Secrets to Running a Successful Web Design Agency in 2024

Summary

This video outlines the 9-step process used to run a successful web design agency and keep clients satisfied. It starts with lead generation through referrals and YouTube content. Leads fill out a form to provide project details, which is assessed to determine if it meets budget and expertise. An initial call establishes project needs, budget, deadlines and contracts. If approved, 50% is collected upfront before starting. A kickoff call allows deeper discovery of client needs. The agency uses Notion to manage projects across an internal dashboard and a client-facing dashboard to allow transparency. As projects wrap up, clients are pitched ongoing maintenance and development retainers to nurture relationships beyond a single project. The goal is continual growth through connections with other successful agencies.

Takeaways

• 😊 Lead generation happens through referrals from happy clients telling others about the agency, and through content creation on YouTube
• 💡 The intake form allows clients to provide details upfront, saving time and helping vet good-fit clients
• 👍 Starting calls by aligning on price range and expectations sets things up for success
• 🤝 50% payment upfront before starting work is critical
• 🎯 The kickoff call focuses on deeply understanding client needs and project possibilities
• 📝 Notion CRM tracks internal progress and provides a client dashboard for transparency
• 🛠 Typical tools used are Figma, Webflow, Framer and Loom
• 💰 The minimum project size is $10,000
• 🚀 Continuously learning from and collaborating with other successful agencies fuels growth
• ❓ The script offers helpful specifics - feel free to ask questions!

Q & A

What are the two main ways you generate leads for your agency?

The two main ways of generating leads are through referring clients, when a happy client tells their friends and contacts about the agency, and through my YouTube channel, where I create web design content that attracts potential clients.

Why is having clients fill out a form on your website so helpful?

The form allows clients to provide details on their project needs, budget, timeline etc. This saves time, helps vet suitable clients, and sets clear expectations upfront before meetings.

What three key things do you aim to discuss in the first client call?

In the first call, I aim to discuss: 1) The client's needs 2) Deadlines, contracts and budget 3) Expectations and pricing range

Why is receiving a 50% upfront payment so critical before starting a project?

Getting a 50% upfront payment before starting work is critical because it ensures the client is invested and prevents issues if payments fall behind later on.

What is the purpose of the internal Notion dashboard you use?

The internal Notion dashboard helps us manage projects by tracking tasks, resources, and info like meeting notes in one place, so the team has visibility on what's going on.

How does the client dashboard in Notion benefit the customer?

The client Notion dashboard allows customers visibility into the project status, upcoming tasks, and progress, so they can check in without having to disturb the team.

What apps do you typically use for agency projects?

We use Figma for design, Webflow for development, Framer for simple sites, and Loom for video feedback and updates.

Why is it so valuable to get clients on retainer services after project completion?

Getting clients on retainer for maintenance and support provides ongoing revenue and allows us to leverage existing relationships vs. always seeking new clients.

What can you share about the minimum and maximum project sizes you take on?

Our minimum project size is $10,000. We aspire to work up towards $100-200k projects that some established agencies work with.

You emphasize continually learning and growing - what's an example of that?

We regularly meet with owners of larger agencies to get advice on growing our monthly revenue and improving processes.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Lead Generation and Client Onboarding Process

The paragraph discusses the lead generation process for the agency through referrals and YouTube content. It then covers the client onboarding process using an intake form to understand project details and expectations. This is followed by an initial call to align on budget, timeline, and contracting before accepting a 50% upfront payment to proceed.

05:01

📝 Using Notion and Other Tools to Manage Projects

The paragraph explains how the agency uses Notion as a CRM to manage projects internally. It provides a public dashboard for clients to self-serve project status updates. The agency uses Figma, Webflow, Framer, and Loom as needed for design, development, and communication. When a project wraps up, they aim to retain clients on ongoing maintenance or development retainers.

Keywords

💡lead generation

Lead generation refers to the process of attracting potential new clients or customers. In the video, the narrator explains two main ways they generate leads at their agency: 1) through referrals from happy existing clients, and 2) from creating YouTube videos with web design content which helps bring in new leads over time.

💡project manager

Project managers at the agency oversee and coordinate projects from start to finish. They have initial calls with new clients to discuss needs, timelines, and budgets. Later, they lead kickoff meetings to further understand client requirements before handing off work to designers and developers.

💡notion

Notion is a workspace and project management software this agency uses as their CRM to organize client projects. They have internal views to track progress, as well as public views they share with clients so they can self-check the status of their project.

💡figma

Figma is a popular design and prototyping software that the agency uses for web/app design projects before projects get developed.

💡webflow

Webflow is a web development platform this agency uses to build custom websites and web applications for clients once the designs are finalized.

💡framer

Framer is a simple web design tool the agency uses to quickly build websites or landing pages from templates when a project doesn't require extensive custom development.

💡loom

Loom is a video recording software the agency uses to give video feedback and walkthroughs to clients at various stages of projects so they understand what work is being done.

