In this behind‑the‑scenes coaching call, Jake (Speaker A) guides community member Jonathan through a strategic decision about how to scale his agency. They compare two primary scaling models: (A) a “mini‑brand” approach that creates multiple niche agencies, each sold via a high‑ticket buyout/setup fee followed by a low‑ticket recurring subscription, and (B) a single‑business model that focuses on higher‑priced retainers ($1K‑$2K) with longer client lifespans. Jake walks through the pros and cons of each, covering pricing positioning, client retention expectations, average contract length, lifetime value, acquisition cost, margin implications, and required team structure (sales machine vs service‑focused agency). He uses concrete numbers (e.g., $1,000 buyout, $297‑$397 recurring, 3‑6 month retention, $12K LTV) to illustrate revenue scenarios and helps Jonathan assess his confidence, operational preferences, and long‑term goals. The conversation ends with Jonathan clarifying the buyout‑to‑recurring timeline (60 days) and acknowledging the trade‑offs between a sales‑driven machine and a stable recurring model.
Chapters
In this video today, we're gonna be pulling back the curtain and showing you a one-to-one conversation that I had with one of our community members of over 4,000 online offer owners that are inside. Again, these are agency owners, coaches, consultants, online experts, SaaS business owners that are all building and scaling businesses to 7 and 8 figures. And this is a behind-the-scenes look of a candid one-to-one conversation. These are conversations that I have every single week with these community members. Enjoy.
Jonathan came into this coaching call facing a major decision about his agency. He was confident in his ability to deliver results for clients, but he was torn between 2 very different ways to scale. So I helped him break down which model actually made more sense.
So let me ask you this, um, and I know we've, we've talked about this before. Um, okay, let me just read the rest of this. Days— is there something not seen? Cues? Yeah. Um, on a scale of 1 to 10, how, how confident do you feel About the fulfillment?
Fulfillment, you mean giving results to them?
Yes, getting them results.
Getting them results, um, from 1 to 10, like 8.
An 8. Okay, that's, that's pretty good. The reason I ask is the, the way that this is mapped out, it's under the assumption that they're going to stay on for as long as it takes you to bring on those other customers. to hit that run rate. And that can, I think that's like when I, you know, obviously, you know, even for me, when we're looking at an agency, it's like, yes, you know, you could bring on 100 customers and they all are paying $1,500, $2,000 a month. It's inevitable that you're gonna only retain them for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, however long that ends up being. Usually on average, I would say anywhere from 4 to 6 months. Is pretty good for, for bringing on a customer. So what I would— I like the niches. I like your ability to copy and paste something into different niches. I do think that you had like the buyout and then, hey, you can continue. If it were me, the only thing that I would change is I would position it from, hey, here's the buyout, you're gonna be paying for this. Or I wouldn't even, I'm almost saying like, almost don't even say it, like call it as a buyout. I guess you can, but then just say, hey, with that buyout, you're gonna get 60 days, 30 days of support. And then after that timeframe, it's gonna automatically enroll you into that low ticket MRR. So again, $297. I don't know if you could scroll up a little bit for specifically what you had. Um, or, you know, potentially even a little bit higher, but then you're, You're kind of looking at it as more of a, like a traditional agency and that buyout's really just positioned as more of a setup fee. Let me ask you this, Jonathan, would you rather have, and I kind of know the answer, but would you rather have multiple different, like the first option where you have the mini brands, one per niche, and then scale them? Yeah. I'm going to call it horizontally, or would you rather have one business that you're focusing on getting $1K to $2K retainers and just signing those people up?
For me, it's almost the same. My idea for many brands is to do what you do, or I see other people doing the same thing. Like the name of the brand name is Is like calling the niche.
Absolutely.
For marketing purpose.
I, I would specifically do that. Now, how did it go with your salesperson? Or the— was that your brother, I think, that you had doing some sales?
Yeah, he will stay with my health offer.
Okay.
I will, I will start doing this. The experiment by myself.
