Hello Reddit.
I’m a high schooler and I’ve spent the last few months planning a digital agency targeting local service businesses. I want to share every single detail of what I’ve built and get honest, brutal feedback before I launch. Feel free to let me know if it is horrid, or good.
The Main Idea
Local service businesses (roofers, plumbers, landscapers, tree cutters, HVAC,) have little to no digital presence. Most of them have no website, no Google presence, and no online reviews. They get all their business from word of mouth and referrals, which means they’re invisible to the large amount of homeowners who Google before they call.
I reach out to these businesses and offer them a professional website and digital presence for a flat monthly subscription. No upfront cost, and I handle everything.
Pricing Tiers
I have 5 tiers:
Tier 1: $250/month: Professional website (5 pages), mobile responsive, Google Business Profile setup, basic on-page SEO
Tier 2: $300/month: Everything in Tier 1 plus review harvesting, in-site review display, review response templates
Tier 3: $400/month: Everything in Tier 2 plus local SEO, citation building, monthly performance report
Tier 4: $550/month: Everything in Tier 3 plus online booking system, lead capture forms, quarterly strategy call
Tier 5: $750/month: Everything in Tier 4 plus Google Ads management, social media posting 3x/week, priority support, bi-monthly site updates
Weighted average revenue per client based on expected tier distribution: $442.50/month
Target Market Starting With Roofers
I built a contact list of 565 roofing companies. 555 of them have no website at all. These are my primary targets.
Why roofers first? High ticket jobs ($3,000-$10,000+ per job), word of mouth driven, no digital presence, and easy proof of ROI. One extra job from the website pays for a full year of my service.
The plan is to expand to plumbers, landscapers, tree cutters, and HVAC after proving the model, then eventually restaurants, retail, and medical offices at scale.
Build Tool
Currently using Figma. Built a full 5 page roofing website practice site in under 2 minutes. Evaluating Framer as the primary tool going forward since it handles design, publishing, hosting, and SEO in one platform. Client sites are all hosted under my account, and this is intentional. If a client cancels, their site goes dark. High switching costs leads to better retention.
The Growth Plan: 10 Levels
I mapped out 10 levels from 8 clients to 2,000 clients. Here it is
Level 1: 8 starting clients, +2/month, $280 avg revenue, just me, $26,880 yearly revenue, $26,400 yearly profit
Level 2: 20 starting clients, +4/month, $280 avg, hub designers brought in, $154,560 yearly revenue, $141,978 yearly profit
Level 3: 40 starting clients, +10/month, $442.50 avg, 2 freelance salesmen hired, $487,078 yearly revenue, $425,998 yearly profit
Level 4: 80 starting clients, +15/month, $442.50 avg, 4 freelance salesmen, $813,758 yearly revenue, $700,300 yearly profit
Level 5: 150 starting clients, +20/month, $442.50 avg, sales manager added, 1 year hold, $1,307,145 yearly revenue, $1,121,241 yearly profit
Level 6: 320 starting clients, +25/month, $442.50 avg, account manager added, 1 year hold, $2,295,308 yearly revenue, $2,057,150 yearly profit
Level 7: 520 starting clients, +30/month, $442.50 avg, 2nd account manager, 1 year hold, $3,390,435 yearly revenue, $3,097,800 yearly profit
Level 8: 731 starting clients, +35/month, $442.50 avg, operations manager added, 1 year hold, $4,668,375 yearly revenue, $4,211,527 yearly profit
Level 9: 997 starting clients, +40/month, $442.50 avg, expanded sales team 6-8 reps, 1 year hold, $6,163,153 yearly revenue, $5,646,172 yearly profit
Level 10: 1,275 starting clients, +50/month capped at 2,000, $442.50 avg, COO and full executive team, 1 year hold, $8,011,955 yearly revenue, $7,414,179 yearly profit
All projections include churn modeled in at rates ranging from 5% at Level 1 down to 1% at Level 10.
The Designer Hub System
Instead of hiring employees I built a freelance gig system, but for high schoolers. Kind of like a restaurant slip board jobs are posted on a shared Google Sheet, designers claim them, build them, and submit for review.
The Google Sheet has columns for job number, business name, niche, brief doc link, assigned designer, color coded status dropdown, deadline, and notes.
Status flow: Available, Claimed, In Progress, Submitted, Approved, Delivered
Rules: First to change status to Claimed owns the job. No movement within 24 hours means the job resets to Available. Miss the deadline, no pay, no exceptions.
Every designer signs a one page agreement covering: independent contractor status, $150+ pay per completed site, hard deadline policy, all work belongs to Emblem Web Co., confidentiality, and 12 month non-solicitation clause.
