Is Dubsado Worth The Cost For Designers?
The ROI Of Setting Up Dubsado For Your Web Design Business
Investing in the right support is one of the biggest dilemmas business owners (like website designers!) face in their first few years of entrepreneurship.
Photography, bookkeeping, social media, copywriting, coaching, business systems…there are so many different areas that strengthen your business. And often, business systems – like Dubsado – don’t seem as fun, flashy, or worth it compared to social media or photography.
You might even think to yourself, what does Dubsado really do for your business that you can’t do yourself?
Well, to start, it helps you set boundaries in your business, protects your time, and communicates expectations with clients.
But that might not be enough for you.
At least not if you’re the type of designer who wants to know the hard ROI before you set up your Dubsado.
So let’s talk about the cost of Dubsado, the ROI, and whether it’s really worth it or not.
First, reflect on how many hours a week you spend on administrative tasks, project management, and client communication.
This could include:
- Creating contracts and proposals
- Scheduling appointments
- Writing emails
- Adjusting payment plans
- Sending out invoices
- Updating project statuses
- Emailing reminders
What number came up for you?
Studies on small business owners show that these administrative tasks regularly suck up anywhere from 60 minutes a week to 6 hours a week!
Now, imagine what you could be doing with that time instead. You could be signing new clients, completing web design projects, learning new creative skills, making connections, or driving more revenue.
And with a Dubsado setup, all those become possible.
The financial and time cost of setting up Dubsado for your design business
Let’s start with the immediate financial cost of purchasing Dubsado for your web design business.
I break down all the different pricing plans in this blog. But the short story is that even the most expensive and comprehensive Dubsado plan only costs you $40/month.
(Plus, if you use my affiliate code ‘martine30’ you get 30% off!).
But after you’ve purchased your Dubsado plan, you could spend weeks poring over Youtube videos and how-to blogs to figure out how to set up your Dubsado system yourself.
Or…
You could pass the setup off to a certified Dubsado specialist. So while they’re setting up your systems, you’re deep in design work for your clients.
From VIP days to VIP weeks, my Dubsado setup services fit your needs and budget.
The complete ROI of Dubsado setup
What does your life as a web designer look like after you’ve set up your Dubsado for your business?
With automated workflows, new design inquiries will be instantly tagged, organized, and responded to while you’re sketching a new hand-drawn logo for a client.
With beautifully designed proposals and form templates, you’ll feel confident your branding carries through every part of your client experience.
With personalized, canned emails, you’ll ditch your days of copying and pasting past emails over and over (just like designer and business coach Samara!).
All these points come together to give you back more time and energy to actually spend building your business. Whether that’s completing your client work or generating more revenue for your design business.
Dubsado sounds pretty great so far, right? But if you’re a numbers person and want those clear statistics on your ROI then keep reading.
The numbers breakdown
Let’s start with the ROI Samara saw in her design business after outsourcing her Dubsado setup.
By automating 87% of her processes, administrative tasks, and client experience, we saved her 352 hours of work per year!
And that time saving isn’t enough, let’s transform it into hard-earned money.
Imagine Samara took all that work on herself and charged a typical rate for an experienced CEO, approximately $150/hour. That adds up to over $52,000 per year spent on administrative tasks instead of client work.
Chances are though, Samara would hire a virtual assistant to take on most of those projects. So, if she paid a VA a fair wage of $25/hour…she’s still spending over $8,000 per year on tasks that Dubsado can handle.
All together?
Instead, Samara outsourced her Dubsado setup. Now she and her VA can focus their attention on other parts of her business like marketing, development, and client work.
By using Dubsado and outsourcing her setup, Samara saw an ROI of 1820% in one year alone.
Let’s take a look at another website designer to see if these numbers ring true across the board.
When working with Ellie Brown, we automated 89% of her tasks, including project management, scheduling, invoicing, proposal creation, and emails. Which means she reclaimed over 400 hours of her time per year!
If we do a little math and say she typically charges $100/hour, that leads to $40,000 per year or $10,000 per year if she hired a VA instead.
Altogether Ellie’s total ROI of her Dubsado setup was 975% in a single year.
Never mind the fact that Dubsado setups last for years to come!
Now, Ellie is spending that time growing her design business further while giving her clients a high-quality experience.
Is Dubsado really worth the cost?
At the end of the day, only you can decide if Dubsado is worth the cost for your design business.
But before making that decision, think about:
- How much time you’re wasting on managing projects and creating proposals.
- How much money you’re leaving on the table when you’re elbow deep in admin tasks instead of designing client websites.
- How much you’re paying a VA to manage these tasks for you when they could focus on revenue-generating projects instead.
If you’re looking to spend that time, energy, and money on other parts of your business, then it’s time to explore Dubsado VIP Experiences. From a VIP Day where we’ll focus on one signature service, to a VIP Week where we’ll automate your entire business, there’s an experience for you.
Reclaim your time, create a more efficient workflow for your business, and maximize your ROI today with a Dubsado setup.
All you need to do to get started is book your free Discovery Call!