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pxue

Founder of a solo dev $500k/year agency here.

10000%.

I topped out around $500k/year. Just naturally settled there after aggressively optimizing my process.

This is with 1 dedicated sales person who's entire job is to minimize and replace churn.

Good to see there is a mathematical proof haha.

I've been exploring productization and have made it a goal for 2024, to possibly breaking this ceiling without hiring any one else.

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I have a $2 million/year dev agency w/ 7 employees (50% gross margin) and am curious - how did you land on the salesperson you have? I have not had a single salesperson yet and am wanting to grow, but am afraid of hiring someone who will just waste time.

poached from a competitor, they tried to sell the exact same service i provide to my product company, and they did a great job.

Hiring a sales person is easier than a developer because they will accept commission as part of their pay package. Commission aligns your goals with their goals. The more they sell the more they make. Hire a few because they will compete and be even more productive. Fire if targets are not met.

Your wasting your own time not hiring. Sales targets are the easiest to measure.

But not in the grandparent's business (solo dev). There is a natural cap on the amount of work the solo dev can complete in a year (point of the article) and as such there is a natural cap on the amount of work the sales person can sell and fulfill in a year, which caps their sales bonus. It might not even be that big.

How did you go about hiring your one dedicated sales person and what’s their compensation like?

poached from a competitor, they tried to sell the exact same service i provide to my product company.

80k base, 20% commission

With benefits I hope!

Why 1 sales person? Last agency I worked for had like 25 people dedicated to sales and everyone in leadership of every discipline participated in pitches. We did something on the order of $50MM/year.

I'd strongly caution against productizing unless you have inputs telling you customers want it. It was tried at every agency I've worked at and failed every time.

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