Introduction

Have you ever wondered how to start a very lean and mean home-based web development company that you can run by yourself or with a friend? If you are one of those, pay close attention because you are going to discover how 2 guys, can pump 5 figures a month in revenue with 10 clients and no churn rate.

Lean & Mean Business Model with 0% Churn Rate

The issue with most people who wants to build a web development company is that they constantly need to find new clients to serve. Most of them find a client, make a website, makes some money and then put them on a tiny retainer to maintain their website.

But if you are by yourself or only 2 guys, maintaining cashflow becomes a real issue if you can't predict how much you are going to make this month. This is why, me and my friend chose a completely different business model.

Namely: A business based on retainer.

Retainer:
A fee paid in advance to someone in order to secure or keep their services when required.

Building a Better Web Dev Company

We recognized that people don't want a website...they want sales. Also, that they wouldn't mind paying us $1500 to $2000 a month if we can demonstrate that we make them an additional $10k a month in profit. This is why we invested in our marketing knowledge quite a lot and positioned ourselves as a "boutique digital marketing company".

Basically, we are their marketing department located outside of their building.

The Process kind of goes like this:

1. We sign a contract for around $2000 a month
2. We work with them to figure out their unique proposition: "XYZ company is the ONLY xyz with xyz benefit".
3. Then we build a website around that USP has a one time fee.
4. We work on making them money with their website by doing advertising on Facebook and Adwords
5. Bring them a report every month on how much money we made them

All of this can be done by 2 guys with these tools

So I am located in Quebec and my partner is located in British-Columbia. We work at distance and are able to do most of our work without even speaking on the phone.

Here I am going to detail the tools that we use to stay productive and to get things done.

Building Awesome Websites Easily With Divi 3.0 by Elegant Themes

Many custom coders would look down on me for saying that we use wordpress and a theme. But time is money and to be honest, the client doesn't care. What the client want is sales.

With Divi 3.0, we have an amazing support community, constant update and it is by far the best wordpress development theme company out there. Also, the websites it creates look slick.

Communication Tools for the Agency - Slack

Slack is a no brainer for our agency. Communication when you operate a business with employee across large geographical area.

Being apart has it's drawback though. This is why, we regroup once a year and spend some time together to get our objectives in line with each other.

Project Management Tool To Keep Things Rolling

There are many people who loves and many people who hate this tool. I personally love the Slack/Trello integration they recently rolled out.

But like I said in a previous article, sometime it is not the tool that is no good...but the way we use it.

-> Here is some inspiration on how you can go about using this amazing tool.

Marketing Knowledge That Pays Dividends

Ok, if you want to become a marketing ninja, you have to constantly upgrade your knowledge and your skills. I HIGHLY recommend Dan Kennedy's Books and Trainings. They are expensive but they are worth their weight in gold. If anything, get your hands on his classic: Magnetic Marketing.

Copy is what your website is ultimately about, if your copy doesn't convert your users into customers, you are missing the mark. No amount of slick design can make up for bad copy.

ilovemarketing is a great podcast that anyone who loves marketing must listen to . Not only do they have marketing legends being interviewed every weeks but their free report called "BreakThrough DNA" that is well worth the read.

Conclusion

These are very few tools but one thing I didn't mention was the division of labor between me and my partner. I personally take care of advertising and website development while he takes care of branding, copy and customer support. It definitely makes for a great combo.

I know that I wouldn't be a great entrepreneur by myself but by having a partner that complements where I have pitfalls and vice versa is where the magic happens.

If this is the path you want to go down into, I cheer you on! I have quite an amazing lifestyle and I wish it on anyone who has the desire and skills to make it happen.

Steem On!