Home > UIXA’s 2023 Perennial Report

UIXA’s 2023 Perennial Report

This is a recap of our first 6 months of running an agency. It’s our first attempt at understanding how an agency operates, and a look into the future of how it can change as it grows.

Mateo Jakelic
February 20, 2025

This report is inspired by Ian from Gardener / gardener.

Hi, I’m Mateo Jakelic. I’m running a digital agency in Austria called UIXA with my two friends: Kristijan Damjanov and Markus Pichorner.

(Future Mateo: I started this at the beginning of 2023, and it became a draft. Now it is 2025, and I am finishing it. Let me know if you would also like to read the 2024 report, but that one will probably be finished in 2027. 😆)

This is a recap of our first 6 months of running an agency. It’s our first attempt at understanding how an agency operates, and a look into the future of how it can change as it grows. I intend for this to be a resource to others trying to do the same thing.

I have done a few freelancing jobs as an individual prior to creating an agency. I identified that scaling by myself would take longer. Sometimes I still take on a few clients on my own, but my priority now lies more on UIXA and scaling the agency.

So what is UIXA?

UIXA is just a name.

It is actually a group of three—now four—partners, together with a mentor, who are combining their experiences to create something meaningful and different.

Based on some quick research, there are about 1.3 million agencies in Europe. So why would someone like you who is reading this remember and use uixa.agency as a service provider?

We specialize in custom website design, placing a strong emphasis on individuality. With over 50% of websites relying on templates, many brands risk losing their unique identity. Our custom designs ensure that small and medium-sized businesses can showcase their services and products in a way that highlights their distinctiveness, all while keeping the solution affordable.

Along the way we discovered our passion for videography, which we converted to a service. A service where we create high-quality, engaging videos that tell your brand’s story. Whether it’s for social media or your website, our videos are created to enhance your online presence, increase engagement, and leave a memorable impact.

We also recognize that a website without a strong brand or product design lacks true quality. That’s why we specialize in branding and product design, ensuring a seamless, consistent look and feel that enhances the overall user experience of your website.

Additionally, we offer professional photography and digital marketing services, such as advertising, providing your business with everything it needs to stand out and thrive in the digital world.

Firstly let's take a look at the finances, because that is probably why you are here, to see how "successful" we are.

My opinion is that bookkeeping/finances is a skill that everyone should work on. Until today I am still doing the finances on my own, as soon as I am confident in my finance skills I intend on hiring professionals.

The main reason I started an agency is to work with friends and create something meaningful while expanding my knowledge. Money wasn’t my primary motivation; it was the freedom to break away from the confines of a traditional full-time office job.

Though money quickly becomes a challenge as an agency service provider because it’s hard to rely on a consistent monthly income.

Revenue

Revenue that we made in the first 6 months.

Revenue: €18,081.00
Average deal value is around €2,000.00
Average rate across all billable hours – €30.00/hr

Salary

At the time, both Markus and Kristijan were still studying, so we didn’t establish regular salaries for them. Instead, we worked on a project-based system, paying ourselves based on the projects we completed.

Mateo: €6,929.42
Markus: €3,096.00
Kristijan €1,591.00

As you can see, this isn’t your average salary. For me it was about 1.1k a month. But this doesn’t matter, usually you will not have a salary in the beginning, we were actually very lucky to have this. So reading this, don’t expect a big salary as soon as you start.

You can expect to gain a new passion, build meaningful relationships, acquire valuable knowledge, and create unforgettable experiences.

However, be prepared to face more challenging and stressful situations along the way.

Expenses overview

Most of our expenses were big investments in equipment/tools we use: €6,464.58
We bought a Sony FX30, which allowed us to start a new service.
We are all working remotely so there was no need for office spaces. In my opinion everyone who is starting out should not invest into an office space.
We also spent €591.00 on business development

New businesses

Lead Source

25% of leads came from our network
45% of leads came in from our mentor
30% of leads came from existing clients
0% were cold inbound leads

Learnings

Put yourself out there, no matter how good business is at the moment! You will always have less-performing months or even no performance at all, and this sucks. Start doing marketing for your agency as well—you don’t have a never-ending network that you can rely on. Besides getting new clients through marketing, you will also gain credibility.

Write everything down, from how you are creating websites, to how your design work is done. Having a document on hand, where you have all of the instructions will help you cut down on those clumsy mistakes that ruin your reputation. From 2024 we have started creating a play book, where we are outlining all of our services in details, down to the very tasks.

Kristijan and I are from Slovenia, Markus is from Austria, so everything is communicated in English. If you are also starting think about the future and only stick to one language for communicating and documentation, I would therefore recommend English, as you never know who your next partner is going to be.

Identify your strengths and focus on them. Focus on getting good at your thing, let’s be honest, you have everything in your disposal 24/7. The only thing that is stopping you is yourself.

Understand the importance of a mentor and colleagues. Even though you have everything at your disposal, you need time and you will make many mistakes. The time to learn new things will drastically decrease if you have a mentor and colleagues, as a mentor can teach from their experiences and knowledge, while colleagues will make mistakes and you can learn from them together.

Fun facts

We changed our website twice, currently working on the 3rd version. (future Mateo writing, we are on the 3rd version and working on the 4th).

The name UIXA was mostly generated by AI, a combination of ux and ui.

UIXA is an Austrian-based company.

Resources

The biggest game changer for me was creating a library of online resources. This helps me in my design/development work and with running the agency. Since I don’t like gatekeeping things I will be sharing this with you.

Geist Font, we use this font for the agency’s brand

Hetzner, best server/cloud for websites in combination with CyberPanel

Andrea Egli, you can find a lot of custom code for different website functions, if you are working with Elementor, but should also work with other builder.

Footer designs, the best repository for footer designs

Awwwards, the best repository for website inspiration

HAWRAF Non-negotiables, cool read

The Meaning of Design, cool read

Pangram Fonts, repository for fonts

Raw. agency resources, some cool resources from a Slovenian based agency that I am inspired by. .raw. Thank you. 🙂

Also on the list are: