Time is leverage. But don't sell yours.
The Four Levels of Business Leverage and why most designers get stuck at Level 1 and how to climb to Level 4. Also announcing something new!
Let’s be clear, if you run an independent creative business, you are always at one of four different levels of leverage. Most creatives are trapped selling their hours instead of building assets (and real leverage). Today, I’ll show you the 4-level framework that changed how I think about business and how I started to scale my businesses this year.
Level 1: Personal Labor
You do everything. Income = hours worked.
Where you are: Charging by the hour, doing custom work, trading time for money directly. This is the golden times where it all starts. Great time, but also very tough.
What you need to reach Level 2: Systems and documented processes. You can't delegate what only exists in your head.
Action step: Document your workflow for your most common project type. Create templates, checklists, and standard operating procedures. If you can't explain how to do your work, you can't scale it. Take what’s in your head and make it sharable for others (so they can help you out).
Level 2: Other People's Labor
You manage others. Income = team output.
Where you are: Hiring contractors or employees, building an agency, delegating tasks to expand capacity. Leverage not just your, but also other’s time. Multiply your output.
What you need to reach Level 3: Standardization and productization. Stop doing custom work and start building repeatable solutions.
Action step: Identify the 20% of your services that generate 80% of your revenue (Pareto principle). Package these into standardized offerings with fixed pricing. Custom work should become the exception, not the rule. This helps you to scale the same offer to a multiplying amount.
For some people, who run an agency for example, and optimized it in a way that they are not needed in the actual business anymore, you might find that this level is enough and sufficient to be happy and life a great life. So technically, you can stop here. Want more autonomy though? Check level 3.
Level 3: Technology & Systems
Your systems work without you. Income = market size.
Where you are: Selling software, templates, info products, and automated services. Building once, selling many times.
What you need to reach Level 4: Capital accumulation and investment mindset. Take profits from your systems (businesses) and deploy them strategically to multiply them.
Action step: Set aside 30% of profits from Level 3 activities. Don't spend it on lifestyle inflation, invest it in assets that generate passive returns.
Level 4: Capital & Assets
Your money works for you. Income = compound returns.
Where you are: Equity positions, royalties, investments generating income without your active involvement. This is the pro league. It’s very hard to get here, any probably only 1% are reaching this level. But when you do, you get true abundance.
The goal: True wealth and time freedom.
So, what does this all mean?
Most creatives think the game is "charge more per hour". But this is not true. The real game is "build assets that generate income without your time". Because every person has a ceiling on how much can be earned per hour. Might be $50, $100, $250, or $500. But it’s nearly impossible to scale beyond that.
I spent 10 years optimizing Level 1. Made decent money, hit a ceiling.
I spent 18 months building Level 2 and 3. Revenue quadrupled while working fewer hours.
Your time is finite. Your ability to build leveraged systems isn't.
Stop selling your calendar. Start building assets instead.
Something new Makersites
Since a few weeks I’ve got a new idea in my head and I decided to launch it by the end of the year: A curated place for the best and most creative personal websites, stories and interviews around them, the most valuable tools for freelancers & agencies, and useful resources to boost or even kickstart your independent journey as a creative.
Curated Picks
Links to things I’ve stumbled upon and like:
Framer Design Pages
This week Framer launched their new Design pages, which is basically a free-form desgin canvas right in Framer. I recorded a thread about it on the link above, check it out!
n8n
A flexible AI workflow automation tool that allows you to visually create AI workflows with different integrations and apps. Very powerful!
Helium
Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium. It’s been actively developed still, and it’s pre-release usage, means you should expect bugs and eventual instability. But I love how fast, secure, and simple it is!
Nothing Ear(3)
Most beautiful in-ear headphones I’ve seen which has a half metal, half transparent finish. And the new Super Mic, a dual-microphone which is in the case let’s you speak super clear to the other person on the phone with a click on a button. No more shitty audio quality through the in-ear mics!
Paper
Pretty dope new design tool finally opened access to their public alpha! It’s kinda cool, you can design like in Figma, but it also has shaders and other cool things. Also, they recently announced their partnership with Tailwind, which lets you copy paste Tailwind components as a starting point. Kinda refreshing in all those AI generator tool mess we are currently in!
Webflow Conf
On Wednesday, Webflow has announced a bunch of new features for their platform. I’m still way too bullish on Framer, but if you like Webflow still, the new things could be interesting to you in some ways!
From My Desk
What I’m currently working on:
Redesigned the storefront and now working on two new Framer templates (Dashfolio 2 & Linx 2)
Updated Dashfolio Neo and Dashfolio Plus to now include Framer native forms
Makersites
Today’s announcement for Makersites is just the beginning on that venture. In the coming weeks, I’ll build the platform and start talking to people who got a dope personal site to get to know more about their story, tools, workspace, and more. Stay tuned & join the waitlist if you haven’t yet!
🚨 Business Opportunity
After building Dark to 15K monthly visitors and 1M+ total views since it’s launch, I'm looking for a passionate design curator who could take this platform to even greater heights. Know someone or a company who'd love to inherit an established design community and grow it further?
Alright folks, that’s a wrap! Thanks for reading! Means a lot to me!
Catching you on the next one 👋
Sincerely,
Cédric