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kefapy

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hello.....
am web designer and this never really took it seriously but this year i want to have an answer to this question "how is a website going to improve my business?" my answer normally was "it's going to give your business an online presence" but i feel that is not enough especially if a client wants to have value for there money please advise on this. Thank you.
 
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NewManRising

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hello.....
am web designer and this never really took it seriously but this year i want to have an answer to this question "how is a website going to improve my business?" my answer normally was "it's going to give your business an online presence" but i feel that is not enough especially if a client wants to have value for there money please advise on this. Thank you.
I am not an expert, but ideas that come to mind...
1. A more eye-appealing site helps visitors navigate and see information better, Which can be a difference in converting leads or not.
2. It can give it a "feel" that looks professional, that may help with credibility, opposed to a bland website, which may exude the feeling that the business or service is crappy.
 

heeya

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I started agency last October and got first sale yesterday!
Thank you for sharing valuable information.

I'm wondering what makes free value makes people strangers to prospects?
In my case, as an inbound strategy, I made a youtube video of how to build WordPress website from scratch in Korean language because most videos are outdated and not completed. For me it's not a big deal but people like that.

What do you think Sean?
 

NewManRising

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Got a website up. Been watching a few SEO videos. Basically went through some keyword research exercises, technical SEO, and moving onto on-page SEO. I am having a few frustrations though.

1. Not sure if people in the niche I chose can afford services that I am offering. In other words, I am not fully commited to the niche. I am offering copywriting, SEO, and social media management.
2. Worrying about client acquisition. Even if I do hustle I am not sure how to pitch my services to them. So far, my method for getting clients is just searching the search engines and finding a drab looking site that could possibly improve with SEO and copywriting. Other than that, might try getting clients on social media. This will involve connecting with businesses in the niche and just sending them messages. The other idea is getting a sales person and offer what Sean did. A 30% commission upfront and 10% therafter monthly.
3. It would be nice to get some validation from others about whether my niche is a good one. I just don't want to link my site here.
4. I am considering dropping one of my services to make things simpler for me. Having three things makes it more work for me to understand and pitch to potential clients.
 
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Maxboost

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Got a website up. Been watching a few SEO videos. Basically went through some keyword research exercises, technical SEO, and moving onto on-page SEO. I am having a few frustrations though.

1. Not sure if people in the niche I chose can afford services that I am offering. In other words, I am not fully commited to the niche. I am offering copywriting, SEO, and social media management.
2. Worrying about client acquisition. Even if I do hustle I am not sure how to pitch my services to them. So far, my method for getting clients is just searching the search engines and finding a drab looking site that could possibly improve with SEO and copywriting. Other than that, might try getting clients on social media. This will involve connecting with businesses in the niche and just sending them messages. The other idea is getting a sales person and offer what Sean did. A 30% commission upfront and 10% therafter monthly.
3. It would be nice to get some validation from others about whether my niche is a good one. I just don't want to link my site here.
4. I am considering dropping one of my services to make things simpler for me. Having three things makes it more work for me to understand and pitch to potential clients.

Would you buy from someone that has no history or track record of success?
 

Telamon25346

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update, so since I jumped in. I learned A LOT. Even though nothing of significance has even happened yet.

so far I've redesigned my website (it looks amazing right now), I Learned a lot more about SEO, I Set up a PayPal business account and learned how to send invoices and stuff with it, so if I get paid I won't have to worry about it.:cool: And last but not least, I've messaged and talked to a few people on Fiverr to figure out who will be doing my web design work, my SEO work, etc.

As for my current problem. Getting my first client. It feels like I'm tripping through the process. Here's what I've done so far to reach out to clients:
  • I created a LinkedIn, made it look appealing, and I tried "connecting" with the founders of business I found in my area that looked like they needed help with web design or were simply just not on the first page of google.
  • On the daily, I've been looking for businesses in my area that aren't on the first page of Google, & fit my client requirements (they have to earn a lot per customer I bring them, IE: roofing companies customers pay like $15k per roof, so doing SEO for them and bringing them an extra 10 or 20 customers a month can justify me charging a lot for my service) I built a little email list of businesses, and I've been sending out lots of emails.
I think that email strategy is working, I'm not sure. When I email these companies I send an email that looks like this:

"Hey, I was on your site after I looked up "chiropractor In Dallas" and I noticed that you weren't on the first page nor were you on the first-page google maps listings. This can be bad for your revenue, and simply put, it leaves a lot of money and customers on the table. There are, however, a few quick and easy ways to fix this, and I'd like to help! Instead of writing to you about the solution, I made you a short video.

In the video, I go over your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and your competitors SEO. Here are some of the competitors I talk about in the video:

Restoration Dallas Chiropractic | MaxLiving
Manning Wellness Holiday Drive to Benefit the Birthday Party Project
drericaperez.com/
www.modernbackandneckclinic.com/


It seems that this market is easy to tackle, as your competitors for "chiropractor in Dallas" are not yet doing SEO in the Dallas area. If you would like to see the video, reply to this email, I'll send it over.

