I want you to become my competitor. That's not a figure of speech, and I'll say it more plainly: you're supposed to be my competitor. If you run an agency, or you run a business that has paid people like me to build things for you, the tools I work with every day are now available to you too. Most of them are a subscription and an afternoon away.
That's an odd thing to put on a website that exists partly to get me hired. Stay with me.
The secret is out
For most of my twenty years in this work, part of what an agency sold was access. We knew the tools, we could write the code, we had the people, and the client didn't. Some of the price was the work and some of it was the gate.
The gate is mostly gone. I build websites, a client platform, research reports and the systems that run my studio with tools anyone can open. A business owner with some curiosity can now design a page, draft the copy and stand up something that works. A one-person team can take on work that used to need a whole agency. The way business gets done is changing faster than at any point I've seen, and none of it is locked in a back room.
If your value was the secret, the secret is out.
What doesn't come in the box
What's left is the part that was always the actual job. Knowing what to point the tools at. Knowing which new thing has earned its place in a particular business and which one is just shiny. Saying no to the project that shouldn't be built. Making sure the customers, the search engines and now the AI assistants can find what you built and describe it correctly. Answering the phone. Handing a client everything they own and making sure they can stand on their own afterward.
None of that ships with a subscription. It comes from years of sitting at the table with people who need the thing to work, and it's what I'd want from anyone I hired, whatever tools they use.
Why I mean it
To agency owners: here's the thing about that word. I've never really had competitors, only potential partners. That's how I've looked at this work the whole time. The person doing what I do across town is someone I might refer a client to, bring in on a project, or learn something from over coffee. When the work gets better everywhere, clients expect more everywhere, and that's the market I want to work in. So if you're the competitor I'm asking for, I'd like to hear from you.
To business owners
You could build it. Some of you will, and I'll cheer you on. Most of you won't, because your time is worth more running the business you already have, and that's a good call. Either way, something has changed for you. You're choosing now. You're not stuck. When you hire someone, you're hiring their judgment, not their access, which is how it should always have been.
If you do build it yourself
A few things I'd want you to know, from one builder to another. Own everything: the domain, the accounts, the logins, in your name, not a tool's or a helper's. Write down what you set up and why, because future you is a different person. Test it on a phone, with the keyboard alone and with the text enlarged, because your customers will. And make sure it says plainly who you are, what you do and where, so the people and the tools looking for you can find you.
None of that is hard. It's just the part that's easy to skip when the exciting part is done.
So please, become my competitor.
I'll be here, answering the phone.
