Lessons From Doing A Copycat Business

I have copied someone’s business idea and it failed.

$1M a year one-man design agency.
No sales calls.
No client meetings.
One task at a time.

What’s not to like?

This is how Brett Williams described his solo business Designjoy on I podcast I was listening to. He shared his playbook.

It caught me in a moment when my own design business was going well. So well that it was getting boring. I was looking for a new challenge to get me excited.

So I was all in.

I’m going to productize my design services.
This will allow me to skip the sales process by offering a fixed-price service. Remove all client meetings by async communication using a tool like Trello.

I have all the skills, knowledge and tools to copy this playbook.
It’s a no-brainer.

This got me excited.

In days I had the website up with the new offer.
In one month I was driving a good amount of traffic writing on different online communities.

Six months later here is what I learned.

Productized services are a great business model but not for the type of clients I usually serve.

By choosing the wrong business model you can confuse and alienate your clients.

It’s ironic.
Since I am the designer guy.
The guy that advocates for customer needs over business or personal preference. But then you do your own thing and make the same mistake.

Here are 3 things I will look for next time I decide to copy someone else’s playbook.

1️⃣ Make sure the business model fits your client’s expectations.

In my case, the clients I serve value the one-on-one time with me. To help them think through a challenge or facilitate a decision-making process. The UI deliverables were just the artefact of what we’ve come up with.

And I was trying to sell them “Write me what screen you want, and I’ll design it — we don’t need to talk”. Cutting the biggest value I provide and offering something that a junior can deliver.

2️⃣ Align your business model with your vision for the future

I gave in to the shiny objects syndrome.
I got desperate by the big money the guy was making so I wanted to see if I could pull it off.

I forget my main goal: Move away from design execution and get paid to think.

3️⃣ Define a clear scope of the experiment I’m running

First, frame it as a separate experiment.
Don’t do something that looks like a pivot of your main business. Define a clear time frame and resources you are ready to invest. And what is the evidence that you need to make a decision if it’s working or not?

I let this one drag on for a bit too long.

All and all the construction for me is I should do more of this.
Keep it short. And test more bold ideas.
I suggest you do the same.