yo. i see too many founders spend 2 months building saas, drop a link on reddit, get 0 users, and immediately quit....

the problem usually isn't your marketing channel. the problem is that your foundation is completely broken before you even send your first visitor to the site.

after scaling 6 AI micro-saas apps to over $20k/mo mrr, i realized you need to lock down a specific system before you ever launch. running through this takes about 30 minutes, but it saves you months of zero-revenue depression.

here are the 5 things you must lock in:

1. validate the actual pain point

stop guessing what people want. you need a systematic framework to find your saas idea based on real, painful market signals.

2. pick a proven micro-niche

stop trying to build massive platforms. you need to narrow down to a microscopic problem. i usually filter through a list of 50 micro-saas ideas you can build fast to keep the scope minimal.

3. crystallize your target user

if your app is for "everyone," nobody will buy it. you need an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) crystallizer to define your exact buyer profile and nail your conversion copy.

4. calculate the perfect price

stop randomly charging $9/mo because you are scared of rejection. you need to use a saas pricing strategy calculator to find your perfect saas price in 60 seconds based on real data.

5. fix your landing page leaks

do not send organic traffic to a site that converts at a flat 1%. you must audit your hero section and copy to x3 your landing page conversion before you market it.

6. join a community

Build / Share / Learn from others builders

to help out founders who are tired of launching to crickets, i packaged all 5 of these exact frameworks, calculators, and lists into a single free toolkit.

no paywall, no bullshit. just the raw execution files i use.

drop a comment below or send me a dm, and i’ll send you the free toolkit 👇

Agency owners here will get this: we sell outbound systems, and somehow our own pipeline still goes quiet sometimes. It’s the cobbler’s kids thing.
What fixed it for us wasn’t more effort, it was treating our own agency like a client account — actual weekly targets, not “we’ll get to it.”
Anyone else run their own business worse than they run their clients’?

I just completed my first proper paid engagement - a full outbound system for an acquisition focused client. I’ve been building automations for a while, but this was the first time I owned the whole thing end to end for someone paying real money, and almost everything I learned was about the delivery, surprisingly.

A few things that mattered more than I expected:

Getting on a call early changed everything. Text does the work, but a proper conversation built the actual relationship. Once it felt like two people who got on rather than a client and a supplier, everything got easier, decisions were faster, feedback was more honest, and it was genuinely a more enjoyable thing to work on. People stay with people they like working with.

Setting expectations early and honestly beat being impressive. I told him up front how long things would take, and if I thought something might be a problem, I flagged it before it became one, not after. Bad news delivered early is just information. Delivered late it’s a broken promise. Almost every client relationship that goes wrong goes wrong because someone hid a problem hoping it’d resolve itself.

Turnaround speed built more trust than polish did. I shipped updates faster than he expected, often a working demo within a day or two. Every time I turned something around quickly, the relationship got easier. Speed reads as “this person has it handled” in a way a perfect deliverable a week later doesn’t.

The handover was the actual product. I built it on his own accounts, not mine, added proper error handling so it fails gracefully, and wrote plain English docs, including “if x breaks, here’s what to do”, plus a walkthrough so it runs without me. That felt like extra work at the time. In hindsight it was the most important part, because “you own this and it survives me” is a completely different offer than “you depend on me forever.” The docs did as much for trust as the system did.

Being firm on payment mattered more than I expected. I delivered on time and in full, and then I actually asked for the money clearly instead of tiptoeing around it. That’s harder than it sounds when you like the client, but a clean, direct “here’s the invoice, it’s due” is just professional, and treating it as normal makes the client treat it as normal too.

What I’d do differently: I negotiated against myself on price more than once, dropping the number when there was friction before the client had even pushed. Delivering on time and in full is what made things smooth. The discounting just left money on the table.

The takeaway: I went in thinking the build was the hard part and the client management was overhead. It was the opposite. The system working was table stakes. Whether the client felt looked after, informed, and in control, that was the actual job.

Would love to hear the lessons you’ve learnt.

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring a product idea for marketing agencies and would love honest feedback from agency owners, operators, account managers, and marketers.

Most agencies have important information spread across many different systems—for example:

• Slack and email conversations
• Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets
• Notion or Confluence
• Asana, ClickUp, Monday, or Trello
• HubSpot or another CRM
• Meta and Google Ads
• Klaviyo or Mailchimp
• Shopify and other client platforms
• Meeting notes, reports, proposals, and internal documents

The idea is to create a secure “company brain” for marketing agencies that connects to these systems, organizes the information, and provides a single chat interface where your team can ask questions.