Gotcha, I see. That's not a bad way to do it. So they're both valid ways of like doing things. Obviously, from my perspective, obviously what I've done is option A. And the only difference is the way that I look at it is the majority of your money is coming from your setup fee, or Or your buyout fee. It's not coming from the recurring. The recurring is just a bonus. So I would be looking at it as it's more of a sales machine where you're constantly going to be running ads. You're constantly going to be wanting to sign up 10, 15 people every single month. They're paying the buyout fee. And then after 30, 60 days, then they automatically enroll into the $297. And then you have that salesperson, they're signing up that many people a month, and then you would move on to the next brand. And maybe you have one salesperson per, per industry. And then on the backend for support, you have one company that's doing all the support, all the setups, all the onboardings for, for every single niche. Um, Option B can be done. It, I mean, definitely based off what you said, I do think you need a different industry. I also think the issue with option B is that you're competing with the top, like top tier individuals because every agency owner wants to have $2K to $4K clients, if not higher. And When you're competing like that, it does make it a lot harder. I would go after option A. I would— don't keep the recurring so high. I would keep it a little bit lower, like $297, or I mean, I guess you could do like $397 and then look at every single niche as it's gonna have 1 or 2 sales reps. That's it. And then it all leads into the same backend. What are your thoughts? Where are you at?
Yeah, that's what I see that you do. 100%. It's more, um, my, my mind is— I am— I don't know how to say that in English, um, but I have clients with me with 33 months staying with me and, yeah, giving— getting them results constantly. So I'm very confident. Of getting results. But what you do is not more, it's not a game of staying with the customer. It's more like a sales machine.
Exactly. Exactly. So, and maybe that's a good, a good way to gauge what you should lean towards is, do you want to run a marketing agency and be involved with the clients and try to get the client a 15 outta 10 result? Because that's gonna require you to get a VA for the client to call their leads, to do all the, like, you're gonna have to like inevitably get to that point. Or do you just wanna sell a marketing system, give them a decent product, again, an 8 out of 10 product, but focus on the client acquisition and focus on the business versus like hyperfixating on the customer?
I really don't know.
Yeah. I mean, here's what I would tell you to do is because again, I know we've talked, I would go all in on option A because you will make money. The only issue with option A is that the potential longevity of a client is not gonna be there, but you have to also factor in if your price Let's just say you, you jacked up your price to $2K. Let's just say the average client stays 6 months. That average client's worth $12K, but you only sign up one a week. So now you're doing, you know, revenue perspective, $48,000 a month. Or you could sell the buyout. You bring on somebody for, let's just say $1,000 upfront. You sign up, 20 a month, 5 a week because your price is so low and they stay on an average of 3 months. So now you're generating an extra $1,000 a customer. So now every person's worth $2,000. So that's $40,000. You can make an argument that the retainer business is gonna make you more money over time. The hardest thing is that, are you gonna be able to run ads to sign retainers of that price point, or how much is it gonna cost to acquire that person? Because then you look at margins. Because I know the margin for option A is definitely there because you can run ads and sign up anybody. But the margins for option B, you might have, yes, you're generating more from that client, but you're also spending $500 to acquire that client.
So— What I like about recurring is like a stable income, not like a sales machine that It needs always to close sales.
Absolutely. And that's definitely the benefit of option B. There's less team members involved. It's less headache. You have somebody that is happy with your results. They're going to stick on. The only difference is the client acquisition. Like you're gonna have to, when you're running ads, you have to qualify them. Otherwise you're gonna get a lot of people hopping on that, that can't afford it. And maybe if they can afford it, you don't want to be putting their business in a bad situation because it's probably gonna take them a month or 2 to see results because they, they don't, you know, obviously it's just lead gen. It's, you know, it's ads. So, you know, it's gonna take 'em a little bit, a couple at-bats for them to actually You know, profit potentially from your ads. Now you'll get good clients that, that absolutely can upfront, but it's, again, there's, it's just, there's challenges with both. It's just what challenges do you want? What pros do you want? What negatives do you want?
So to understand what you said, buyouts, high-ticket buyout, and then a low retainer. After 60 days or 90 days?
