Thread by @BrettFromDJ

My one-person design business has done $611,996 this year already.

It costs me $275 per month to run it (plus Stripe fees).

Here's a breakdown of the tools I use:

Design: @figma ($15/m)

Probably obvious, but I spend most of my day here.

I use it to design nearly everything from branding to full-scale product design.

Development: @webflow ($33/m)

The greatest no-code website builder on the planet.

I not only use it for the Designjoy.co site, but it plays a huge part in my service offering as well.

Stock assets: Shutterstock ($99/m)

Fantastic resource for vector assets and stock photos.

I use this literally daily to speed up my workflow.

Design: @Adobe CC ($29/m)

Used primarily for vector & photo editing, this suite picks up in the rare cases Figma falls short.

Client design queue: @trello (Free)

This is where clients send design requests and manage their queue (1,000+ requests and counting).

This is also where all client communication happens.

Simple, but effective.

Internal request management: @airtable (Free)

I use this to centralize all current requests from clients.

It's helpful to have them all in one place vs. spread across a billion different Trello boards.

Again, simple, but very effective.

Design handoff: @loom (Free)

Sometimes it's just easier to hit record and start talking vs. typing out an entire book.

This is where Loom comes in clutch.

Couldn't live without it. Saves so much time.

Payments: @stripe (2.9% transaction fee)

Not much to say here. 🙂

Course platform: @circleapp ($99/m)

This is where I host my ProductizeYourself.co course with nearly 2,000 students.

Community: @discord (Free)

Members of my course also get access to a Discord server meant to connect them, share ideas, gain insight, and grow together.

That's all!

Goes to show you don't need to spend big bucks to make big bucks.

Hope you enjoyed the thread. 🙂