Success Stories

From Zero to Hero: Seller & Buyer Case Studies

By
Nicolo Grossi
|
August 29, 2018
people celebrating their business profitability

It's every entrepreneur's dream to take their business from nothing and make it super profitable. But this is challenging – the future is unpredictable, and while most business ideas sound good on paper, they're harder to pull off in the real world.

That's why a marketplace like Fiverr – where entrepreneurs can both buy and sell services – can make a big difference in reaching profitability. These two case studies illustrate how Fiverr can help you take your business from humble beginnings to impressive profitability.

Seller Case study: A 700% increase in monthly revenues

Any time you increase revenue, it's a cause for celebration. When you increase it by a whopping 700%, you're doing something exceptional. That's precisely what happened to this Fiverr seller, who runs a graphic design business. Starting out a few years ago with his small business in Venezuela, he struggled to find new customers. After doing online research, he discovered a book detailing how entrepreneurs could grow their business on Fiverr.

The business plan takes shape.

Understanding ecommerce's potential, this ambitious entrepreneur realized that selling services on a marketplace meant many opportunities. He first offered various low-priced Gigs that, while still making him profitable, spread him too thin.

Yoel Belilty - Fiverr Pro Seller

Yoel Belilty - Pro Seller aka "graphicslc"

I didn’t have any sales the first few days. But on the sixth day, I woke up to 13 orders from a customer in Thailand. I thought it was a mistake!

As orders came in and increased over the months, he was having trouble keeping up with them. While some would call that a nice problem to have, he eventually fell behind schedule on projects, causing him to lose hundreds of dollars. He had to address the problem of too many clients, too many orders, and too many low-priced Gigs.

A breakthrough solves everything.

The solution was reducing the number of clients he had and working on more higher-paying projects. He achieved this by focusing on just his most popular Gig: an animated video, which he started selling for more than $5. This meant he eventually had fewer clients, but was making more per order.

After a year of this strategy, his monthly average order price skyrocketed from $31 in January 2016 to $374 in January 2017 (a 700% increase). His cancellation rate dropped to 0% because he concentrated on giving customers great value, focused on just that one Gig. By February 2017, he had 15 designers working for him in his office, while his monthly revenue was nearly $11,000.

Insights from Yoel's Case Study

  1. Better to work with fewer clients on higher-paying projects
  2. Put more effort into selling your higher-paying Gig
  3. Offering one popular Gig was all I needed to be successful
  4. Specialization became my most important strategy
  5. Do an amazing job you’ll be considered a specialist. People will turn to you, the expert, when they are in need of that service.

Read full story

Buyer Case study: Going from $0 to $3600 in the first month

Entrepreneurs can also buy Fiverr Gigs and work with sellers to increase revenue. The next case study accomplished just that, from the buyer's perspective.

Unhappy with what his job paid him.

Entrepreneurs just starting out on Fiverr want to do great instantly, but this sometimes takes time. In the case of Kevin Maxwell, he exemplified what it meant to grow your business immediately. Unhappy with his second job as a cleaner, earning just $9 an hour, Kevin took control of his destiny. Taking inspiration from a blog post he read about using Fiverr to start a business, he designed a website-funnel system that would net him a few thousand dollars in his first month.

Kevin - Buyer on Fiverr

Kevin Maxwell - Buyer on Fiverr

I love that fact that I found an awesome cold caller on Fiver.com that not only finds leads but also books the appointment and even records the calls and creates an excel spreadsheet for me

Kevin's system revealed.

Here's his system:

  1. Buy cold calling services to book appointments with small-business prospects, whom he'd meet.
  2. Work out a deal with the owner to build a website and get paid upfront.
  3. Outsource the web design work to Fiverr sellers for as little as $30.
  4. Meet with the client again to ensure they're happy with the work.
  5. Transition to negotiating a monthly contract with owner for website marketing campaigns.

This earned Kevin $3600 in his first month, and the labor he had to expend was only minimal.

Insights from Kevin's Case Study

  1. Be a doer! All the information you need to succeed is out there. Search for it
  2. Create a selling funnel that allows you to outsource most of the heavy work
  3. Provide value to your customers
  4. Over deliver and give excellent customer support

Put your plan into action.

These inspiring case studies show how entirely possible it is to use Fiverr to take your business from zero to thousands of dollars in a matter of months. The only thing it takes is a sound strategy, determination and putting it all into action!

If you want to enjoy the freedom of being your own boss and having the potential to make an unlimited amount of money, then start exploring how Fiverr can help you.

Do you have your own business or are thinking of starting one? Have you considered using the Fiverr marketplace? Tell us in the comments!

Nicolo Grossi
SEO & content marketing expert with 7+ years experience, working at Fiverr since 2016 Nicolo is responsible to follow and implement SEO’s best practices and inbound marketing strategies in order to increase reach and exposure.
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