Killing My Agency Was A Good Choice
At the start of this year, I shut down my agency-model business. This allowed me to cut out a lot of professional "dead weight", and focus on finding clients who value the skills I've amassed since I started web development. To put it bluntly, I cut the bullshit around my services, simplifying my approach, and simply started asking for work directly.
And you know what? Both last year and this year, I had myself booked up within a month. Maybe it's the relatively small volume of work I need (this is a side hustle, after all), or perhaps it's the nature of the work I am accepting, but even when others are saying that they're seeing dramatic decreases in their clientele, I haven't had much trouble finding good work for the last 2 years.
While I can't say 100% what is causing this, I do think I can largely attribute it to my strong focus on authenticity for my personal brand online, combined with the strong network I've developed over the last decade in WordPress, but more than anything, I think it's just because I refocused myself, matching the clientele I seek out to my more-lucrative skill sets.