Can you become a millionaire as a designer?

There's a catch though

February 09, 2024

How cool is a business that operates on low overheads, allows you to work at your own pace, and sell something you once created forever?

That’s what Maximilian Fleitmann capitalized on with Base Templates.

Very similar to my side project as well, Max creates digital templates such as pitch deck templates for fundraisers and entrepreneurs and uploads them on his site.

The assets range from pitch deck templates, financial model templates, startup investor lists, Figma templates, and more. 

With 0 employees and a revenue of over $300,000 a year, Max has nailed online entrepreneurship to levels we all want to reach.

The paid templates start from $29 and templates + online course bundles go up to $249. There are also free templates available.

While Maximilian was raising funds for his previous education company, he realized how clueless he was without knowledge about fundraising and without the skills to build a great pitch deck. He bought a template from a small website, and later on he met the founder of the website who told him that he was selling the site. After checking some numbers, Maximilian acquired the product. 

I am a big believer in giving before taking. And that's why I decided to build a content engine around BaseTemplates. I create valuable content like blog articles, free tools, interviews like this, and more that I use to bring people to our website.

If they like the content, they will convert at some point into paying customers. Using this strategy, we have not spent a single $ on marketing for our product.

Maximilian Fleitmann

Read the full case study put together by the Failory team: https://www.failory.com/interview/basetemplates

Shoutout to Max (Founder of Base Templates) and Nico (Founder of Failory)

So, to be a millionaire as a designer, you have to capitalize on current opportunities, sure. But what was the catch?

It was to create something that you can sell forever.

Serve people without you having to give your time to it.

👉 In 2020, 2 billion people purchased digital products. And that number is only growing. (source)

👉 $6.03tn worth of digital products will be sold in 2023. (source)

👉 U.S. adults estimate spending $130 per month on digital goods and services. (source)

Some fascinating case studies on Starter Story -

- Justin Welsh makes $2M per year from selling two courses for solopreneurs.

- Brett from Design Joy's online course generates as much revenue as his $1M design productized service.

- Miss Excel makes over $100K in a day with spreadsheets and grew her business to over $2M.

- Hailey turned her real estate knowledge into $1M with Instagram templates.

- A teacher built a $360K business from something he initially created for his students.

Starting a digital products business as a designer is the perfect project if you want to scale your designs while working at your own pace.

Utilize platforms like Gumroad to reach wider audiences initially.

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- Aayush

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