Growth Hacking an Online Graphic Design Business – RUSS PERRY | DMR #219

Today I'm joined by a man who helps thousands of businesses improve their creativity through a flat-rate graphic design service. Welcome to DMR, Russ Perry. [you can find Russ over at RussPerry.co/DMR & DesignPickle.com.] On this episode of Digital Marketing Radio we discuss growth hacking an online graphic design business, with topics including: Why offer a graphic design service for a fixed monthly fee? Was there any other business model that you considered? How did you end up with this model? You grew the business from zero to over a million dollars in 16 months - what do you attribute that success to? How much of a part did growth hacking play? What does growth hacking mean to you? What aspects of growth hacking proved most successful? What precisely about what you did made it a success? Have you changed anything about your growth hacking strategies over the past year to make them even more successful? [Tweet ""Make sure you're charging enough!" @russperry @designpickle #EntrepreneurTips"] Software I couldn't live without What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success? Zapier [API integrator] SaneBox [Personal email management] What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future? vMix [Live video streaming software] My number 1 takeaway What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses? Make sure you're charging enough. Make sure that whatever you're doing, you're making enough money to pay yourself as well as to reinvest that extra money into marketing and sales and growth. This is what I didn't do for eight-and-a-half years at my agency. I only made enough to pay mostly other people, not necessarily even me, and there was nothing left over. And we've done the opposite [at Design Pickle] as everyone gets paid a fair amount, the clients get to pay us a fair amount, and then we have money left over to grow our business which has been very powerful.