Web Development Agency
The shortcut: Pick one vertical and build five case studies in it before marketing broadly. "I build sites for personal-injury law firms" books $8K projects. "I build websites" books $1,500 projects.
Industry: Software & Tech | Investment level: Small — $5,000-$15,000 | Time to launch: 6-10 weeks (LLC + insurance + 3 portfolio sites + one signed paid SOW)
Best for: A working React/Next.js dev who can ship a polished marketing site in 2-3 weeks and wants project work without a full-time job. You're a fit if you can write a scoped SOW, hold clients to a change-order process, and resist the urge to "just add a blog" for free. What you'll likely make: $0-$3,000 month 3, $4,000-$8,000 month 6, $7,000-$12,000 month 12. Math is in Section 4.
Market Opportunity
Every dev with a laptop and a GitHub account calls themselves a web dev agency, which is exactly why generalists charge $1,500 for sites that take three weeks. The way out is not better code. It's picking one industry and refusing to take work outside it for the first year. A solo dev who has built five personal-injury law-firm sites can charge $8,000-$12,000 for the sixth one. The same dev marketed as "full-stack developer for hire" charges $2,000 for the same scope.
The math: clients in a defined vertical (law firms, dental practices, real-estate brokerages, B2B SaaS, restaurant groups) pay 40-60% more to work with someone who has shipped sites in their industry, because the discovery call sounds different. You know what their compliance team will flag, what their intake form needs, and which competitor's site they'll send as a reference. The generalist spends the first three meetings learning the industry on the client's dime.
The trap isn't finding work. The trap is taking on $5K projects that quietly turn into $12K of work because there's no signed change-order process. Agencies that survive year one have boring, templated SOWs and a clause that says "any scope outside the SOW requires a written change order." The ones that don't make it always say the same thing — "I just wanted to keep the client happy."
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