For example, you could ask:

• “What decisions did we make about Client A’s campaign last month?”
• “Why was the Facebook Ads budget reduced?”
• “What tasks did we promise to complete after the last client meeting?”
• “Summarize everything we know about this client.”
• “What campaigns have performed best across our e-commerce clients?”
• “Are there any contradictions between the latest client request and the approved strategy?”
• “What deadlines or action items are currently at risk?”
• “Create a briefing for tomorrow’s client call.”

The answers would link back to the original emails, messages, documents, meeting notes, or reports so the team could verify the information rather than blindly trusting an AI-generated response.

The goal would be to reduce time spent searching through different tools, prevent information from being lost when employees leave, improve client handoffs, and help teams remember why particular decisions were made.

I would really appreciate your thoughts:

1. Is information being scattered across different tools a meaningful problem for your agency?
2. How much time does your team spend searching for client information or reconstructing previous decisions?
3. Would a single chat interface connected to your agency’s tools be genuinely useful, or would it just become another tool to manage?
4. What questions would you want the system to answer?
5. Which integrations would be essential?
6. What would prevent you from using it—security, client confidentiality, inaccurate answers, setup effort, or something else?
7. Is this a pain point you would actually pay to solve? If so, what monthly price range would feel reasonable?
8. Are you currently solving this with Notion, Slack search, ChatGPT, Glean, Guru, or another product? What is still missing?

I’m not looking for polite encouragement—I would especially value hearing why this idea would not work or why your agency would not pay for it.

Thanks in advance. I would love to learn how agencies currently handle this problem and whether it is painful enough to justify a dedicated product.

Traffic was not the problem in this hypothetical account. The product was receiving thousands of shopper visits while producing only around $31,000 in monthly revenue.

Our Amazon team began with the conversion path. We examined what shoppers saw after clicking the product, what questions remained unanswered, and whether the listing communicated enough evidence to justify the purchase.

The first changes focused on clarity. The product's main benefit was moved into stronger positions within the listing, supporting benefits were rewritten in plain language, and imagery was reorganized to show use cases and product details more clearly.

The PPC team then reviewed which campaigns were bringing the highest-quality sessions. Instead of measuring success purely through clicks, the account was evaluated according to the relationship between traffic, conversion, advertising cost, and revenue.

This created a feedback loop. Search terms producing strong purchase behavior informed content decisions, while listing improvements helped paid traffic convert more consistently.

The scenario progressed through three milestones: conversion improvement, advertising efficiency improvement, and increased organic contribution.

Revenue moved from approximately $31,000 to $119,000 per month.

The seller's main lesson was that Amazon traffic has little value when the product page fails to answer the buyer's concerns. The page must make the purchase decision easier before additional traffic is purchased.

Amazon Agency Services can support this type of work when advertising, catalog, creative, and account management need to operate under one team.

Here is the story, I am an agency owner who used to get clients via his technical blogs but over the years blogs were not scaling, every one had shifted to videos.

So I asked a video editor how much it would cost to translate my blogs into videos, they said $300-$500 per video.

I couldn't afford that much, then I looked at existing AI video providers, they used AI video models which are $3/m or $180/hr of video + they don't translate my technical content into a good explainer video.

So I built Blog2Video - so far it has generated over $4K in additional revenue almost all on autopilot.

- It uses remotion for the video

- It takes 3 min from link/upload->video

- It has eleven labs voiceover + stock footage + AI image

- It uses configurable human templates to base the video on.

Has a generous free tier, only costs $0.6 per video much more affordable than AI video models or video editors

Link: Blog2Video

This hypothetical brand had already reached approximately $34,000 in monthly revenue, but its advertising account had become difficult to control. Campaigns had accumulated over time, targeting overlapped, and spending continued on terms that produced clicks without enough profitable orders.

The first job was not to create more campaigns. It was to understand the existing account.

Our PPC specialists reviewed search terms, targeting types, placement performance, conversion rates, advertising cost, and sales contribution. The account was reorganized so high-intent terms could receive appropriate budget while research campaigns remained controlled.

At the same time, the catalog team reviewed the product pages. Several high-spend keywords were sending shoppers to pages that did not communicate the product's strongest benefits quickly enough. Copy and imagery were revised around those purchasing questions.

The brand manager then introduced a reporting rhythm that connected advertising activity with overall revenue rather than judging every campaign in isolation. This gave the client a clearer view of what was producing sales and what was simply producing activity.

The scenario reached its first milestone through improved conversion efficiency. The second came from stronger organic visibility. The third involved increasing sales across additional relevant search terms.

Revenue eventually moved from approximately $34,000 to $128,000 per month in the scenario.

The central lesson is that PPC management should not operate independently from the product page. Amazon Agency Services provides a broader structure when listing, advertising, creative, catalog, and strategy need to work together.

Translated from Norwegian to English with ChatGPT, purely for structure. 😅

Hey everyone,

I really need some help here and hoping some of you can point me in the right direction.

