How to make a young web studio function stably?

Question

Startups

I have been doing business for 1.5 years, which is almost no time for an independent IT business, and every day I have more and more questions. More recently, I brought for myself such a thing as "reliable" and "unreliable" profit. The first concept includes the profit that is guaranteed to come to the firm at the expense of some obligation to those who contribute this money. For example - an Internet provider, he has a reliable profit, because. the user undertakes to pay monthly for the Internet, the second concept, respectively, is mutually exclusive, i.e. the company's profit is directly proportional to the number of orders - this, in fact, is an example of the income of a young web studio. Yes, she can have a "reliable" profit due to the support of sites, but not all customers need this.
Actually, my problem is that there is a certain minimum that needs to be worked out per month for the studio to exist, this includes: salary, office, office expenses - and, unfortunately, most often we beat off this amount late, I I'm not talking about getting into the plus at times from the minimum. Also, the problem is still on the part of the customers, so some will understand - constant brakes with the signing of contracts, the provision of material, the signing of technical specifications, money transfers, etc., and this always slows down the process, and time goes by, you have to pay salaries.
So how to make a web studio develop in the modern world, in the presence of great competition? It is from the point of view of business processes. So far, I see the following solution to the problem: try to increase the number of customers in the hope that, according to the theory of probability, orders will be initiated more often, again, due to a large number of customers, and in case of an overabundance of work, cooperate with freelancers, but, unfortunately, this business is not an oil pipe for pumping money, there are not an infinite number of customers, people come and go, etc. - it turns out that this is an unstable business.
Friends, share your experience, give advice. How to turn the income of a young web studio, with good opportunities and high ambitions, into a "reliable" one and develop this direction?

Answer 1

More recently, I brought for myself such a thing as "reliable" and "unreliable" profit.

In any case, a young web studio will have only "project earnings" at the initial stage.
If you love your job and do it well, you will always have a job. Later, with a successful scenario, you will be able to create a constant financial flow through "support" and cross-sale. In the West, studios make money on this. Try to sell related services - hosting, SEO promotion, SMM, advise on client business automation - for example, sell client management services or task management services.
Save as much as possible first. You do not need an office, an accountant, etc. The main thing is to come to the meeting in clean clothes).
In the team you 100% need a good designer and programmer. The first is critical for the studio. At first, you can take the layout on freelance, but later you still need to hire a verst for a permanent job.
Debug the entire process of working with the customer.
Here I also remembered the key point - if SUDDENLY the client wants and is ready to pay - immediately rush for money)) tomorrow it may be too late)
Well, then, when you get tired of inadequate customers - you will do "your" project, I give a tooth)
Good luck to you , Renat

Answer 2

A web studio in Russia is only Bitrix. In our small provincial town, only those studios that deal with Bitrix have survived. Customers from all over Russia. A lot depends on the sales manager.
For cold calls, it is advisable to use the Call Center, which will switch to your manager if the client begins to be interested in your services.
Of the orders, we mainly have online stores worth 40-100 thousand and the lead time is from 10 days to 3 months. It is offered as a standard solution for Bitrix i.e. a standard template filled with goods from 1C from the customer (the standard template, by the way, is quite stylish, not counting the half-naked girls), a period of 10 days is achieved due to minimal changes in the design of the standard template or no changes at all, i.e. the store is just being installed and filled with goods - a quick and effective solution, because for most small companies, design is not so important, the main thing is that the customer receives his own online store in a short time and for reasonable money with 1C integration. When an individual design is done, the terms increase and the store takes on average from 1 to 2-3 months, the cost of such projects is usually about 100 thousand rubles.
Of the programmers, those who produce their product consistently earn money. For example, JetBrains or the same 1C consistently earns on Bitrix. You will probably be surprised, but even Simpla shop is bought, and this is about 10 thousand for a license. It is also profitable to do SaaS, for example, Bitrix 24

Answer 3

You yourself described your problems, you have to sit down and solve them, no one will do it for you. Permanent brakes with the signing of contracts, the provision of material, the signing of technical specifications, money transfers - the salesperson decides, calls and trips to the client, you pay him specifically for this.

Answer 4

Sergey, first of all, you need to understand that you are selling services and while you are selling them, you will always have a "race" for the client.
Make services, but standardize them slowly and bring them into a product. Then there will be a stable and predictable income. 1000 customers will support 1 person. And about 250 people work in services for 1000 clients.

Answer 5

Actually, my problem is that there is a certain minimum that needs to be worked out per month for the studio to exist.

Perhaps you should consider creating your own project, which could generate some minimum profit you need. You can develop and maintain it at the expense of the resources and staff of the organization.

Answer 6

Often big ambitions turn into fuss, therefore, various small and unpleasant misunderstandings with the client come out. No fuss and more pragmatism.