THE999 CLUBACADEMY

40 hours a week. For 40 years.

The free 17-page playbook with the exact 7-step system we used to land our first agency clients. No budget. No experience. No employees. Just a laptop, or even a phone.

  • A 7-step client-getting system, one page per step
  • Copy-paste outreach scripts and follow-ups
  • A 4-week action plan so you know what to do each day
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Our numbers, not a forecast 0 mo running the agency 100s of clients 0 industry, done deeply 0 pages in the playbook
The default plan

The contract nobody signed.

It is the plan almost everyone gets handed by default. Work 40 hours a week. For 40 years. Retire on a fraction of what you earned.

It is not a scam. It is not a conspiracy. It is just the arithmetic of trading hours for money, and most people never see it written out.

Honest note: the three 40s are a rule of thumb, not a statistic. Real pension replacement rates vary a lot by country, scheme and contributions. The point is the shape of the trade, not the exact number.

Standard terms · version default
Working Life Agreement
Hours per week40
Duration40 years
Total hours~80,000
Rate set bySomeone else
CeilingFixed
Retirement incomeA fraction
Ownership of outputNone
Signed everyone, by default Nobody reads the small print.
Optional
Do the maths

How many hours are still on the table?

Pick an age. We will show the working hours left on the default plan, to 65, at 40 a week.

28
1864
Working hours remaining

That is a lot of hours. The question is who you spend them building for.

Why this model

You can start with a laptop or a phone

Most businesses need money before they make any. A shop needs stock. A cafe needs a lease. A service business mainly needs skill and time. That is the honest reason we picked this one.

Low cost to start is not the same as easy. It still takes months of unpaid work before anyone pays you. The guide is blunt about that.

  • Stock or inventoryNot needed
  • Premises or leaseNot needed
  • Staff on day oneNot needed
  • A laptop, or even just a phoneRequired
  • Willingness to send messages and hear noRequired
  • Months of unpaid effortRequired
What is inside

Seven steps, one page each

The system we used to land our first agency clients, broken down step by step over four weeks. Bookmark the roadmap page and come back after every step.

01
Week 1

Choose your niche

Pick one type of local business. Local, visual, findable. Includes a 10-minute test to check if a niche is worth it.

02
Week 1

Build your prospect list

How to find 50 real businesses and their contact details in an afternoon, using nothing but Google Maps.

03
Week 1

Spot the opportunity

Score each one using their engagement rate, so you talk to the businesses most likely to say yes first.

04
Week 1

Send the first message

A short, specific, no-pressure email or DM. Copy-paste scripts included, plus what not to say.

05
Week 2

Follow up, three times

The one step almost everyone skips, and the one that actually wins the deal. The full sequence, timed.

06
Week 3

Book the call and pitch

Show, do not just tell. Bring a mock-up. How to run the call so it feels like help, not a sales pitch.

07
Week 3 to 4

Close and onboard

Getting to a yes, getting paid up front, and setting the client up so delivery does not eat your week.

+
Copy-paste scriptsFirst message, three follow-ups, and the pitch outline.
+
4-week action planWhat to do each week, so there is never a day you do not know what to work on.
+
The maths, honestlyWhy small repeatable retainers beat chasing one big deal.
Who it is for

For people starting from scratch

  • Thinking about startingYou want the full map before committing time or money to it.
  • Already freelancingYou do the work well and want the business side more structured.
  • Running a small agencyYou want to compare your systems against how somebody else does it.
1Pick the niche and define the offer
2Build one repeatable acquisition channel
3Price it so the margin survives delivery
4Systemise delivery into documented steps
5Hand off the parts that do not need you
Our story

Taught by people still doing it.

Not someone who ran an agency years ago and has been selling the story ever since.

The shed we lived in for three months while we got it off the ground
01 · The shed
The shed we lived in for three months while we got it off the ground.
Alex and Issy
02 · Day one
Overdraft, day one
−£0

That's what was sitting in our overdraft the day we started. No savings, no investor, nobody coming to help. We lived in a shed for three months while we got it off the ground, then took it on the road, running the same agency from wherever we wanted.

It's multiple six figures now and we're building it towards seven. We're not reminiscing about a business we used to run. We're running it this month, which means this playbook is the same first move we still make with every new client conversation, not something that worked five years ago.

Alex and Issy snowboarding
03 · Off, and still earning
Off, and still earning. The business runs whether we're at a desk or not.
Alex Hunt, Co-Founder of THE -999 CLUBAlex
Issy, Co-Founder of THE -999 CLUBIssy

Alex Hunt & Issy

Co-Founders · THE -999 CLUB

We run a marketing agency together. We started it about 18 months ago with no budget and no employees, and it has since done multiple six figures in revenue, working with hundreds of clients in one industry. That is our result, not a promise of anyone else's.

This playbook is the exact starting point we used, written the way we wish someone had handed it to us at the beginning. Your market and starting point will be different, so treat it as one worked example rather than a set of rules.

Questions

Before you download

Yes. You give an email address, the PDF arrives. Nothing to pay and no call to book.

The model needs very little to begin: a laptop, an internet connection and a skill somebody will pay for. But be clear eyed. You will likely need a period doing unpaid work while something else covers the bills. The guide covers how we handled that, not a way around it.

No. It is written for a complete beginner. It starts from choosing a niche and building a list, and every step has its own page. If you already run an agency you will skim the early parts.

You get the playbook, then occasional emails about what we are building and learning. Unsubscribe whenever you want, every email has a link.

It is a written guide. We do run paid programmes and you will hear about them eventually, but the playbook stands on its own and does not require buying anything.

We cannot tell you that. It describes how we run our agency in our market. The principles travel reasonably well, but the specifics of your niche, pricing and competition are yours to work out.

After the playbook

The playbook is the first move. The Academy is the whole game.

A full programme on building a marketing agency from nothing: positioning, getting clients, pricing, delivery, hiring and the systems behind it, taught by the two of us while we still run ours. It opens to the waitlist first.

Join the Academy waitlist→

Free to join. You'll get the playbook at the same time.

01Positioning pick a niche people already pay for
02Clients outreach, calls and closing without the sleaze
03Delivery do the work well enough that they stay
04Systems the operations that let you step away
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Seventeen pages. The 7-step system, the scripts, the 4-week plan. Free, and yours in about ten seconds.

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THE999 CLUB
Privacy PolicyTermsContact

The "40/40/40" figures on this page are a widely used rule of thumb illustrating the shape of full time work over a career. They are not a statistic about any individual, and real pension replacement rates vary considerably by country, scheme and contributions. The hours calculator is an illustration based on a 40 hour week to age 65 and is not personal advice. Any figures describing our own agency are provided for context only and are not a promise, projection or guarantee of results for anyone else. Business outcomes depend on many factors including your market, skills, effort and circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.

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