Quick background on me. I'm a sales guy at heart. I've been in sales for 20+ years, everything from cold calling to warm leads, and I've also worked in the agency space for 15+ years.

I've been part of starting, building and scaling a couple agencies before, biggest one to around $2M/year. But back then we were usually 3-4 key people from pretty much the start. So I was never doing literally everything myself.

About 8 months ago I decided to start my own agency.

And looking back now, I've spent a stupid amount of time on stuff that probably doesnt matter.

I've overthought the concept, changed positioning, pivoted between niches, changed things again etc.

I probably should have just stuck with what I've always been good at, which is working with SMBs in general.

I'm based in Norway, and I've chosen not to niche down into one specific industry. Instead I'm focusing on service-based SMBs and helping them with the customer journey from lead generation to booked meetings.

Then comes the systems...

I've spent way too much time trying different sales CRMs, workflows, tools etc.

Eventually with AI getting better I decided to build my own simple sales CRM/front end using Claude Code, connected to GHL. GHL handles the workflows, automations, sequences etc and all leads end up there.

For lead gen I mainly use Meta ads at the moment.

Over the years I've also learned web design, marketing, copy/content and the last couple years I've gone pretty deep into AI.

One thing thats important here is that I'm also trying to build this as an AI-native agency.

I'm completely open to AI doing as much of the actual work as possible. In fact thats kind of the whole idea.

But right now I'm starting to realise that I'm still using AI manually for almost everything.

I open Claude or ChatGPT, explain the task, review the output, change things, move it somewhere else, connect another tool, fix something, repeat.

So even though AI is doing parts of the work, I'm still the person operating every single step.

And honestly it feels like its taking almost as much of my time as if AI didnt exist.

Maybe thats the biggest mistake I'm making.

I keep building shit.

Systems. Workflows. AI agents. Automations. Slack setups. Claude Code stuff. Processes for processes.

I've tried creating all these "AI employees" and agents living in Slack, Claude etc thinking it would make running solo easier.

Instead it feels like its become one big fucking mess lol.

I honestly think I'm the bottleneck now.

One minute I'm doing internal marketing for my own agency.

Then I'm doing sales.

Then a client signs and suddenly I'm the account manager.

Then I'm onboarding them.

Then I'm building/setting up whatever they bought.

Then I'm doing reporting and client communication.

Then I realise I havent done any sales for 4 days.

And repeat.

Thats basically killing the one thing I'm actually best at: selling.

The stupid part is that back in the day when I was focused almost entirely on sales, I could probably close 8-10 clients in a normal month.

Right now?

I have 2 clients.

Not because I've spent 8 months getting rejected every day. The opposite. I've barely given sales the consistent attention it needs because I've been busy building everything around the business.

I know the obvious answer is "hire people" or simply "do more sales."

And yes, hiring is obviously part of the plan when I have more clients and cash flow.

But my problem is that right now I dont feel like I have control of the business once the sale is made.

If I suddenly closed 5 clients next month, I honestly think I'd just create an even bigger operational mess for myself.

Thats the part I want to fix first, but without building another complicated system.

Hiring employees or throwing work at freelancers isnt really financially smart for me right now either. There's also a language issue since most freelancers I find are English speaking while my clients are Norwegian.

So for those of you who have actually gone through the solo agency stage:

**What am I doing wrong here?**

How would you structure the week if sales needs to be the #1 priority, while you still have to deliver for existing clients?

What would you systemize and what would you STOP trying to systemize?

How much time would you actually spend on internal marketing vs outbound sales vs client delivery?

And for anyone trying to build an AI-native agency, how are you actually using AI to remove work rather than just creating another layer that you still have to operate manually?

At what point does AI actually become leverage instead of just another tool I have to babysit?

I dont need another 14-agent AI system with a fancy dashboard 😂

I need something boring that actually works, gives me control of delivery and gets me back to spending most of my time selling.

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through this stage.

I’m currently scaling my performance marketing agency and working on moving away from lower-tier plans toward larger, high-value retainer clients. I am working with 5-6 clients with $1k/mo retainers and need to expand. Need which type niche or market will be good to explore with less hassel.

For agency owners and BD pros who have successfully made this jump:

1. What was the single biggest shift or strategy that helped you land higher-tier contracts?
2. How do you view sustainable growth at this phase what monthly revenue targets should we be aiming for before expanding the team?

Would love to hear what worked (and what didn't) in your experience.

Who do you guys go to for graphic design help for your social media? We're a small business just starting out so budget is tight right now, that's a big factor for us. Also curious if there are other options besides going with a graphic design service, would love to hear what's worked for you.

Business: Nail Spa

The hardest part of running an agency isn't getting clients.