💡retainer services

Retainer services refer to ongoing maintenance, support and development services the agency sells to clients after projects end, to generate recurring revenue from existing happy clients.

💡minimum budget

The agency sets a minimum budget of $10,000 per project. While basic for some firms, this allows the agency to deliver quality work as a newer business while leaving room to take on larger clients over time.

💡growth

The video stresses continuously learning and growing your skills over time rather than remaining stagnant, citing an example of the agency meeting with a firm earning $200k/month to exchange ideas.

Highlights

I use a 6-step process to ensure clients are satisfied and loyal

Lead generation happens through referrals and YouTube content

Email form on website saves time vetting leads

First call covers needs, deadlines, contracts and pricing

Get 50% payment upfront before starting project

Kickoff call aligned client needs with team expertise

Use Notion as CRM to manage projects and client dashboards

Typical tools are Figma, Webflow, Framer and Loom

Minimum project size is $10,000

Average project pricing compared to other agencies

Always be learning and growing your agency

Meet with other successful agency owners regularly

Offer value to other agencies to get mentorship

Redirect questions to YouTube comments

Stay tuned for upcoming agency launch

Transcripts

today we're going to talk about how I

run my agency and the process that I use

to ensure that all my clients are always

satisfied and come back for more now

it's taking me over 6 years of

freelancing and mistakes to create this

method So today we're going to cover the

nstep process that I use in my projects

so you guys can skip all of the time and

money it took me to get here now the

first thing that has to happen is going

to be lead generation now lead

generation happens in two ways in my

Agency number one which is the best way

is going to be referring clients now

this happens organically when a client

is Happy they'll tell their buddies

about it their other business business

owners about us and then we get more

clients through that way now the second

way that we're going to generate leads

is going to be through this YouTube

channel now creating content for over 3

years of web design is going to generate

some sort of leads for web design now

before starting YouTube I didn't have

that many leads so creating something

like this has help me generate that

amount of leads now when we generate

this lead clients go directly through an

email form now this email form is found

on our website and we found that doing

this helps save us a lot of time clients

can add their details directly to the

form including the their pricing their

deadlines their expectations how many

things that they need if they need web

app design development writing whatever

they need they put it directly on the

form and this helps us vet that the

client is worth our time and also that

we're a good fit now this has helped to

save a lot of time a lot of back and

forth a lot of unnecessary meetings just

having this very simple form on our site

now the second thing that happens after

the client comes through the door is and

we make sure that okay this is within

our budget range this makes sense we

have that very first call with the

client and the project managers now when

this happens we have a general

understanding of how long a project

should take based on our previous

experience now if the client says I have

6 weeks to do this massive massive

project then we're say okay then it's

going to be a lot more money than you

have available so that's something that

we need to know with our past experience

if it can match our expertise or not now

on this very first call we're always

talking about the client's needs now

talking about the client's needs is

going to be the most important thing of

the entire call it's the reason why

you're there so make sure that you're

always listening to what they have to

say next up the second most important

thing is going to be talking about

deadlines cont contracts and money now a

lot of people don't talk about all three

of those or even any of those but that's

just what I like to do with my call to

give myself some peace of mind and also

the client if the client knows directly

coming into to the next couple meetings

that this is what they should expect

that this is the kind of price range

that we are thinking about then there

are a lot more chill about it and

they're not worried that we're going to

shove a $50,000 bid in their face and

they say okay well we can't afford that

it's better to get the pricing the

budget in the very first call out of the

way say this is the range that we're

thinking are you okay with that is this

within your range if they say no no

problem there's other methods to go

about it but if they say yes then that's

it there's no more heartbreak and you

just you just get on with it right so

the next steps after the call ends is

that we talk with the team make sure

that this is something we can do within

the time and the money that is available

and If that is good because we already

talked about the money and the budget

then we can say Okay handshake deal we

can start with it next week or two weeks

whatever the process is like but this is

great because we already talked about

expectations and we can agree on what we

talked about in the first call during

another second call or just straight up

on email now this is something that we

like to do it's our process it's not

necessarily the best process in the

world I'm guessing if you guys have any

suggestions then please let me know in

the comments but once we agreed on

everything and we have contracts signed

and ready to go we will then accept 50%

of the project upfront now this is

absolutely critical if we don't receive

this money we do not start the project

number four is going to be the kickoff

call now this is going to be where the

client and the team finally meets and

they can talk about it's kind of like a

discovery session if you want to call it

that this is where we just find all of

the things that need to be done so this

is one of the most important parts of

the entire meeting and we're going to

take a look at a real life kickoff call

in The Next Step but this is going to be

where the project manager can really

understand the needs of the client and

they can talk to the designers and say

okay this is something that we could do

couldn't do with the time available okay

so once the project begins we then move

on to notion now notion is what we use

as a CRM this is what we use to manage

all of our projects and I covered this

in a previous video I'll link it down

below but this is a opsis by the future

this is kind of their dashboard that we

