🎯 The concrete business: a web-development / design / marketing studio (you, maybe one partner) selling to small businesses and agencies in the UK, Germany and Australia — high rates, same-ish time zones or same language, endless demand for American-quality work.
Weeks 1–2 (setup): LLC + EIN + bank account. Buy a domain ($12). Build a one-page portfolio with your 3 best samples — build the samples free for a local charity/church/gym if you have none.
Weeks 3–6 (first clients): profiles on Upwork + Fiverr. Filter jobs to UK/AU/DE clients. Send 10 custom proposals a day (never templates — reference their site by name). Price ~20% under U.S. market until you have 5 reviews. Accept small jobs; over-deliver; ask every happy client for a review.
Weeks 7–12 (raise + go direct): raise rates 25% after 5 five-star reviews. Set up Stripe (cards) + Wise (bank transfers). Start direct outreach: 10 emails/day to European agencies (search “digital agency Manchester/Berlin”) offering white-label overflow work — agencies constantly subcontract to America.
| LLC filing (state avg) | $130 |
| Domain + portfolio hosting | $12 + $0 (GitHub Pages) or $18/mo (Webflow) |
| Contract template (SCORE/free) | $0 |
| Stripe/Wise accounts | $0 (fees per transaction) |
| Total to launch | ≈ $150–$350 |
1) LLC (state) → 2) EIN (irs.gov, free) → 3) city business license → 4) W-9 for U.S. platforms; foreign clients may ask for a W-8BEN-E (your CPA fills it once). That’s it — no export license for ordinary services.
1–5: Upwork/Fiverr (UK/AU filters). 6–8: white-label work for two European agencies from your outreach. 9–10: referrals — ask every client “who else needs this?” in the delivery email.
Target $60/hr × 25 billable hours/week ≈ $6,000/month (platforms take 10–20% early on). One $2,000 retainer agency client = a third of the goal. Three retainers = a real business.
Month 3: first $1,000 month + 5 reviews. Month 6: $4,000/month, first direct (non-platform) client. Month 12: 3 retainer clients ≥ $2,000 each; hire your first subcontractor. Change-course rule: 200 proposals with under 3 wins → your niche or samples are wrong; pick a narrower niche (e.g. “Shopify stores for German fashion brands”) and rebuild samples.
① Platform bans/dependence → move clients to direct contracts as fast as allowed. ② Scope creep → fixed-scope contracts, changes cost extra. ③ Laws: OFAC (platforms block sanctioned countries), GDPR for EU clients (privacy policy + delete-on-request), VAT only if selling digital products to EU consumers (use Paddle/Lemon Squeezy as merchant-of-record and skip the whole problem).