After joining Maker School, I plan to close a $2.5K deal in two weeks by dedicating 4.5 hours a day to agency operations, aiming for 1‑2 qualified meetings per day and 10‑12 new clients per month at $1.5‑2K each, projecting $15K/month revenue in 60 days. Is this realistic?
Your plan focuses on output goals (revenue, clients) without accounting for the inputs needed to achieve them. To hit 1‑2 qualified meetings a day you’d need to send roughly 15‑20 Upwork proposals daily, spend time on meetings, kickoff calls, and fulfillment—adding up to far more than 4.5 hours a day. The gap between input and output can be weeks or years, so expecting $15K/month in 60 days is unrealistic without prior experience. Instead, concentrate on input goals (e.g., number of proposals, meetings, calls) and let the results follow; consistent inputs will ultimately exceed any output target you set.
If you're already at $20K monthly profit, the math works out perfectly to reach $1M revenue. Assuming $25K monthly revenue, you'd need to triple it to $75K/month to hit $1M annual run rate, which gets you close to $900K. You're doing a good job, but remember growth isn't linear—you'll hit fulfillment bottlenecks, need to dial back, improve fulfillment, then find new channels, possibly hire. As an opportunity, you should join my Make Money with Mike program for more one-on-one time; it includes a $25K/month agency program that could help. If you're already at $20K-$25K profit, you're pretty close.
The core issue is that you’re short‑changing yourself. Hourly or monthly retainers make sense when you’re still learning to sell, but once you’re proficient you should flip the model. Instead of $500‑$1,000 per month, charge a flat $7,000 for the entire project with a 4‑6‑week scope. That eliminates the problem of working longer for less money. Many people in Maker School run custom builds that bring in $20‑$30 k per month, so capping yourself at $3‑$4 k is far below your potential.
Well, you ended up joining anyway—just kidding. For anyone else here, I'd recommend a couple of hours, maybe two to three hours per day. The first couple of days might be a bit heavier: day one could be three to four hours, day two two to three hours, then from day three onward it settles to about two hours a day, maybe a little more. Some people take longer at the start, but that's okay. The reason this works quickly is that lead generation and outreach strategies become fast with practice because I make you do a lot of them. Regardless of initial timing, you'll eventually gravitate to a two‑to‑three‑hour daily workload, which most people can fit in. A core part of the program is daily accountability and habit tracking—not just learning a specific lead gen tactic or setting up automations. It's like going to the gym but for money: you show up daily, track your habits, and build consistency. Regarding money, it's hard to give a fixed number because it scales with how much outreach you do. My suggestion is about ten Upwork applications a day and roughly two thousand cold emails in the first month. In practice, most people end up spending an extra $100‑$150 per month on things like Upwork fees or cold‑email tools, due to limiting beliefs that hold them back. The beauty of Maker School is that the capital outlay is low: you spread the cost over three months, and the time to see results is short compared to typical businesses that require a big upfront spike with uncertain payoff. You also get discounts via coupon aggregators and my affiliate links, so give it a try.
I would absolutely just keep doing what you're doing—it's clearly working, so just do more and better of it. But I wouldn't allow that to stop you from experimenting with other approaches. Spend 80% of your time on the two models that have been working for you so far, and 20% on something else, like cold outreach or email. I would also significantly improve my prices: in Maker School, people sign $1,500 for one project in their first two weeks, then the next product is $3,000, then $5,000. So, just price more with every deal.