In this article, I’ll share the exact framework Chase Dimond used to grow his personal income to over 7 figures in one year.
Are you not as successful as you thought you would be by now?
We poll thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs every week. The most common reason that stops you from making $10,000 every month is simple…
You don’t know what business to start.
So, I made it my mission to figure out the best online business model to start as a beginner.
After reading this article, you won’t have any more excuses to avoid starting a business.
You can finally take the first step to fulfilling your potential.
What is the best online business model?
To find the best business model for beginners, I needed help.
I spoke to over 20 successful business founders.
With their help, we defined the main criteria to determine whether a business model is good for a beginner:
- Low start-up capital: You don’t need to invest much money to get started.
- High demand: Lots of people want to pay for the product or service that the business sells.
- Easy fulfillment: Creating and providing the product or service is easy.
- High profit margin: After covering costs, there’s a substantial profit per sale.
This checks out.
Why is it so difficult to succeed at dropshipping? High start-up capital. You need a lot of money to test products and ad sets before finding a winner.
Why is it so difficult to succeed with info products? Difficult fulfillment. It takes countless hours and extensive expertise to build a product people are willing to part with their money for.
Why is it so difficult to succeed at affiliate marketing? Low (if any) profit margins. In the beginning, when you are still learning, the cost of running ads will leave very little room for profitability.
I needed to find a business model that requires almost no start-up capital, is easy to fulfil, and has sky-high profit margins.
I researched for days. Articles. Zoom calls. Textbooks. Doomscrolling ‘Money Twitter’… I even dusted off my Facebook page to join a Facebook Group.
Then, I received a DM from the hero of this story: Chase Dimond.
Chase, like the rest of us, tried and tested lots of different business models.
It wasn’t until he started the best business for beginners that he unlocked the potential he knew he could achieve.
Now, he earns 7 figures a year (confirmed with bank statements, W2s and other tax forms).
He started a services agency (an email marketing agency, to be precise).
What is a services agency?
An agency sells specialized services. Companies hire agencies to help them with a particular area of their business.
Chase is incredible at email marketing, so companies pay him big bucks to optimize their own email marketing.
Service agencies are the best business model for beginners
Agencies are the perfect business model.
- Low start-up capital: You are selling your time, so you don’t need to spend a penny.
- High demand: Every business wants to get bigger. If you are highly skilled, businesses will be fighting for your services.
- Easy fulfillment: To deliver your services, all you need is your time. As you scale, you can even outsource the work to others.
- High profit margin: In the beginning, your costs will be extremely low… so your profit margin will be grotesquely high.
This model won’t make you a millionaire next year, but it’s your best shot of earning six figures next year.
Now we’ve found the right business model, we need a framework to succeed.
That’s where Chase comes in.
Who is Chase Dimond?
Before we learn how to succeed with the agency model, there are a few things you should know about Chase:
- In 2017, Chase used a genius cold outreach system to grow a travel blog/newsletter from 0 to 500k email subscribers in 10 months.
- In 2017/2018, Chase started an agency selling email marketing services. Basically, they help businesses (mostly e-commerce) grow through email marketing.
- In 2020, Chase started taking Twitter seriously and grew to over 100k followers.
- In the last 12 months, Chase grew his LinkedIn profile to over 200k followers.
- Chase used his clout on Twitter and LinkedIn to grow his email marketing agency. Now, his agency generates over $150m in email revenue for his clients. Dayum.
- Chase used his agency as a platform to grow other businesses (selling info products, sponsorships etc.). He now rakes in seven figures a year.
Fortunately for us, Chase’s generosity is just as remarkable as the achievements on his resume…
In my 60-minute conversation with Chase, he shared four simple steps anyone can take to replicate his success with the services agency model.
You can find those four steps in this article so you too can shine bright like Chase Dimond (dad joke – sorry, not sorry).
Step 1: Choose the service you will provide
Your first mission is to decide what service you will provide.
Chase decided to sell email marketing services because he was good at it.
What have you done that has demonstrably benefited the companies you worked for?
Not good at anything yet? Choose the skill that fascinates you the most and spend as much time as you can developing that skill with mock projects.
Step 2: Do something impressive
To get people to pay you, they need to trust you can deliver results.
Chase used an unbelievable cold outreach system to grow an email series to 500k email subs in just 10 months.
How I Got 500k Email Subscribers in 10 Months:
— Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧 (@ecomchasedimond) November 6, 2020
Plus lessons on how to get MASSIVE open rates, devoted subscribers and make serious email $$$.
//Thread//
In short, he built a tool to scrape data from Instagram and send specific accounts personalized emails.
Not only is this a unique method that grabs attention… it’s proof that Chase can think big, execute and get results. The exact traits a client looks for in an agency.
