Small Business Consulting: Operations & Strategy Aepiphanni

Freelance Designer to Global Marketing Firm

From feast to famine to long term engagements with recurring revenue.

Freelance Designer to Global Marketing Firm

From feast to famine to long term engagements with recurring revenue.

  • Business Growth, Business Strategy

Project Overview:

Getting out of "feast to famine" mode is what was most important to our client. As a solopreneur, while he made decent money, it lacked consistency and he was limited in the types and amount of work that he could handle at any given time. He was ready for a change.
Our client would be a freelancer when we first met with him. In addition to working in for another global marketing agency, he was also finding clients independently with the hope of one day being able to build his own design practice. When he approached us he was doing around $100,000 a year in revenue and most of this came from one company.  The biggest thing that flustered him was that he would have to put in an enormous amount of time and energy into a project, and then once completed, he would have to scrape through to the next client/project.

Challenge

Create

As we began to analyze his business, we realized there wasn’t much to analyze. There was no real sales process, no client relationship system, and no real accounting system in place. While the business was set up as an LLC, it was essentially a freelance relationship. This explained the client’s biggest frustration about the inability to efficiently complete one project and smoothly transition to the next one. The client needed to create a business out of this situation and the lack of systems was keeping him from doing that. It became evident to us that the client couldn’t practically continue the current arrangement in the long term without being extremely overworked.
Based on the analysis we set out to design a business model that would enable the client to scale to becoming a global marketing firm. We had to create a system that would help him get more clients and regular revenue. The model would transform the transactional nature of the business dealings into longer client relationships. So instead of just working with a client for around a month, he would be working with a client for anywhere between 6 months to a year. This longer client relationship became the base for the new model that when executed would encompass more clients, more projects and even more people within the business. Our business model would help our client grow into the role of a business leader instead of just a freelancer.

Design

Build

As we executed the business model we had designed, it helped the client individually and improved the business he was running. For instance, on one end we set up tools like standard presentations that can be quickly personalized to help him sell faster. On the other end we implemented a model that helped him bring in contractors and outsource work, something he hadn’t done before. Our efforts injected speed and efficiency into his business. As a result of what we were able to CREATE|DESIGN|BUILD, the client enjoyed the following results:
  • Went from feast to famine to becoming a global marketing firm
  • Increased revenue to just under $1 million per year
  • New projects that were beyond the client’s personal skill set
  • Systems and tools for sales and marketing
  • A well-thought-out growth model in place
  • Benefit from new tax advantages
  • Increased regular staff from 2-3 people to 8-9 people

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