A Note From the Agency Mavericks Crew
We have all the feels here at Agency Mavericks this week thanks to one of our youngest members – Aditya Raj Singh.
Adi sent us his story of how he went from being a 16-year-old high school drop out to a successful 18-year-old agency owner and now we'd love to share it with you.
We are so proud of this guy and absolutely thrilled that we got to be a part of his amazing journey to success.
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your story with us Adi!
My Story
The Beginning
My career began in 2013 when I was a 14-year-old high school student in India. I decided to take up computer science as an extra subject where I was introduced to HTML and CSS and I was completely fascinated.
As I became exposed to the possibilities of making money online, I decided to start a YouTube channel as a hobby and uploaded videos to help people with various kinds of software and tech. It was at this time that I started to learn about video editing software.
I taught myself how to use Adobe and then made quality videos that taught people how to edit their own videos. After a year, I started making close to $200 a month from my YouTube channel.
So when I was just 15 years old, my hobby as a teenager was making me the same amount of money an adult would earn by working full time. This gave me the extra push to go out of my way and learn more.
Things started going really well, and I was approached by some creators to get their videos edited. I started working as a part-time video editor and I was earning about $300 additional to the money I was getting from YouTube ad revenue.
From Video Editing to Web Design
I started investing all of my income into online courses so that I could learn to code and make websites because those were the things I was most interested in. I was still doing video editing and earning a decent amount of money, but I kept learning more and more about coding and web design as this was what I was most passionate about.
Web development courses led me to WordPress, and I started making WordPress websites for fun. Then one of my video editing clients needed a website and I offered him to build one. I was paid around $300 for my first professional website.
I realized that this is something that I love to do and so this first project gave me the motivation I needed to become a freelance web developer.
By the time I turned 16, I had learned PHP, CSS, Javascript and a bit of Rest API. I sent my first job application to a company based in New York without a degree – just examples of my work and I got the job.
This was my first part-time job and was earning me $1,000 a month.
I was making enough money, but what I really wanted to do was have my own business. So as a 16-year-old, I dropped out of high school. It was a hard time for me because my family were not very supportive of my decision. They had the old mind-set that you need good grades and prestigious degrees to make a decent amount of money in life. I didn’t blame them for not understanding my vision but still, I was assertive about my decision.
Stallion Cognitive Was Born
Let's fast forward to the end of 2018. I was completely sure that web development was what I wanted to do and started freelancing.
By July 2019, my business, Stallion Cognitive was quite established. I was getting my clients by word of mouth and referrals, which my existing clients passed on to their friends and colleagues. Even though my happy clients were drawing me enough referrals to sustain my business, I always felt that I did not have a proper system to attract and retain my clients.
I would charge as low as $700 to $1500 for creating a single website. The figures varied because I did not have any process or understanding of how I should price projects out. So I would just accept whatever was negotiated in the meeting spontaneously.
The Turning Point
At this very point in my career, I found Agency Mavericks, and it was then that I turned from a freelancer to a website consultant. My mind-set transformed, and now I could think and work as a business owner.
The transition hit me so hard that I couldn't believe that I had been charging $1,000 to make a website.
After completing the Agency Mavericks Blueprint course, I started charging anywhere between $3,000 – $7,000 per website. This not only boosted my morale but also the monthly revenue of my company by 650%!
One of the best things that Agency Mavericks introduced me to was Website Care Plans so that I could have a recurring revenue for my business. As of now, I have a few monthly retainers, and by the end of the year, I am determined to increase the MRR by 300%.
The Importance of Community
Due to the fact that I was a High School dropout and very young too, I didn't have any friends, colleagues or a group of people with whom I could talk to and get advice about my business and there was a void which I didn’t understand at the time.
That all changed when I joined Agency Mavericks. It introduced me to such a lovely community full of generous, helpful and motivated people. And ever since I started the course, I have never felt that void again.
I really cannot thank the Agency Mavericks team enough because people like Troy, Pete, Michelle, Christina, Jamie (to name a few) genuinely care and have helped me a lot and sometimes even go out of their way to help. The entire team cares about who you are as a person and gives genuine advice about your business.
As the course progressed, I fixed up the glitches in my business and built smooth processes for tasks. I learned how to be a boss and felt confident and motivated about my career.
Niching
I build websites for businesses working in the investment and finance niche. I took up this niche because I am interested in pursuing it in the longer run, and plan on investing, building my stock portfolio besides my marketing business, to support my desire of financial freedom and being a digital nomad.
I have already invested in stocks since I’ve become of the legal age. I believe I am very young for the community. In fact, I'm the youngest to ever graduate from Agency Mavericks. I felt that just being 18, I don't have as much experience as the people who own similar businesses. However, the folks at Agency Mavericks made me believe that I have a lot of practical knowledge, and the people here guide me by sharing their experiences.
Final Thoughts
The best thing about Agency Mavericks is that here people learn from each other and share their knowledge and experiences and help each other grow. Also, they let a teenager like me do the same and feel equally important.
I was so moved by the warmth and care I received in this community where people did not put down a young entrepreneur like me. Instead; they were interested in knowing the youngster approach I had to business. I became so motivated by being a part of this community that I worked hard and finished my final Blueprint exam in just 1 minute 9 seconds, which is the fastest ever recorded. And I am asked by Agency Mavericks to take pride in that.
I feel lucky to be a part of such a lovely community, and I want to thank Troy Dean and all the Coaches for building this community in the first place. I am eternally grateful to Agency Mavericks for teaching me, supporting me, and taking care of me so much that now I can make a stand in my business and excel in it.
I recently turned down a $500,000 offer for my company acquisition because I know this is just the beginning. It’s time to make the magic happen.
If you decide to join Agency Mavericks, make sure you reach out to me and say hi because you’ll see me around. 😉
Thank you!
