
Lessons from starting a design-as-a-service startup - vinrob92
https://www.indiehackers.com/@Vinrob/15k-mo-running-a-productized-service-and-step-by-step-guide-to-start-yours-2dd421799b
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robodale
I see the comments here already tearing apart the article. I'm creating part
of my SaaS offering that includes an optional service for new signups
(importing and formatting company documents into our system). I thought the
article was thoughtful, well-laid out, detailed key steps, and above
all...offered much-needed value to me. The Facebook group offer at the bottom
was a nice touch, as I want to learn more and share what I have going on. OP
if you're reading this, well done.

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vinrob92
Thanks!

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DoreenMichele
Really nice to see this.

I have been doing piece work for the last few years rather than hourly work. I
typically get paid by the page or by the word. I am more comfortable with that
than with charging by the hour. For one thing, it gives me a clear means to
improve my hourly rate without wondering if I am a con artist bilking people:
just get better and faster. Their price remains the same. My de facto hourly
wage goes up.

I have been asked to submit a bid to a local organization that needs help with
their websites. I am thinking of charging a monthly retainer for being the
admin and a per page fee for creating new content as needed.

I wasn't sure if that made sense. I haven't seen it done that way before. But
that is very in line with what you are describing.

Now, I just need more customers willing to pay me X amount for a page of
content for their site. And to define the scope of what constitutes a page of
content.

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HeyLaughingBoy
That makes sense to me and it's in line with the web devs who advertise basic
sites like "3 pages for $xxx."

I'm one of those who prefers fixed price bids to hourly/daily. I like to be
able to say "I will do X and it will cost you $Y." I lose my shirt
occasionally but that gives me more incentive to improve my quoting skills :-)

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corobo
Does 2 months actually count as $x/month? Not rejecting the concept, honestly
curious. I'd imagine that figure would not be used if you were to sell the
business or look for investment for example

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everdev
You typically sell at a multiple of the last 2-3 years average revenue.

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pc86
You could write a book filled the caveats you should have on such a
generalized statement as this, and 2-3x _revenue_ is certainly the exception
rather than the rule. Plenty of business sell for a year's gross revenue or
less.

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bulgor
Not sure about the quality I can expect here. Most of these services use cheap
laour. I’ve enjoyed using a more high-end service thats focussing on [1] User
Interface and UX design with senior level designers.

[1] [http://fairpixels.pro](http://fairpixels.pro)

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meteor333
I'm genuinely curious on how people find new customers or get people on your
website? Is it based on referrals, advertising? I've struggled with outreach
and getting first 100-1,000 on simply on the website, let alone signing up.
Are there any good resources on this?

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vinrob92
We are just making what people want and mostly it goes from word of mouth. We
are also limiting our services. We know that people love the type of
illustrations we do (for blog posts/landing pages), love the type of landing
pages we do, and also love the logos. We do not try to do 1000 things well,
but rather 15-20 things really well and know our customers really well.

I only reach our customers via a few channels and mostly do content marketing
but most of it is word of mouth.

We have not yet any referral or affiliate system in place but we are building
one for our v3 which should come end of this month.

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meteor333
thanks that's helpful. How many users/customers did you before you did any
content marketing? How much do you currently spend on advertising?

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vinrob92
We do not spend any money on advertising. We only do direct sales and content
marketing.

We had our first 10 subscribers with direct sales.

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maxxxxx
How can this be so cheap reasonably? If I understand correctly I can have a
full time designer for $279/month. Maybe a lot of subscribers use only a small
part of what they could be using but it seems to me this can easily be abused.

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vinrob92
OP here. I am in Asia and work with the best designers here (a lot of
designers have worked previously with top UI teams at leading startups in Asia
and even two unicorns). They handle 3 to 4 clients per month and we make only
a small margin. We do not intend Manypixels to be a huge business, but rather
something small and if possible allowing us to have a good lifestyle while
making designers and clients happy.

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phkahler
Your labor costs are very low. Are your clients local, or are you bringing in
a lot of business due to a price differential between where you are and more
expensive places? If it's the later then it won't work for readers in the more
expensive places.

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vinrob92
Most of our clients are located in the US, Europe, and Australia. Our team is
based in a few different cities in Asia (and I am too, actually I am replying
to all people on the chat of our website in a taxi in Yogyakarta, Indonesia).
We pay our designers actually very high rates compared to what they earn as
freelance designers and have set up great processes in place to ensure quality
consistency and speedy ETA.

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stevenwoo
There's a /r/startups subreddit (reddit.com) you may want to submit this to
for more coverage, though a link requires mod approval there.

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neil_s
The website (ManyPixels) seems pretty incomplete: I can't seem to enlarge the
portfolio, there are repeated strings in a bunch of places, and the FAQs refer
to other parts of the site without actually linking there. Currently resorting
to finding your work on Dribbble.

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moduspwnens14
Oh man I was looking for something like this. I have a personal project I
wanted to make actually look professional but as a freelancer it's tough to
justify big bucks for something like that. But this might work!

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vinrob92
Feel free to try, we have a 10 days, 100% money back guarantee anyway!

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afeezaziz
This is amazing. I mean the service. Count me as your customer

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vinrob92
Thanks for the love! We love you too so here is a 20% forever discount code on
all subscriptions (only 10 available): 915Z6X1

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xweb
@vinrob92 - This is great of you to put this discount code here. I am strongly
tempted, but it is unclear on the website what the value proposition of the
"premium" service is. Looking side by side, it just appears to add "logo,
branding, and illustrations" to the basic plan. But wouldn't that fall under
"graphic design" in the basic plan? Can you explain here what "premium" means
in your service offering?

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fredgrott
This is helpful as I just started bootstrapping services in that exact
area..very helpful guide into scaling it that way..thanks for posting it

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pouta
Thank you for this article Robin!

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acidburnNSA
> It does not matter. Just keep launching as fast as you can and see what
> works. Just think of it as throwing spaghettis on the wall and see what
> sticks.

I get that you can't do what you love and expect to make money. But this feels
like it's gone too far. It seems like true greatness and satisfaction requires
just a little bit of intent above just making easy money. I guess if easy
money is your only goal this would be satisfying.

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justherefortart
Money is freedom. You can do a lot more projects that tickle your "true
greatness and satisfaction" when you're not worrying where your next check is
coming in.

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double0jimb0
How upset would you be if “Money is freedom” isn’t true?

I think your setting yourself up for some disappointment with that one.

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withdavidli
When a person has a large quantity of money, they have the luxury to disregard
money as a factor in their decision making.

That’s how I think OP is interpreting it, not as money is a panacea for a
fulling life. But money enables you pursue many things that a person with
little money can.

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intrasight
I know people with a large quantity of money who sit at home letting their
teeth rot. I know people with limited means that are out every day living life
to its fullest. We all have to "disregard money as a factor in our decision
making" when it comes to happiness.

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gehwartzen
The point is that a person without money doesn’t have the luxury of sitting at
home letting their teeth rot out while the person with money can, if they
choose to, go out and live life to the fullest.

Money doesn’t help you make the best life choices but it expands the spectrum
of possible life choices.

