How I Built a Design Retainer Business and Started Narrowing Into Static Ads

I started as a designer doing whatever clients needed. A monthly request board made the service simpler to buy, but the work was still broad enough that most of the design had to come through me. The direction I was moving toward was a narrower static-ad service that another designer could help deliver.

At the time of the interview, I had just recorded a June revenue month of just under $31,000, with recurring revenue sitting at $25,000. The roughly $2,000 I had been doing when I joined came from someone who contacted me relatively consistently for work. I said I would not describe that early work as monthly revenue. These were different stages of the business, not profit figures.

My first client came through work I was already doing

I had a product-photography job at a candy company and knew my way around Photoshop. Someone sent a DM to the Instagram page asking who did the design and photography. The person running social media referred them to me, and that became my first client.

Initially I was more of a freelancer than an agency. I thought offering a wider range of design work would make getting clients easier. In practice, that breadth later made it harder to explain the result of buying and harder to hand the work to someone else.

The service ran through one request board

Clients came into a Trello board and could submit design requests against a flat monthly retainer. We worked through those requests with a stated 24-to-48-hour turnaround. The board kept the queue in one place; unlimited requests did not mean every request was completed at once.

I included revisions, with stipulations, because clients needed confidence in the work they would receive. I also described a satisfaction-based risk reversal. Those were terms I discussed in the historical interview, not a current offer or advice that every agency should promise the same refund policy.

Referrals and retention mattered more than a cold acquisition engine

Almost all of my growth had come from referrals and clients staying for a long time. Cold email had been difficult for the broad unlimited-design offer. Prospects saw a design service, but not how it would help them make more money. Delivering good work and maintaining relationships had been much stronger for me.

A separate mentorship group referred video clients to us, and I paid a monthly commission on that work. I still had editors handling it even though I did not promote that service much. That video arrangement was separate from me personally doing most of the graphic design.

Client Ascension related reading: Ayman’s content-agency case study describes organic YouTube content for coaches and service providers, then an expansion into ad creative.

Static ads made the service easier to focus

One long-standing client increasingly needed static ads as it tested more creative. I could see results from that work, which was different from selling general design satisfaction. That made static creative an appealing direction to focus the offer, rather than promising every kind of design work to every business.

The same service could be sold directly to an e-commerce brand or delivered behind an advertising agency’s own service. I had been speaking with agencies and brands about what their ideal offer would look like, then using their answers as feedback. Those conversations were offer research, not proof that every proposed channel had already scaled.

Client Ascension related reading: the acquisition guide discusses matching the channel to the offer and tracking the full sales cycle. It is broader guidance for evaluating new acquisition routes beyond this case’s existing referrals.

A narrower deliverable was also a hiring decision

The broad service had kept fulfillment on my shoulders because designers often specialize in different types of work. I had recently brought on a designer specifically for static ads, paid per deliverable. The goal was a service built around a more repeatable skill set rather than assembling a large team to cover every old request.

I had raised the broad design service’s price as capacity became an issue, and I was working toward hiring an executive assistant. The intent was to create room for outreach and growth while moving the work toward static ads. The narrower business was still a transition, not a completed replacement for all existing clients.

AI could help create a product image in a different setting, but I still used Photoshop and wanted a personal touch. I disliked obviously generated creative with errors in the text. The tool was part of the production process, not a reason to stop checking the design.

My next growth ideas were plans, not results already achieved

The plan was to push ads and cold email once fulfillment could handle more clients. We also discussed lower-priced creative or template entry offers. Those were ideas for introducing people to the service, rather than a funnel I had already proven at scale.

I was optimistic about the business, but the larger recurring-revenue targets discussed at the end of the call were ambitions. The recorded result was the June month and recurring base I had already described; future growth depended in part on getting delivery off my plate.

Client Ascension related reading: the AI Assisted Agency program describes agency-building support with AI. Historical prices, cancellation policies and future targets in this interview do not establish current program terms or expected outcomes.

Adapted by Client Ascension with AI assistance from Corey's interview. The first-person narrative follows the source speaker’s account. Watch the original video