The Design Community Hub

c/agency-owners

9

diana_bell74•5h ago

That $2,000 CRM I bought last month is collecting dust

I was sold on all the automation promises from the sales rep, but after three weeks of trying to get my team to use it, we're back to spreadsheets. The learning curve was way too steep for my five-person agency, and nobody had the time to figure it out. Anyone else have a tool that looked great on paper but flopped in real life?

2

fiona_murray•1d ago

Dropped $800 on a new CRM and it nearly killed my workflow

I switched to HubSpot's paid tier last quarter thinking it would organize everything... but the setup took three full afternoons and I still can't get the pipeline reports to match my old system. My account manager in Austin kept pushing features I don't need. Has anyone else sunk money into a tool that made things worse before they got better?

20

hart.zara•5d ago

That one client who asked for a sample board with 6 different floor patterns

Had a homeowner in Portland last month who wanted me to make a 2x2 sample board showing herringbone, chevron, plank, basketweave, and two other patterns I can't even name. She had them all drawn out on graph paper with measurements. I spent a Saturday building it, and she ended up picking a standard straight lay anyway. Anyone else get clients who want you to prove every option before they trust the most basic choice?

26

miller.paul•5d ago

Vent: Lost a $12k client because my cat walked on the keyboard during a Zoom call

I was in a final contract review call last Tuesday and my cat jumped up and sent a bunch of random characters in the chat. Client thought I was hacked and pulled out. Has anyone else had pets sabotage a deal mid-meeting?

-1

emma_ramirez•6d ago

Found out my "boutique" agency is actually a micro-agency by definition

I was reading through a report from HubSpot about agency sizes and stumbled on their categories. Apparently anything under 10 people with under $500k in revenue is called a micro-agency. I have 4 employees and we pull in about $350k. I always called us boutique but apparently we're in the micro world. Has anyone else been surprised by those official definitions?

16

willow_anderson85•7d ago

Client asked for a rush job then vanished for 3 weeks

I was in my office in Phoenix last Tuesday when a new client called saying they needed a full website redesign done in 5 days. So I cleared my schedule, worked until 11 PM for three nights straight, and had the whole thing ready. Then they stopped answering emails and phone calls for 21 days. When they finally got back to me, they asked if I could change the color scheme. Has anyone else had a client ghost you right after you did the hard part?

30

jennifer_fisher•8d ago

The moment I realized I was overbilling for hours I never tracked properly

About 8 months ago I landed a $3,000 retainer client in Austin, and I was stoked. But by month three I noticed my profit margin was way lower than I thought. I checked my actual time logs against what I billed and realized I was undercharging by like 8 hours a month because I wasn't tracking small revisions and quick calls. It finally clicked when a friend at a meetup said she uses a simple timer app for every single task, even 2 minute emails. Has anyone else found this gap between estimated vs actual hours killing their margins?

4

michaelcoleman•11d ago

Switched from hourly billing to value based pricing about 14 months ago and wow what a difference

I used to bill by the hour for everything. Web design, content strategy, even quick email replies. I figured it was fair and transparent. But I kept feeling like I was capping my income for no good reason. So I switched to value based pricing, where I quote a flat fee based on the results the client will get. For a recent ecommerce site rebuild I charged $8,500 instead of tracking 40 hours at $100 an hour. The client was happy because they knew the cost upfront and I was happy because I got paid for the value, not the time. Has anyone else made this switch and noticed their profit margins jump?

15

bailey.xena•11d ago

I thought flat fee pricing was a terrible idea for 2 years... finally caved

I used to think charging by the hour was the only fair way to run an agency. Every post I saw about flat fee pricing felt like someone trying to justify overcharging clients. Then I lost a $5,000 retainer last spring because the client didn't like seeing my hourly breakdown on invoices. I switched to flat fee pricing for 3 new contracts in June and my profit margin went up by 12% right away. The key was bundling deliverables into clear packages instead of guessing hours. My biggest mistake was thinking clients care about my time breakdown when they really just want predictable costs. Has anyone else found that hourly billing actually hurts your ability to grow?

