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#202 · 60min open Q&A on how I make $400k/mo

youtube ↗Agency Operations

Where have you found the biggest difference to be between making $10,000 a month and $100,000 a month?

$10,000/month is achievable through sheer tenacity, consistency, and caveman-style intellect. $100,000/month, at least for a service business, is not achievable that way — you actually have to learn how to do business: hiring, building productized systems that run without you, etc. (You can hit $100K/month as an affiliate or in e-commerce too, but that path needs more inputs like startup capital and inventory.) I focus on service businesses specifically because they have the lowest barrier to entry and made the biggest impact on my own life, but scaling one past $10K/month by brute force alone doesn't work — you have to actually learn to run a business.

scaling revenue10k vs 100klearning business

Related answers

youtube ↗Agency Operations

Can I earn $100,000 per month without running an agency?

An agency is just one of many scalable business models, but it’s generally harder to scale an agency to $250k a month compared to SaaS or e‑commerce. It’s relatively easy to hit $10k a month with an agency—one 10k client or a couple of 5k clients can be secured in 30 days, even by a complete beginner. Building a SaaS product that generates $10k recurring revenue in 30 days is far more difficult, as is scaling e‑commerce to the same level because of thin margins and higher workload. Agencies tend to cap out sooner, whereas SaaS and e‑commerce have longer growth curves. For total beginners, starting with a service‑based business is advisable because you lack the technical skill to create a SaaS product and need to learn how to identify and solve business problems first.

agencyincomebusiness models
youtube ↗Other

What are your thoughts on starting a startup versus a service-based business?

My thoughts are simple: a service business (agency) brings immediate income but requires managing people, while a SAS (software) trades early losses for later scalability and automation. In the early years, an agency can generate far more money—maybe 10 times more—than a startup, because you get paid right away. However, once the SAS finds product-market fit, it can scale with far less time investment since it doesn't need people to fulfill. The trade-off is time versus money. My optimal approach is to start with a service business to earn money, gain client experience, and learn financial management. Then evolve that service into a managed service and eventually a product. For example, Instantly began as a cold email agency, made early money, then built a SAS product that now scales. I recommend this path for most people today.

startupservice businessSAS
youtube ↗Pricing

Do you recommend productizing services with set prices that can vary in complexity and value?

I don't recommend productizing at the very beginning because you usually don't know what you don't know yet. To productize effectively, you need to fix your margins, understand your cost of goods, know how to hire people, and know what you can expect to pay for certain services. You can estimate some of these, but I still wouldn't recommend productizing right away. You're better off hitting the ground running, talking to people, and filling their needs rather than worrying about all that later. Once you're making about three or four thousand dollars a month, then you can start thinking about productizing.

productizingpricing