5k agencies hire completely unskilled interns (saw some hire disabled people, not nerds, just general people, they get some compensation from government for hiring the disabled and don't hire skilled workers for that reason) and take 5k for the same thing that 200 a month freelancers do, so yeah... Clients are burned 10 times in a row and YES, they DO complain and are a pain in the ass later. It's impossible to explain to them that you don't want to screw them over. Saturated to death...
That goes to my point. This is a basic entry level skill. I've worked at an agency and saw employees with no marketing experience get hired. Yes, you hire them cheap, train them on the job, and they'll be able to take on a 6 figure campaign within 2 weeks. Marketing, SEO, web design, etc., is not rocket science. And with most marketing shifting to automation these days, the barrier to entry is very, very low.
I had a friend excited to tell me he hired someone to design and develop a website for an ecommerce project he was starting up. I had to break his heart and tell him it looked like crap. I showed him how to find a theme, setup woocommerce and do it on his own. Within 2 weeks he had a website that looked 10x better than what he paid a "developer" for. On the flip side, the same exact quality he built, he would've had to pay at least $4k to get it done. Realistically $10k to find someone skilled enough and get it done in that 2 week timeframe.
It's impossible to explain to them that you don't want to screw them over. Saturated to death... Very hard sales calls. I'm just unable to explain to them that they'll get a relatively skilled worker directly with marketing and middleman costs cut out if they pay me 1-2k. They still want me to work for 200 even if they had 5k agencies before.
It's hard, but not impossible. A friend of mine had a web development agency, building only Shopify websites - and he wouldn't take a client if their budget wasn't under $50k. He tried outsourcing the $5k clients, but it was a headache doing the same level of work for less pay.
It seems like you're a one man agency and yes, it would be tough. Unless you're a natural salesman, you either need to build up that skill, or partner with someone who is. And if you're cold calling/emailing it's even tougher. All businesses get pitched marketing, web design, and SEO 24/7. What exactly are you doing to stick out from them that you could command a higher pay? That's a rhetorical question, but until you figure that out, it's gonna be rough.