I have a 10 rank progression system for designers:
Stone (0-2 sites): $150/site, Tier 1-2 jobs only, heavy review
Copper (3-5 sites): $160/site, Tier 1-2, standard review
Bronze (6-10 sites): $170/site, Tier 1-3, standard review
Silver (11-17 sites): $180/site, Tier 1-4, light review
Gold (18-25 sites): $190/site, all sites, light review
Emerald (26-35 sites): $200/site, all sites + priority pick, spot check only
Sapphire (36-50 sites): $210/site, all sites + priority pick, spot check only
Ruby (51-70 sites): $220/site, all sites + first pick, self approved
Diamond (71-100 sites): $230/site, all sites + first pick, self approved
Platinum (101+ sites): $240/site, all sites + first pick + bonus eligible, self approved
If you miss a deadline, you lose one rank. Three rejections in a row, and you get removed from the team
I chose high schoolers because they are
Cheap Reliable since all they are doing is copying, and pasting info into AI Want the promo REALLY bad Money Hungry Get to work with flexible schedules
The Service Delivery Team
Separate from designers, I plan to hire more high schoolers to handle ongoing monthly services (SEO maintenance, review harvesting, report generation). Pay structure: $10/month base per client they manage plus $5/month per additional tier above Tier 1. So a Tier 5 client generates $30/month for the service student. At 20 clients that’s $200-600/month for lightweight recurring work.
The Sales Structure
Levels 1-2: Me only, cold calling from my 565 contact list Level 3+: 4 freelance salesmen paid $2/call + $150 bonus per closed client Level 4+: Sales manager at $5,000/month overseeing reps Level 9+: Expanded to 6-8 salesmen
Cold calling is the primary outreach method. Best times to call roofers: 7:30-8:30am, 12-1pm, 5-6pm. Business lines have high answer rates since these guys depend on incoming calls for jobs.
My pitch: “Hey [Name], my name is [Name] I help roofing companies get found online. I noticed your business doesn’t have a website yet so I wanted to reach out real quick. I build and manage the whole thing for $250 a month, no upfront cost. Most homeowners Google a roofer before they ever call, right now you’re invisible to a big chunk of your market. Would you be open to a quick 10 minute call this week?”
1 of 10 cold call scripts and 10 cold email templates written and ready.
Month to month, for the first 2 months framed as a 60 day “free trial”(Just money back guarantee). Auto converts to a 6 month contract after that. One time site buyout option at $1,500-2,000 for clients who want full ownership, after 6 months.
Retention System
Day 1: Welcome message within 2 hours, clear timeline, asset collection Days 2-5: Brief completed, job posted to hub, designer assigned Days 5-7: Google Business Profile set up, site delivered, final tweaks End of Month 1: Performance report sent, check-in call, first upsell pitch
Ongoing: Monthly performance reports showing traffic, reviews, bookings. Quarterly personal calls. 6 month loyalty discount. Exit intent protocol account manager calls within 24 hours of cancellation signal.
The biggest retention play is infrastructure lock-in. Site, booking system, reviews all live on our hosting. Leaving means starting from scratch.
Churn Rates Modeled
Level 1: 5% monthly churn
Level 2: 4%
Level 3-4: 3%
Level 5: 2.5%
Level 6-7: 2%
Level 8-9: 1.5%
Level 10: 1%
Tech Stack
Figma: current design tool (free)
Framer: evaluating as primary build and hosting platform
Google Sheets: job hub and tracking
Discord: designer communication hub with 11 channels and 10 rank roles
Zapier: automating job notifications, deadline reminders, welcome messages
Google Voice: outreach number
Google Workspace: professional email
Vistaprint/Canva: logo
Documents Already Built
Job Hub spreadsheet with color coded status dropdowns and 10 rank tiers Call tracking spreadsheet with dashboard auto-calculating pipeline stats Client onboarding checklist covering Day 1 through Month 1 Website brief template for designers Freelance designer agreement (one page, legally covers ownership, confidentiality, non-solicitation, pay, deadlines) 10 cold call scripts with objection handlers 10 cold email templates
Documents Still To Build
Client service agreement
Monthly performance report template
Invoice template
FAQ document
Case study template
Designer handbook
Designer onboarding guide
Cancellation response script
Upsell script
Revenue Model Summary
Monthly costs at Level 1: ~$40 (Framer subscription) Monthly costs at Level 3: ~$5,000 (builds + Framer + salesmen) Monthly costs at Level 10: ~$50,000 (full team + infrastructure)
My personal cost of living: near zero. I live at home, no bills, no rent. Every dollar of profit is pure runway.
What I Want Feedback On
Is $250/month too low, too high, or right for a cold market with no reputation?
Is the tier structure logical or am I overcomplicating it?
Is the designer hub model realistic or will high schoolers be too unreliable to build a real delivery system on?
Is cold calling roofers actually a viable channel in 2024 or am I wasting my time?
What churn rate am I being unrealistic about?
What am I missing that will kill this in the first 90 days?
Is the LLC under my brother’s name a real legal risk or a non-issue?
How long realistically before I see my first client?
I’m not looking for “great idea keep going” I want the hardest questions you can throw at this. What breaks first?
TLDR: Full digital agency model targeting unwebbed local businesses on a $250/month subscription. 10 level growth plan from 8 to 2,000 clients. Designer hub using high schoolers as freelancers. 565 roofer contact list ready to call. Want brutal feedback before launch.
submitted by /u/Suspicious_Reward608
[link] [comments]