[oxml]

Most people vastly underestimate how difficult it is to start, run, and scale a profitable agency (dev shop, design studio, or similar). New business is the hardest part, and unless you're extremely well-networked, you'll soon run into problems.

The best advice I could give would be:

- Make sure you really want to do this. It's way harder than you think for reasons that have nothing to do with doing the actual billable work. (Legal, HR, payroll, management, new business, processes, etc.)

- Keep your costs as low as possible. Average agencies are in the 12-18% profit margin range. Agencies doing very well might be able to hit 25-35% or sometimes more.

- Become a recognized expert in one area.

- Use that expertise to promote and market your company to potential clients in that problem space.

- If you want a leg up on your competition, go hire someone like Blair Enns or David Baker to get you started on the right foot. (nobody does this, but it would save a lot of work in the long run if you can)

[Ant_on_]

oxml thank you for your advice!