$20K MRR in 5 mon. by a solopreneur (study)

On September 1st, 2014 Russ Perry was unemployed. No income. No business. Nothing.

On May 21st, 2015 he had a new startup that was generating $20k per month in recurring revenue.

Here’s how that happened:
1. Came up with an idea – a flat rate subscription delivering unlimited graphic design help focusing only on small and clear creative requests.
2. Asked himself, “what price seems fair?” and $195 per month came to mind. That became his pricing.
3. On December 26th, 2014 he launched the simple website that cost him $88.82.
4. Focused on emailing new prospects, writing a dozen guest blogs, compiling contact lists of everyone he’s touched over the last decade, and beating the drum every single day.
5. That helped him to climb from $0 to over $6K in MRR in one week.
6. Invested $4,526.29 in a Facebook Ad: “Want a free graphic design? We will create a custom graphic for you within 1 business day (no credit card required).”
This ad generated 496 leads. 30 turned into paid customers. Which meant $5,850 in monthly recurring revenue = 633% ROI from the ads.
7. He implemented marketing automation with Facebook Custom Audiences and Infusionsoft so his sales system could be automated.

In 5 months, his startup was making $20k per month in recurring revenue.