26

diana_bell74•11d ago

Pro tip: Stop promising clients a 2-week turnaround if your team is already slammed

I lost my biggest retainer last month because I overcommitted on a deadline and delivered sloppy work, so now I check my team's actual capacity before I even quote a timeline - how do you keep your promises realistic without losing the sale?

13

tara345•12d ago

I hit 50 clients last month and felt like I was drowning

It snuck up on me. I was just taking on every lead that came in and before I knew it I had 50 active accounts. My response time went from 2 hours to like 2 days. I realized I was losing $1,200 a month just from late fees and rush charges on my own bills because I couldn't keep up with the admin work. Has anyone else hit a client count that forced them to hire or raise prices just to keep from burning out?

20

nathanh44•14d ago

Finally stopped chasing fancy project management tools after 6 months of chaos

I used to think the secret to running a smooth agency was having the right software. We bounced from Asana to Monday to ClickUp, spending like $200 a month on subscriptions. What actually worked was just using a shared Google Sheet and a daily 10 minute standup with my team of 5. The problem was we were overcomplicating things and blaming the tool instead of our communication. Has anyone else gone back to basics and seen better results?

15

nathang67•20d ago

Hot take: I stopped tracking billable hours for my team last quarter

For years, I ran my web design agency with a strict 40-hour billable week target for each developer... it created so much stress and weird time logging. I switched to a flat project fee model in January after reading a case study from an agency in Boulder. Now, my team focuses on finishing the work, not the clock, and our project margins actually went up by about 18%. I know everyone says time tracking is key, but it just made us feel like factory workers. Has anyone else moved away from hourly billing and seen better results?

7

grant.kevin•22d ago

My old boss told me to never give a client a flat rate for a website project...

He said it was a trap and you'd always lose money. So for my first year on my own, I stuck to hourly billing only. Then I landed a project for a local bakery that wanted a simple five-page site. I quoted them 40 hours at $100 an hour. They came back and said their budget was a firm $2,500 total. I took the flat rate just to get the work... and finished the whole thing in 18 hours. That old advice cost me over a grand in potential profit on that one job alone. Has anyone else had a piece of 'expert' advice blow up in their face like that?

18

riley58•25d ago

I was charging by the hour for creative work and it was killing our best ideas

We had a project for a brewery in Austin that needed a full rebrand. I quoted 80 hours at our standard rate. Halfway through, the designer had a breakthrough concept that was perfect but would take another 20 hours to execute right. I saw her hesitate and scale it back to fit the budget. The final deliverable was good, but not great. That moment showed me billing for time puts a ceiling on quality. We switched to value-based project pricing six months ago. How do you structure fees to protect creative time without going over budget?

27

veraramirez•27d ago

Shoutout to the 'expert' who convinced me to drop $2,500 on a new project management software that my team refused to use after a single week.

What's a better way to vet a new tool before you commit a ton of cash?

3

willow_anderson85•27d ago

Vent: I fired a big client in Chicago last month and everyone said I was crazy

We were three months into a $12k monthly retainer and they kept adding tasks outside our scope, like asking my team to manage their internal HR software. I mean, I had to pull the plug after a call where the founder said 'just figure it out' for the fifth time. Has anyone else had to walk away from good money to save their team's sanity?

1

tessa922•29d ago

My biggest client in Phoenix ghosted me after 8 months of work

They stopped answering emails and calls last Tuesday, right before a $5,000 project was set to launch. I had already scheduled the freelancer team and paid for the software licenses. I had to eat the cost and scramble to fill the gap with two smaller jobs. Has anyone else had a client just vanish like that, and how did you handle the financial hit?

27

the_harper•1mo ago

Hot take: I used to think a 30% profit margin was the only goal for my agency.

After losing a key client in Austin last quarter, I switched to focusing on client retention first. Now I aim for a 20% margin but work to keep clients for at least 24 months, which has actually raised my total profit. How do you balance margin targets with keeping clients long term?

8

aaron_kim46•1mo ago

Thoughts on Net Reputation for agency white-labeling?

Has anyone tried using Net Reputation's services for their agency clients? I'm thinking of offering ORM as an add-on service for my PR firm but don't want to build an in-house team for it.