2024 in review: 5% growth, a cat cafe on new years eve, goals for 2025 and more

It's that time again...

Hey friends,

2024 is behind us and its that time again to look back over the last 12 months and document the highlights, mistakes, wins and my overall thoughts on the passed year.

Overall 2024 was a good year. Some of the highlights that immediately come to mind are:

• I got to visit new cities: Belgrade, Mexico City, Brighton and Alicante.

• I finished paying off the loan for my first SaaS acquisition, and paid down most of the seller financing loan of my 2nd acquisition.

• I acquired my 3rd SaaS, Translate Channels.

• Both my SaaS business and agency grew in 2024 compared to 2023. Total growth across both was 5% (more on this below).

• I generated over 45k from SaaS in 2024, almost entirely on auto-pilot.

• I ended the year partying hard with a close friend of mine in one of my favorite city Chiang Mai.

A deep dive into the numbers

Above is a table showing top-line revenue generated across my 3 SaaS and my main business, projectBI (analytics agency).

We can see that 16% of the total revenue came from SaaS ($46,458 out of $287,287). The SaaS grew by 32% in 2024 compared to 2023, mostly as a result of strong performance by Meet Slack which was acquired in June 2023.

Overall, across both businesses we experienced a 5% growth rate, almost all the growth was from the SaaS.

The biggest issue we had in 2024: The agency was under capacity

The agency only grew by 1% in 2024 compared to 2023. If you look closely in column “$ (PBI)”, you’ll notice 4 months with a total of just $7,500.

The biggest issue I faced in 2024 was the fact that we never reached capacity in the agency. This resulted in the agency actually losing money in 2024 compared to 2023. Expenses were up significantly, and as the table above shows, revenue was basically flat.

Unfortunately my efforts to close new DTC clients in Q1 and Q2 fall completely flat. We were lucky to close a big retainer in February which stayed with us all year. The other big win was closing Laura Geller, a large DTC client in Q3 which helped push our revenue to break even.

I’ve been working hard on this problem starting with pivoting out of the DTC market back into the SaaS market. I wrote about this move in this post.

Unfortunately things haven’t improved since this big move and I’m going to have a tough choice to make in the coming months if I don’t manage to get any new business from SaaS. I plan on publishing a very detailed post on my marketing strategy and execution for growing the agency but I first need to “crack the code” and start seeing results.

Some of the steps I’ve taken to address this problem include:

• Joining the Navigator program by Alt Agency. This program has been fantastic and helped me build a new core offer for the agency (see screenshot below). It’s also helped me redefine my marketing strategy.

• Redesigned the projectBI website.

• Published our first SaaS-focused case study.

• Started publishing SaaS-focused content on LinkedIn and X.

• Published our first downloadable eBook for SaaS founders.

• Relaunched the projectBI newsletter.

These efforts haven’t yet beared any fruit but I know I’ve been weak in this area and have more to learn. I’m pushing hard and once I work out this piece of the puzzle, growth will be unlocked.

The image above shows the 9-step process behind the User Metrics Optimization System, the new core offer of projectBI.

Looking forward to a potentially massive year

Even though 2024 wasn’t a very strong year financially, I did manage to pay down a huge amount of debt related to the acquisition of the SaaS.

Almost all the profits generated from the SaaS last year went towards paying down the seller financing loan for Meet Slack. I also paid over $20k to a friend who loaned me the money to acquire PulseBanner, my first acquisition.

The result of these loan payments is that that within 2 months from now I’ll be done paying off Meet Slack which will open up over 3k in MRR in profit. This cash flow can be used to supplement my salary, build a new war chest, invest in the development of my other SaaS or runway for the agency.

My 3rd acquisition, Translate Channels has a seller financing loan which will eat up about 90% of its monthly revenue but its much smaller than Meet Slack. I’ll be done paying down that loan in 2 years from now.

On the agency side, we are in a healthy position thanks to a very strong December. We have 3 active retainers generating just over $20k in MRR. Our current breakeven point is +-$14k so as long as we maintain these 3 retainers, or are fortunate to gain new business, we will be in the green.

In addition to the existing retainers, I’m in talks with a hot lead (large DTC brand), and renegotiating a better deal with one of the retainers. If either one of these deals closes, we’ll be far into the green and highly profitable.

A greater focus on profitability

2024 was an expensive year. I did a lot of experimenting. I highered new freelancers to help improve our service, spent a ton on education, and had higher than expected admin costs. I didn’t keep a close enough eye on the P&L and our profit margin got destroyed.

This resulted in a net loss of over $20k for the agency which was disappointing.

There will be much more focus on profitability in 2025. One of my annual goals for the year is for the agency to end the year with a net profit margin >30%.

To achieve this I’ll need to simultaneously decrease costs while increasing revenue. I’ve already cut some of the “fat” and will make sure we take full advantage of the increase in demand we’re currently seeing so the year starts off very positively.

Final thoughts on 2024 and goals for 2025

2024 was a good year. I’m confident 2025 will be a great year.

