Kady Sandel Review: What Is Her Floating Agency Model? |IPPEI

Updated On 2025-08-12

Kady Sandel Review

Kady Sandel is a Serbian-born graphic designer and agency owner in Austin, Texas. She is the founder of Aventive Studio and Aventive Academy. Kady’s business operates on what she calls the “floating agency model.” She earns a percentage from finding and managing clients while outsourcing fulfillment to contractors. She also runs her Profitable Graphic Designer Podcast.

Kady Sandel reviews are positive. Her clients like that she puts active effort into the rebranding process. Clients also say that Kady gave advice every step of the way. However, I found no specific details about the performance of her clients. I also found no negative reviews.

Kady Sandel’s Aventive Academy is based on her own success. She says, “I own a design agency that consistently books $10K-$45K projects, and I built it while working a 9 to 5 job.” In my opinion, her agency model sounds good on paper, but it creates more problems than it solves. Since you’re outsourcing the actual work (design, web development, copywriting, etc.) and only paying contractors 40% of the profit, it’s like trying to run a Michelin-star restaurant while paying your chefs minimum wage. You may keep most of the revenue, but you won’t attract top talent for cheap, and cutting corners eventually hurts the quality of the work. Plus, Kady’s business requires a lot of ongoing client relationship management. I always say, “more client interactions = more headaches”. It’s less passive income and more like running a guild in World of Warcraft. You’re constantly coordinating with players, resolving conflicts, and managing endless group chats. You end up spending way more than 15 hours a week just keeping everyone happy. Finally, since your service only focuses on design, the clients will only need you for a short time. They’ll just as easily let go of you like someone tossing a Chipotle bag once they’ve finished their burrito bowl.

This article reviews Kady Sandel and her floating agency model. It covers her background, business, and claims.

Kady Sandel: Pros and Cons

Pros

Kady Sandel has been actively involved in Aventive Studio operations since its launch
Kady has worked with over 300 clients

Cons

Kady’s floating agency model requires strong personal management skills
Her high-ticket pricing strategy may not be effective for new agencies or for all markets

What Is Kady Sandel’s Floating Agency Model?

Kady Sandel’s floating agency model hires project-based contractors instead of full-time employees. The “floating” team structure brings in specialists for specific projects.

The 3 principles of the floating agency model:

Project-based contractor system: Kady hires project-based contractors for specific projects to minimize overhead costs. She only hires web developers, copywriters, and designers based on the project’s need.
Profit margin optimization: Contractors handle fulfillment, and she takes a percentage of the profit. Kady suggests that agencies take 60% to 70% of the entire project price.
Lifestyle flexibility: The business operates through systems and contractors. This frees up a huge chunk of Kady’s time. She says she works about 15 hours a week.

For example, Aventive Studio landed an $18,500 branding project. Kady handled the initial consultation and developed the brand strategy. She assembled her team once the strategy was approved. She hireds a visual identity specialist, a graphic designer, and a web developer. While the contractors work on the project, Kady handles the client relationships and project oversight. After the project is completed, she distributes $5,850 to the contractors. This leaves $12,650 for Kady to keep as profit.

What Is Kady Sandel’s Story?

Kady Sandel

Kady Sandel was born in Serbia and earned a degree in graphic communications. She moved to the United States in 2005 to pursue a career in graphic design. At 16, Kady started freelancing as a graphic design artist in Austin, Texas. She charged $65 for designing logos for car wraps, flyers, and websites. She experienced the typical challenges of freelancers, from exhaustion to juggling multiple low-paying projects and difficulty scaling.

Kady started experimenting with outsourcing specific parts of the projects, like web development and copywriting. She realized she could scale her offering to full-suite brand strategy and design services instead of one-off designs. Outsourcing lets her get larger projects and focus on the business aspects while keeping her overhead costs low.

Kady founded her brand Aventive Studio in 2014. Her portfolio includes companies featured in Forbes, CVS, and Shark Tank. Her services went from $65 logos to $20,000 packages. Kady founded Aventive Academy in 2020 to teach other struggling freelancers.

What Is Kady Sandel’s Aventive Studio?

Aventive Studio is Kady’s Austin, Texas-based branding agency. They work with a network of contractors, including web developers, copywriters, graphic designers, and packaging specialists. Notable clients include Earth’s Organics, Crane Fitness, and Nature of No More.

Aventive Studio offers:

Brand strategy
Visual identity design
Packaging design
Website development

What Are Kady Sandel’s Claims About the Floating Agency Model?

Kady Sandel claims that the floating agency model lets you:

Scale without full-time employee overhead costs.
Profit at a 60% to 70% margin.
Achieve 6-figures annually with 1-2 clients a month.
Create a passive income business.

What Are the Actual Data of Creative Agency Outsourcing?

Agencies with regular projects may find it cheaper to hire permanent employees instead of outsourcing. Capital on Tap found that freelancers get higher hourly rates in 29 of 30 job roles compared to agency employees. Gusto confirms that contractors often charge more per hour than employees because they need to cover the cost of their own benefits (like health insurance and self-employment taxes).
Starter Story reports that contractor-based creative agencies average 50% profit margins. Kady’s claim of 60% to 70% profit margins is higher than industry standards. Aiming too high makes your agency less competitive.
Blue Gift Digital says that creative agencies earn $250,000 to $1 million annually. They average 5 to 10 clients monthly at $5,000 to $15,000 each. Earning 6-figures a year with 1 to 2 clients might be possible at $8,500 to $16,000 per client. However, you still have to consider your advertising spending.
Contractor-based businesses are not passive. You still handle client management and oversee projects. Even Kady spends about 15 hours a week. Outsourcing your management duties is possible but will eat into your profit margins.

What Is Kady Sandel’s Aventive Academy?

Kady Sandel’s Aventive Academy is a freelancing - to - agency training platform. It helps students to the floating agency model. The Academy offers workshops, webinars, and the Fully Booked Designer Program. These tackle the business model, profit margin optimization, marketing, and automation.

How to Earn Passive Income Without Outsourcing Services?

I earn passive income without outsourcing services with my local lead generation business. I create and rank websites on Google and rent them out to local businesses. Businesses get unlimited leads, and each site earns me $500 to $3,000 a month. I do all of the initial work but take all of the recurring profits. Since there is no outsourcing and no advertising campaigns, my profit margin is as high as 90%.

conclusion

One of my websites, Lancaster Elite Roofing, 44242 10th Street West, Lancaster, CA 93534, (661) 276-1888, lancastereliteroofing.com, generated $2,400 this month. I only spent 15 hours building, ranking, and renting it out back in 2020. And it cost as little as $30 to create. Unlike Kady Sandel’s design agency, local lead generation gives local businesses what they’ll always need - steady leads. My Lancaster Elite Roofing website secures at least 6 jobs per month for my client. They earn $48,000, and give me 5% of that. This makes me feel like Iron Man, handing out arc reactors (giving local businesses the steady power source they can’t live without). Every job they land runs on the leads I generate, making me their Wi-Fi router (quiet in the corner, but the entire operation goes down the moment I’m unplugged). The best part is I don’t need to compete with hundreds of other, more established agencies. With local lead generation, I often only have to outrank a handful of sites. Imagine opening a pizza shop in a small town (local lead generation) vs trying to compete with Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s nationwide (agency model). Plus, there are hundreds of niches and thousands of local areas to market to.

To scale a local lead generation business, just repeat the rank-and-rent process as much as you want. I scaled to dozens of sites that earn me over $52K a month. Learn all of this from my local lead generation program. You can even earn while getting practical experience selling leads to my high-ticket client.