Is starting an agency the best choice for beginners transitioning from a 9-5 job to entrepreneurship?
I don't know the context in which Matt Larson said that, but I'm interpreting his comment loosely. As much as I like him, I don't watch all his content. He likely means the agency model is best if you're in the top 1%. In terms of earning income (not scalability), I'd say starting an agency is the best choice for a beginner transitioning from a 9-5 job to entrepreneurship. The top 0.1% remark probably refers to intelligence, capability, resources, or some other metric. I definitely recommend starting an agency if you're at the start line or making that transition; it's by far the best choice with no better alternative. An agency is essentially the same service you provided as a corporate employee, except you now manage the client relationship yourself instead of your employer doing it. This mirrors what you did before, but now it's your own business. To minimize the gap from zero to one—between being an employee and an entrepreneur—you want to make that transition as small as possible, which an agency allows by keeping the work similar while shifting ownership.
I've owned a few profitable indoor mini golf businesses for three years and even attended some Los Vegas trainings with Horos's team to help grow them, but I'm a bit burnt out on brick and mortar and love the idea of running a one-man business, though I'm struggling to decide on an angle. Yeah, well said. So, if I had to start over with no agency knowledge, only my foundational business knowledge, what would I do? I'd definitely go back into agency work, even without any agency experience, because it's the quickest zero-to-one path for me. It's less important to get things perfect right away and more important to pick something quickly and then evolve alongside it. So I'd pick an agency model. My foundational business experience would help, but whether I had zero or a ton of experience, I'd still go into agencies. The only thing that might change that answer is distribution—if I had a large following and network, I might consider something else. But assuming I'm starting with no leverage, no distribution, no money, and just what's in my head, I'd absolutely start delivering services to clients, get a return on my time, use that to bootstrap my operations, grow them, and then be in a more financially privileged position with knowledge and experience in whatever niche I ended up picking. Hopefully that makes sense. Yeah, I'd start there and work my way down.
Honestly, I can't hold your hand through everything, but here's a roadmap. Start with the Make.com playlist I created—Make for People Who Want to Make Real Money. Watch the first 12‑13 videos to get the basics, then move on to live builds. Join Maker School, my day‑by‑day accountability program, for hands‑on guidance. After that, create an Upwork profile. Upwork lets you see what clients are actually paying for and gives you simple connector projects rather than academic builds. Apply to jobs you have at least a 50 % chance of completing; you may need to send 20‑30 proposals before you land a client. Your first gigs will likely pay $30‑$50 an hour, especially if you're in a lower‑cost‑of‑living country, but they'll give you real customer problems to solve. Consistent Upwork work will transition you from an academic mindset to a real business mindset. If you struggle with Make.com, check out their Academy for day‑by‑day lessons.
He advises starting as a freelancer on Upwork as quickly as possible, not forming an agency there because proposal reply rates suffer and clients prefer working with a person rather than a faceless corporation. Use freelancing to generate initial revenue, then hire team members but still brand the work as yourself, avoiding a corporate facade until you’ve reached around $50 k in earnings. After that you can scale the team and rebrand as a company. He also encourages the high‑school student, noting that pursuing entrepreneurship now is great.