Nearly all successful creators have one big thing that they point to as proof of their authority.
- Alex Hormozi built Gym Launch to $2.3m per month before making general business content and selling his books.
- Gary Vee grew his father’s wine company from $4m to $60m in annual sales before starting VaynerMedia (a marketing agency).
- Russ Cook is (as we speak) running the entire length of Africa and has gained hundreds of thousands of followers online.
These examples are extreme, but the message is simple: do something big, and people will notice (and respect) you.
Your mission: Do something big. Think outside the box to do something that will get people’s attention and notice you. You won’t be able to turn anyone into a client without first getting their attention.
Step 3: Hustle to secure your first clients
Getting off the ground and securing your first client will be tough.
At first you will be overworked and overpaid. You’ll need to pull in as many favours as you can.
When the ball starts rolling, momentum grows quickly.
But first, you need to hustle.
Hustle 1: Message everyone you know
To get his first client, Chase messaged every friend, family member and acquaintance he could think of. He told them he had started an agency, and asked if they knew anyone who might be interested in email marketing services.
Do the same. Tap into your existing network.
Hustle 2: Cold email outreach (with extra flavour)
Many agencies use cold email outreach to find clients.
If you want your email to stand out, you need an effective strategy.
Here’s what Chase did…
In 2019, Mailchimp and Shopify broke up. That meant e-com businesses would no longer be able to use Shopify data to send targeted email campaigns in Mailchimp.
While most e-com brands quivered in their boots, Chase saw an opportunity.
He sent a mass outreach email warning brands of the upcoming changes (attaching a link to an article explaining the split). He offered to provide a solution for free if the brand decided to work with Chase’s agency.
It worked a charm, and Chase landed 5-10 clients very quickly. That was enough to get his agency off the ground.
Your mission: Look for opportunities. What problems are your target customers facing? Use this opportunity to send a cold email that will help them solve their problems. Be their knight and save them (then sell them your services).
Step 4: Scale with content
This is where things get really interesting.
You have your first few clients, and a team in place to fulfil the services.
Now, it’s time to scale.
Chase did this by becoming a content king. He doesn’t have to hustle for his clients anymore… they come to him.
Chase gave me an insight that completely changed the way I see growing a following on Twitter and LinkedIn.
It’s all about climbing the engagement ladder.
Climb the engagement ladder
To grow on social media, you need more people to see your content.
Sounds simple enough, but noone has a concrete strategy for making it happen. Chase does.
Most people think you just post and the algorithm will take care of the rest.
Chase understands that this is just half the battle. The real trick is to strategically secure engagement (e.g. likes and comments) from accounts with more engaged followers than you.
This is how Chase managed to grow his LinkedIn page to 200k+ followers in just one year. This is how he grew a handful of other LinkedIn pages to hundreds of thousands of followers.
Here’s how to climb the engagement ladder:
- Barter: Use every piece of leverage you can to get engagement from other people. That includes agreeing to engage on each other’s posts. Think about how you can provide value to someone in return for their engagement. Hustle hard.
- Pay: At first, you might even have to cough up to get bigger accounts to engage with your tweets and LinkedIn posts.
- Climb: As your own following grows, you’ll have more leverage to swap engagement with other, bigger accounts.
- Join engagement groups: You can pay to be in groups that will engage with your content. Chase even started his own engagement group that you can pay to be a part of (DM him on Twitter if you’re interested).
If you want to grow your LinkedIn and/or Twitter following, drop me a message and I'll send you info on our services.
— Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧 (@ecomchasedimond) November 6, 2023
Our current clients are crushing it and you could be next.
I know this sounds impure, but this is the reality of social media. ALL the big accounts and gurus are doing this kind of stuff.
This is as close to a “growth hack” as you’re ever going to find.
Please note: This method assumes your content is good enough to be shared. Only when you have a solid content strategy and system, will other accounts be willing to engage with your content.
If you feel like you don’t have enough time to make content for Twitter and LinkedIn, use AI tools like Revamped. With Revamped, you can write 100 high quality Tweets in 2 minutes, a Twitter thread in 45 seconds, and a LinkedIn post in 20 seconds.
Should YOU start an agency?
If you want to start a business, but you’re not sure where to start, the agency model is an incredible entry point.
This won’t make you rich quickly, but it will make you some money quickly.
If you want to earn between $10-20k by this time next year, then this is your best shot as a beginner.
What’s more, this model will teach you a lot about marketing, sales, leads, client management, team management, time management and many other business skills.
Chase used this business as his platform to start a newsletter, sell digital products, create courses and make money with other digital products.
This path makes him millions of dollars per year.
And now, you know the 4 steps you need to take to replicate his success.
Want to learn more about how you can start and grow your own business?
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To learn more about Chase, you can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn or visit his website.
