Growing two productized services to $40k+ MRR

John Doherty built a productized agency and sold it to a strategic buyer. Now, he’s doing it again, but this time, his sights are set even higher — he’s trying to scale to multi-millions in ARR.

At nearly $500k/yr, he’s already well on his way. I caught up with him to learn how he does it. 👇

From acquisition to $40k/mo

James: Tell me about EditorNinja.

John: It’s a productized content editing agency. We currently do $30k-$40k/mo, and we are growing.

James: Is that recurring revenue?

John: 80% of our revenue is recurring.

James: And the other 20%?

John: We do pilot projects and people can buy words ahead of time, in increments of 5,000, to use over the next 12 months.

James: This isn’t your first rodeo.

John: No, I started in tech with freelance SEO consulting back in 2011, alongside an agency job in New York City. I started a side project called HireGun, which later became Credo.

I became fully self-employed in 2015 when I got laid off. I consulted until and built Credo on the side until going full time on Credo at the start of 2019.

James: Are you still working on Credo?

John: I actually sold Credo in September of 2022. I can't talk about the details, but I fully stepped out of the day-to-day in January, 2023.

James: What was that transition like?

John: The process was pretty seamless. I just had to get the new owners, and the team who went with the business, full access to everything. I also consulted with the new owners for a few months to help them maximize their investment.

Other than that, I had EditorNinja running already, so I started doing that full-time.

Productize your services

James: Let’s talk about productization. Both of your companies were very successful and both were productized.

John: Productization is widely misunderstood. Productizing is all about establishing a scalable way to deliver a service.

People often conflate productizing with the "unlimited" model. Going unlimited is one way to do it, but not the only way. It's more about setting a number of deliverables or an amount of work.

James: What’s the benefit of productizing a service?

John: It makes the service scalable and predictable — even if the sales are one-time.

James: So how do you productize a service?

John: The book “Built To Sell” by John Warrilow spells out the process of productizing a service, but in general:

1. Establish WHAT you are doing.

2. Standardize the HOW.

3. Set pricing in a way that makes sense for both of those.

James: How did you find the “what” of EditorNinja?

John: EditorNinja came out of a personal need to outsource editing when I was running the content machine at Credo. I also saw a lot of software companies producing copy that had typos, and companies ordering and publishing unedited content from content companies. Typos and unedited content kill conversions.

All in all, it added up to it being a big opportunity in the space, even though there are already large companies in the editing space.

James: Credo also came from filling your own need — is that the way to go?

John: Yes, I’d say my main tip for people looking to build a productized service is to solve a problem you already know well.

But not a problem that you’re world class in.

James: Say what?

John: I actually believe it's best to NOT solve something that you are world class in. It’s better to find something in a space you know where you can easily hire others to deliver the work.

James: I suppose that makes it easier to scale beyond yourself.

John: And don't do something you're passionate about; do something you're good at.

Wantrepreneurs are told to pursue their passions, but I believe that passions come and go. When you do something fulfilling and that you are good at, you'll be energized to work on it every day.

James: Are there any services that can't be effectively productized?

John: If we think of productization as how work is delivered, then no. There are some services that are quite custom, but the process of delivering that custom work can be productized.

I don't think of productization as "productized or not," but rather as a spectrum of productization.

Subscribe for more how-tos, roundtables, and interviews with people in the thick of it.

Growing to $40k/mo

James: How did you grow EditorNinja?

John: EditorNinja has grown primarily through referrals and relationships to this point.

James: Is that thanks to your time with Credo?

John: Many of the relationships, yes. And we had a weekly agency email at Credo where we often promoted EditorNinja.

So, EditorNinja benefited from Credo, but not vice versa.

James: No other channels?

John: Now that we're mid-six figures in revenue, we're working to solidify our lead generation processes.

We've invested in SEO and content marketing. And I distribute content and tell the world about what we do through being a podcast guest on a lot of shows.

Google Ads work pretty well for us also. Overall, though, relationships in the marketing industry plus SEO and helpful editorial content have been the most effective for us.

James: What’s your process?

John: We drive everyone to an intro call so that we can discuss their needs, make sure that we're getting them on the right plan, and answer any questions they might have. Then, we send a draft MSA and SOW, and once those are signed, they either sign up or we send an invoice.

James: Do you use a lead magnet to drive people there?

John: Over the years, many people have told me that I should build a low-cost product that gets people into our funnel. I've never done it because it feels like another business and something else to manage and keep updated.

My businesses have done just fine. Would it work? I don't know. But it's never been something I've prioritized.

Scaling a productized service

James: As you grow, how do you scale?

John: I don't know that either of my productized agencies has truly scaled, but we're working to streamline our internal processes, formalize our lead generation activities, and execute against the numbers given to us in our forecasting exercises.

All of this sets us up for growing much bigger, into the millions per year hopefully, by continuing to do the things that we know work — write and spread helpful content, identify where needs are and meet those, and continue to hire and retain great talent.

James: Any scaling tips for productized services that aren’t as far along?

John: Build or use technology that allows you to easily manage the volume of work you get. We've been able to grow to 600,000+ words a month edited because of these systems.

James: What are some good options?

John: There are good existing systems for productized services, such as Service Provider Pro (SPP). Or you can roll your own.

For the indie hacker crowd, I recommend NOT building your own portal, simply because it will delay you getting your service offering to market.

James: Anything else for indie hackers to keep in mind?

John: What's most important is focusing on the SERVICE part of the service, and then letting other things fall into line around delivery and scale.

Don’t fight AI; leverage it

James: Are you worried about AI taking your work?

John: Not at all.

James: How do you compete with it?

John: We don’t; AI has actually been an accelerant for the EditorNinja business.

James: So you’re using AI to edit at scale?

John: No, we use human editors.

James: Then how is AI benefiting you?

John: We edit a lot of content that has been generated by or translated with AI tools.

When it comes to "competing" with AI, I think the best approach is to not compete. Build a service that AI can't take over.

I'm also betting that the increase in content being produced will mean there's more content that needs to be kept up to date, and that will have a strong downstream effect for us.

James: Makes sense.

John: As internet entrepreneurs, I think AI is going to be part of everything we do. It's much easier to lean into how we can use it and benefit from it, than to try to fight it.

As they say, “Resistance is futile.”

James: Where can people find you?

John: I'm on X, and you can check out EditorNinja.

Subscribe to the Boot's Trap series