely failing with 2 previous agencies).
We provide all kinds of design support for Seed/Series A startups. Such as web design, branding, 3D models & video animations, and so on.
You can check out here's our website here.
How did you start this business? Take us through the process.
Well it's just the usual model of any beginner entrepreneur:
Learn a new skill - start freelancing - open an agency, and start hiring - then mostly switch to info business after hitting some impressive numbers ($200k MRR and beyond).
I was on a Dubai trip at the time and came up with the naming and the idea behind my new agency.
Created a new website within 1 week, a new logo within a couple of hours, and changed my content strategy completely.
How did you get your first initial customers?
Instead of doing some designer-focused content, I started talking about the client's problems and made a whole database that helped me to do it.
It's called 4-Factor-Analysis (Frustration, Aspiration, Fears, Quick Win).
I started doing more breakdowns of the best solutions in our sphere, shared all of my experience and also did some public work for free (such as redesigning a website of a huge brand and telling about their flaws)
As Alex Hormozi always says: "Give away the secrets, sell the implementation". And that's exactly what helped me to grow.
Instead of doing some cool UI cards that get hundreds of thousands of views, it's better to write a thread on how to get higher conversions even if it'll get 10 times less views.
Since launch, what are your marketing strategies or channels to get new customers?
I've been growing just on X alone and nothing else. Right now, I'm also working on my LinkedIn account and Instagram as well
I post twice a day on my X account. Each content can be divided into design focused and client focused: first one is mainly some guides and cool stuff that gets a lot of attention from junior designer and the second is mainly the content that helps to get the client even if it’ll get 10 times less views.
For the second, I do public designs, breakdowns of high performing landings, breakdowns of why a specific brand succeeded because of the design, and so on.
Overall I’m trying to do one breakdown a week, 2 design focused threads, 1 client focused thread, and the rest are just some sneak-peaks/WIP.
On Instagram, I can’t tell anything at least now. On LinkedIn I just repost the same content.
All of the leads are inbound, I don’t do paid ads or outbound at the moment.
How does your business make money?
So right now we are offering a few bundle package for different kinds of services and work 50/50 with the clients:
Average LTV is around $7k and we get around 2 more clients a month, and try to sign as much of them on retainer basis so it'll be beneficial both for us and for them.
Our current average monthly recurring revenue right now is $30,000, and the cost of running the busineess is around $5,000 - $7,000, considering all the in-house and freelance expenses.
I work basically every minute. If it's not directly affecting the business right now, it might do in the future. If I'm not creating posts on X, then I recording videos for Instagram, or maybe coming up with some new strategies for growth.
Where can we go to learn more about you and your business?
Thank you for reading! Hope my story will inspire you!
If you need a website, you know who to call ;)