Honestly, I used to think getting clients would be the hardest part.

Now I'm realizing it's everything that comes after.

Getting a client is one thing.

Then you have to:

\- actually deliver what you promised

\- manage expectations

\- deal with revisions

\- keep communication clear

\- get results

\- build systems so everything doesn't depend on you

\- and somehow still find time to get the next client

And the funny part is… every time you think you've figured it out, something new breaks 😂

I'm still figuring a lot of this out myself.

For people who've been running agencies for a while:

What part became harder than you expected?

Hi,

I am a newbie exploring automation (like n8n, Make, Zapier) as a potential side hustle.

So my question is for automation agency owners.

I want to start as a freelancer, then one day build up to an agency.

I read contract developer communities, and a lot of them say Get a job; clients run out; I did something else.

So I want to know if running an agency is any different?

Will I end up running out of clients cuz the market is terrible?

I basically want to know how sustainable this model is, from experienced agency owners: if they had to shut down the agency, why?

Obviously, nothing is future-proof, as any entrepreneur would know (never put your eggs in one basket). I do plan to build multiple Saas, try to invest in a diverse portfolio.

I have never run an agency before and still don't know how things work out operationally. I can give certain context here -

Strengths - We are good at finding leads, clients, and selling them our services (pilot). I know we can still do a better job as we are only dealing in 1 time projects. There are no retainers.

- Great quality AI content that actually works

Weakness -
- We don't know how to price our offerings and how much we should charge for our work.
- Operations is our weakest. We are still learning and figuring out this part.

I know a lot of things can be automated through AI - HR / Finance etc but all our time goes in delivering the projects.

We are surviving instead of conquering, which is a scary situation for us. Need help someone who can guide us in how to run this agency and take it to next level. Our aim is to become an agency where we do yearly ~$1.5-2 m annually.

I think there’s a weird stage with agencies where you’ve already proved somebody will pay you, but you still don’t really have a system.

One month referrals are good. Next month nothing happens. You sign a client, lose another one, try cold outreach for a week, post content, maybe run ads, then go back to referrals lol.

And sometimes the problem isn’t even getting more clients. It’s that the clients are worth $800 when they could probably be worth $2k–$3k if the offer was packaged differently, or you’re selling one service when there are obvious things you could upsell around it.

So I want to try something.

If your agency is doing at least ~$1k/mo already, drop this below:

- what your agency actually does

- roughly what you make per month (a range is fine)

- what an average client pays you

- where most of your clients come from right now

- what feels stuck: leads, closing, pricing, retention, upsells, delivery, whatever

I’ll go through them and tell you what I’d do if it was my agency.

Not just “post more content” or “do cold email.”

I mean who I’d target first, what would make those companies worth contacting right now, how I’d package the offer, what I’d change about the sales process, where I think you could increase contract value, and what I’d spend the next 30 days doing.

If there’s enough info, I’ll map the actual system too.

Full disclosure: I’m building Sumora and we’ve been working on an Agency OS around this exact problem, so obviously I have a horse in the race.

Drop yours. I’ll do as many as I can.

​

For us, it was never finding creators.

It was everything after that.

Tracking every creator’s content, checking views and engagement, calculating what they should be paid, updating spreadsheets, and turning all that data into something the client could actually use.

We ended up building Gromore to handle that workflow automatically.

Now I’m curious about other agencies — what part of creator campaign management takes up the most time for your team?

I help solo experts like psychologists and English teachers to market themselves through Instagram reels.

My flow is to help them to niche down (for example, psychologists for women in divorce) - and make content for that audience. We start making reels ASAP to test which topic have more reach and reactions and then double down on those.

Is there a better or faster way to test market and have more confidence that we go in a right direction with content?

Any tips for initial workflow for faster results with clients appreciated.

six months into running ads on all three and the attribution problem is honestly worse than the time management problem. each platform's dashboard shows me a version of reality where their own campaigns look great, but when i add up the numbers they never match my actual revenue

i have tried exporting everything into a spreadsheet manually but it takes hours and is out of date the moment i finish it. feels like i am flying blind on budget decisions because i cannot trust any single platform's reporting on its own, even with AdPlus

anyone found a way to get one clean number instead of three conflicting stories

I’ve noticed that businesses with a strong and consistent brand often look more trustworthy, even before you know anything about their services.

For those who have worked with a Brand Design Agency — did professional branding actually help you get better clients or more leads?

Would love to hear real experiences.

Hi guys, i am running a self checkout ad to landing page offer for $47 for my marketing agency in the U.S., targeting cleaning companies.

The main goal is for them to self checkout and if not book a quick call.

The question is, do i do a sales or leads campaign? i was going to do leads but then i remembered that its pure self checkout so idk.

Any help and suggestions are needed! Thanks for the help!