I Make $1.3M/Year With One Skill | Starter Story

October 7, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Brett launched a design subscription service called Design Joy on a Saturday afternoon, built a one-page Webflow site in about six hours, and posted it on Product Hunt. That was the entire launch. Today, the business generates $1.3 million a year in revenue, and Brett runs it alone — no employees, no contractors, no meetings with clients. He did not quit his full-time job until he was making $80,000 a month from the side project, a decision he now calls a mistake driven by insecurity.

The productized service model

Design Joy sells design as a subscription, not by the hour or by the project. Clients pick a plan — roughly $5,000 a month — and get immediate access to a Trello board where they submit design requests. Brett works through the queue one request at a time, each taking 30 minutes to an hour. There are no Zoom calls, no Slack messages, no synchronous communication after onboarding. Everything happens async.

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What you'll learn

1 (02:48) **What Design Joy Is and How It Makes Money** - Brett explains his productized design subscription service: $5,000/month per client, zero employees or contractors, and all work done asynchronously.
2 (04:01) **Origin Story and Launch Strategy** - Brett describes how he adapted an existing agency model for web design and built the entire business in a single Saturday.
3 (05:13) **Productized Service vs. Traditional Agency Pricing** - Brett breaks down why his subscription model is fundamentally different from retainers or hourly billing.
4 (06:41) **The True Cost of Running a Solopreneur Business** - Brett reveals his exact monthly operating expenses and the minimal tool stack keeping costs at $176/month.
5 (07:10) **Client Acquisition Without Spending a Dime** - Brett explains his zero-cost marketing funnel, from Product Hunt launch to Twitter community building.
6 (09:48) **Rapid Idea Testing and Minimum Viable Products** - Brett shares his philosophy of launching minimally viable products in hours, not weeks or months.
7 (11:03) **How to Get Good at Design Without Formal Training** - Brett explains his self-taught path to becoming a high-end designer.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

I Make $1.3M/Year With One Skill

📚 Make Your First $1 (10x Faster) with Case Studies - https://www.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=brett&yts=true

📩 Business Ideas Newsletter (free) - https://www.starterstory.com/newsletter/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=brett

In this episode, I meet up with Brett from DesignJoy so I could ask him how he built a $1.3M per year one-person business WHILE working a 9-5.

He reveals the secrets behind his pricing strategy, how he found his idea, and some actionable advice on how anyone can use this special business model to turn a single skill into a $1M/year business. Hope you all enjoy!

0:00 - Intro 0:52 - The $1.3M/year business model 1:24 - How he runs the business 2:06 - Finding the idea & building it 2:59 - Working a 9-5 while building the business 3:23 - Pricing strategy 4:10 - How to build a productized service with one skill 4:52 - Costs & tools 5:19 - Solopreneur marketing strategies 5:58 - How to find ideas & build them fast 6:40 - Starter Story Trial 7:14 - How to get better at design 7:56 - Day in the life / routine 9:10 - Advice for entrepreneurs

Follow Brett 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ

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Sharing ideas that make money!

Disclaimer: This podcast is published by a viewer using content from Starter Story's YouTube channel with the goal of making his valuable insights more accessible to those who prefer audio formats, helping more people discover and learn from the insights shared in his videos. It is not an official production of Starter Story. For any requests from Starter Story, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

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----- Keywords: saas business, digital products, online business, business ideas, passive income

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