How to Build a Six Figure Agency
It’s time for creatives everywhere to earn more.
Money and pricing has historically been an ambiguous topic in the freelancing industry. Some freelancers are barely hitting their margins, while others are struggling to maintain a consistent stream of income. The idea of making a six-figure salary feels out of reach for most.
In fact, only 5% of agencies make over $1,000,000 a year.
But with Wethos, the path to making six-figures is no longer out of reach. With Wethos, small studios and independents are empowered to take back their time, earn more money, and scale through streamlined scoping and value-based pricing.
35% of Wethos users are earning more than $100,000 a year.
Wethos is putting more money into independents’ pockets and helping them scale their business by providing access to:
A library of over 1,000 peer-submitted services and prices
Over 80 ready-to-use scope of work templates
Transparent, value-based pricing system
Seamless process to turn proposals into invoices
Here’s how two independent business owners used Wethos to implement seamless systems that accelerated their business growth.
Securing Value-Based Pricing: LaTecia Johnson, Founder and CEO of Visionary Rising
LaTecia Johnson is the founder and CEO of Visionary Rising, a full-scale creative agency focused on creative strategy. Johnson wanted to transition from being full-scale to a specialized agency, focusing on their strongest services. To run the business side of the agency, Johnson and her team used Quickbooks, HoneyBook, and Notion.
Before using Wethos, Johnson was significantly undercharging by providing more value than what was reflected in her agency’s pricing.
“When I started the agency in 2016, I launched with a $1,500 product,” says Johnson. “It wasn't scalable.”
On top of the low-ticket offering, Johnson recalls regularly experiencing scope creep with clients — a common pitfall freelancers experience when they provide more work than what was initially agreed upon, which undercuts their pricing. For Johnson, clients would agree to an initial budget, but once the project got started, the scope of work would increase without any adjustment to the price.
Not to mention, her agency’s previous proposal process took around two weeks to complete for each potential client. The agency was only sending two or three proposals out per month, according to Johnson.
With no margins built into the scoping process and proposals that took too long to complete, Johnson found herself up against the wall when it came to trying to scale the business. She needed a one-stop-shop to manage systems, manage a creative workforce, and keep projects in scope when she discovered Wethos.
The Solution
Since launching with a $1,500 offering, Johnson’s agency has come a long way. After implementing Wethos into their processes, the agency now has a minimum project commitment of $100,000 and has significantly reduced their time spent on proposals.
“[We had] a minimum commitment of $25,000 when we started utilizing Wethos,” explains Johnson. “Over the last 18 months, we've scaled that to a minimum commitment of $100,000 in order to work with our team and provide that value. We couldn't have done that without the Wethos templates.”
In addition to the clarity Johnson gained around value-based pricing, the streamlined templates cut down their proposal process. “We went from a two week proposal [process] to two or three days,” explains Johnson. “By utilizing the platform, we're able to send five to seven [proposals per month] which increases our likelihood of winning.”
With significant time savings, Johnson can prioritize tasks that will take her business to the next level. “The less time that I'm spending on building out proposals, the more time [I have] to pour into the business.”
Gaining Pricing Insight and Confidence: Josh Romero, Founder and Creative Director of Lavendr
Josh Romero is the founder and creative director of Lavendr, a creative agency focused on producing video content for brand campaigns.
After launching the business straight out of college, Romero lacked the industry insight needed to confidently structure pricing or build a team.
“We didn’t know what was expected or what can and can’t be charged for,” says Romero. “We didn’t want to over-price and lose a client.”
Romero was searching for a clear framework that he could use for pricing, scoping, and managing a team when he discovered Wethos.
The Solution
For Romero, using Wethos’ scoping tool provided crucial pricing insight and real data his team could use to confidently go after new work. After using the tool, Romero noticed that scoping was faster, clearer, and the pricing recommendations provided “validation that what you’re asking for is what it’s worth.”
When the team initially began using Wethos in 2020, they doubled their revenue. By 2021, revenue grew by 10x.
“Wethos will help you fix the things you don’t know you need to fix,” says Romero. “That’s exactly what it did for us.”
The path to making six-figures is no longer out of reach. Wethos makes it possible for agencies everywhere to earn more money and spend more time doing what you love.