use to manage clients now here we have

an internal view of everything that's

going on we have a couple of sentences

about the project we have some resources

like our figma files and then we have

some tasks that we have already

completed are in progress or not started

so here we have the meeting notes from

our kickoff call we have the date where

it took place the objectives we have

some notes so this is something really

really important that we do and look

back on often to see what was talked

about and we also have a recording of

this so we can always really just make

sure that what was being said is

actually being worked on right now this

is not what we send off to the clients

they don't see all of this what the

client sees is their own little

dashboard So within the client dashboard

we have a very similar view to what we

see internally only the difference is

that we have this kind of public view of

what's going on in the project now this

is shared directly to the client as a

page so they can always check in and see

okay this is what's going on this is

what's in progress this is what's not

started yet and as as I can see here

we're a little bit late on these next VI

pages so we'll have to get started on

that but this is what the client sees

and this is great because they can see

okay this is what's coming up this is

kind of what I should be expecting maybe

it's a little bit sooner a little bit

later so we can play around with that

just going to undo what I just the mess

that I did there but this is what the

client can check in with themselves they

don't need to feel like they're

bothering us it's just a very simple

thing to check in on their own so in

terms of apps that we use in the agency

is going to be the very typical ones

figma for design always and forever web

flow for development if it's a big

project framer for a smaller project or

just a very simple landing page if it's

just maybe even a template it might not

even be worth wet flow and then loom for

recording so within notion we also have

these looms for feedback rounds let me

click that so you guys can see what that

looks like but here is where I kind of

go through the project and I explain all

right this is what's going on right now

this is what we're doing so this is a

real life project that we've got going

on Art typography and I'm just

explaining to them the process the

buttons everything that we've got going

on and then the next few projects that

are going to be happening so as the

project develops we create more and more

looms for them here we only have two

because this is a pretty short twomon

project as we can see here we only have

a couple weeks left so we better get our

skates on and and start working a little

bit faster there but that way they can

see everything they can see the Looms

they can see anything that's ever been

posted and in terms of communication

we'll either use slack Discord email or

in this case we're using teams because

that's just what they use directly so

we'll go into their company's contact

form if that makes sense but step seven

is going to be when the client or the

project is over we then move on to the

retaining Services Mission when the

project is over it's not over it's not

over till it's over right but we always

try to get clients on a retainer

Services that's either for maintenance

or either ongoing development or then

web design and development so this is

something that we started doing recently

and it's completely changed the way that

we work because now we're not always

relying on brand new clients we can use

this huge library of past clients that

we've worked with to generate more

income for ourselves and this is

something I recommend every single

person watching this to do if you have a

list of clients that you've worked with

in the past either on notion on notes

even in your email if you haven't sorted

that out yet send them a message and

saying I am now doing maintenance

services if you guys need help ongoing

this is my price this is what I do my

services blah blah blah let's get on a

call if you do that someone's going to

say yes and it's going to completely

change the way that you work so I

recommend that you guys get into that

now that we talked about how project

management is set up let's talk about

the juicy bits which is going to be

money how much money are we making per

project what's the average price what's

the average income for this stuff now

our minimum run is going to be $10,000

per project now there's going to be

agencies that say that that is

absolutely laughable it's not even worth

opening the door for that amount of

money and then there's going to be

Freelancers and other agencies that say

that's my dream project where do I sign

well one thing to keep in mind is that

there are agencies in every single

metric of the world right there's going

to be agencies doing $10 million Web

projects web apps and apps and stuff and

there's going to be agencies doing $100

websites so whatever right there's

there's room to grow there's room to to

do whatever I'm happy where we are right

now just because this is a brand new

agency we only very recently got

accepted into the we flow experts

program so thumbs up there we haven't

even launched it yet so that's kind of

where we're starting off at is a 10K

minimum now I'm very very happy with

that and I know that there's multiple

multiple agencies that have a 200 100K

minimum project now I'm going to add

some screenshots here of another agency

that I really really love that has I

think a a similar Max which is around

200k so that's something very

interesting to to the think about but

there's always room to learn and grow

and that's going to be step number nine

step number nine is going to be don't

ever for the love of God just stay

stagnant and say this is good enough I'm

just going to sit right here with my

$500 project because I was like that and

then I had snapped out of it and said

okay I need to keep learning keep

growing what we're doing now as an

agency is that every two weeks we're

meeting with other agency owners and in

two weeks we're meeting with an agency

owner that is making $200,000 per month

with only retainer Services that's kind

of their main bulk of projects so that's

just something super super valuable the

information and knowledge that this

person has that can help us grow and

maintain our agency is invaluable so if

you can offer something to them and they

can offer something to you I recommend

that you set up this meeting just a very

quick coffee just something simple go

ahead and try to set that up so we're

almost launching this agency if you have

any questions down below about anything

about it let me know and I'll try to get

to your comment thank you guys so much

for watching and I'll see you guys on

the next one