Everything is in place for massive growth in 2025.

The SaaS will continue to grow organically and we’re investing heavily in Feedio, my big play for 2025. This bet will start bearing fruit in Q2, if not, it will get shut down and there will be more resources for the other SaaS and for building a new war chest.

The images above are mockups of the new UIs we are building for Feedio.

On the agency side, I’m pushing hard on lead gen and once that nut is cracked, I’ll be able to generate enough new business to reach full capacity and start scaling the team. We are just a few deals away from reaching a 500k run rate. The current retainers on hand cover 80% of revenue generated in 2024 when looking forward 12 months, so we’re in a healthy position.

My goals for 2025

Below is the list of goals I’ve drawn up for next year.

• Get the marketing working for the agency (30 organic inbound MQLs generated)

• Pay myself from the agency at least 60k

• Finish the year with the agency having a net profit margin >30%

• Build up 25k in runway for the agency (and don't touch it)

• Get body weight down to 105kgs

• Build up 25k in personal runway (and don't touch it)

• Finish paying off the seller financing loan for Meet Slack

• Make all seller financing loan payments for 3rd SaaS acquisition

• Finish the year with a salary of at least 90k

• Reach 10k in MRR through SaaS

Get the marketing working for the agency (30 organic inbound MQLs generated)

I’ve already touched on the biggest issue we had in 2023, so the first goal for 2025 is to get the marketing working and generate enough marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to allow us to reach capacity and then scale.

30 MQLs might seem very low but we’re very good at retaining clients and only need another 2 clients to reach capacity. The focus is first on building the systems and overall approach to get MQLs and then I can put my foot on the gas to increase the number. Last year we only generated 5 MQLs. 2 of them closed generating over 120k in revenue.

Pay myself from the agency at least 60k

Most of my time goes towards the agency so it needs to pay the bulk of my salary. 60k is enough to support my current lifestyle and is the bare minimum I want to pull out of the agency each year. At this stage I’m optimizing for growth of the SaaS so I’m keeping my salary relatively low.

Finish the year with the agency having a net profit margin >30%

I wrote above about the need to focus more on profitability in 2025. The goal for this year is to finish the year with a net profit margin (before tax) of >30%.

Build up 25k in runway for the agency (and don't touch it)

One of my goals for 2024 was to build 30k in runway for the agency. I achieved this goal but then had to dip into the runway to cover costs and acquire Translate Channels. I want to build up 25k in runway for the agency in 2025 and not touch it (unless there is an emergency). Funds for acquisitions will be put in a different bucket.

Get body weight down to 105kgs

I did a good job in 2024 improving my health and managed to put on some more muscle. The focus in 2025 will be on cutting my weight and the goal is to get down to 105kgs. My current weight is somewhere in the 120 - 125kg range.

Build up 25k in personal runway (and don't touch it)

I managed to build up a bit of personal runway in 2024 but had to dip into it to cover my personal expenses since there was less I could pull for salary in Q3 and Q4.

I want to replenish this runway and extend it from 10k to 25k.

Finish paying off the seller financing loan for Meet Slack

I’ve been sending 2.5k a month to the previous owner of Meet Slack since the middle of last year. I’ll feel very relieved once I’m done paying down the seller financing loan for this SaaS. Depending on how things go this month, I’ll be done either in early February or early March.

Make all seller financing loan payments for 3rd SaaS acquisition

I acquired Translate Channels, my 3rd SaaS using seller financing. I have a monthly payment to the previous owner and I need to make sure this payment is made on the 1st of the month, every month this year.

Finish the year with a salary of at least 90k

I mentioned earlier that I want to finish the year with a salary of 60k from the agency. Ideally the agency does very well this year and I can pay myself more than 60k. If I can’t the difference will be made up from the SaaS. I’m expecting to collect over 30k in profit from the SaaS so assuming I can only pay myself 60k from the agency, the rest will come from the SaaS. A 90k annual salary will allow me to live very comfortably.

Reach 10k in MRR through SaaS

This is one of the most important goals for 2025. I’ve had a long term goal of reaching 20k in MRR from SaaS and I’d like to be half way there by the end of the year.

Currently I’m sitting at around 5k MRR so I need to double my MRR from SaaS in 2025.

This will be achieved by a combination of monetizing and scaling Feedio and Project Echo, and organic growth of the 3 SaaS I’ve acquired, Pulsebanner, Meet Slack and Translate Channels.

We should be done with the heavy dev work for Feedio by the end of Q1 so I hope to start seeing some MRR from it in early Q2.

Pulsebanner, Meet Slack and Translate Channels should reach about 6.5k - 7k combined so we need 3k in net MRR growth from Feedio and Project Echo. This is ambitious but I’m going for it.

If I can achieve this goal, I’ll be generating over 6 figures from SaaS which would provide an amazing source of cash for growing the “MRR snowball” through further acquisitions and investment into the existing portfolio.

Thanks for reading friends and I hope you have an incredible 2025.

Justin