Cheers,

(my contact information goes here)
"

The video I'm talking about sending would be a video where I go over their ranking on the search results page, show them how much traffic certain keywords are getting, and then I show them how much customers they could be bringing in if they ranked for said keyword. basically, I'm trying to show them the benefit of SEO, and I'm also giving them some tips.

The reason I'm not sending the video in the first email is to make sure that I only send videos and spend the time making them to the people that are actually interested. This saves me time (my most valuable asset) as opposed to making and sending videos to every email I find.

The problem With the system I have has been the response rate. currently, it Is zero. No noise on LinkedIn, and absolutely zero responses to my emails. I've sent out about 35 emails so far:
oEF4BP0.png

maybe I just need to send more. But as you can see, I've sent a follow-up email to a couple, it's been around 1 week since I first approached those, and now I'm waiting for a few more business days before I send follow up emails to the rest.

I think I had unrealistic expectations, If I'm being honest, Despite what people say about cold emails and cold calling, I was expecting the first 11 or so emails to find someone interested and secure a paying client in 1 weeks time, but that's not the case. I'm hoping this is a game of patience and consistency, So I'm going to continue sending emails, but I might tweak my email a little, make it sound better.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!
 

Real Deal Denver

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Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Here's your help.

Oh, you sent me a mass email? Sorry, I must have missed that in the other 67 mass emails I get a day.

You want them to use you as a trusted adviser to market their business when you do such a wimpy job of marketing your own business to them? You better be a lot better than that. Do you expect them to say, "Sure - come on over and we'll be glad to write you a check?" You can't understand why they don't answer your email with a reply like that? Okay...

The people you will be talking to are very astute, and they have honed business skills that they've developed to not only survive, but to thrive. You better rise to that level with them, or they won't have the time of day for you.

Oh I love the business schemes people come up with. Build a website, send out 100 mass emails, and wait for the phone to ring. Um, just no. No.
 
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SquatchMan

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"Hey, I was on your site after I looked up "chiropractor In Dallas" and I noticed that you weren't on the first page nor were you on the first-page google maps listings. This can be bad for your revenue, and simply put, it leaves a lot of money and customers on the table. There are, however, a few quick and easy ways to fix this, and I'd like to help! Instead of writing to you about the solution, I made you a short video.

In the video, I go over your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and your competitors SEO. Here are some of the competitors I talk about in the video:

Restoration Dallas Chiropractic | MaxLiving
Manning Wellness Holiday Drive to Benefit the Birthday Party Project
drericaperez.com/
www.modernbackandneckclinic.com/


It seems that this market is easy to tackle, as your competitors for "chiropractor in Dallas" are not yet doing SEO in the Dallas area. If you would like to see the video, reply to this email, I'll send it over.

Cheers,

(my contact information goes here)
"

The video I'm talking about sending would be a video where I go over their ranking on the search results page, show them how much traffic certain keywords are getting, and then I show them how much customers they could be bringing in if they ranked for said keyword. basically, I'm trying to show them the benefit of SEO, and I'm also giving them some tips.

The reason I'm not sending the video in the first email is to make sure that I only send videos and spend the time making them to the people that are actually interested. This saves me time (my most valuable asset) as opposed to making and sending videos to every email I find.

The email reads like a mass email.

They also know you didn't make the video or you would have sent it over. Doubt they're going to pay you money when they know you're lying to them. Also, people aren't going to want to agree to see a video because they think it's boring and a waste of time.

I'd probably just make a quick video (3 minutes or less) with one or two points and send it over in the first email. You gotta do stuff that doesn't scale in the beginning. I mean, it's still less time than going to talk to them in person, which is probably the best option.

"Here's a 2 minute video of a few improvements we can make for you right away." Most people won't request a video (boring), but they'll watch it if it's there and two minutes.
 

NewManRising

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Another tactic you can employ is first getting some results to show people. Find a few websites in your niche and offer to do the service free. Maybe do some keyword research for them and give them a list of 30-50. Throw in a little education about SEO, both on-page and off-page. Exchange a few emails, build a relationship. Then ask them for a testimonial. Now with having this, when you cold email a business you can throw that testimonial in there as leverage.

And what I mean by "throwing it in there" I don't mean copy and pasting the testimonial. You can simply say something along the lines of, " I recently helped out this business and theyhave reported more traffic and leads". Something like that. You're just using past work and results to help leverage. You got to get creative.
 

Real Deal Denver

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Another tactic you can employ is first getting some results to show people. Find a few websites in your niche and offer to do the service free.

free
/frē/

adverb
  1. 1.
    without cost or payment.
    "ladies were admitted free"
    synonyms: without charge, free of charge, for nothing, complimentary, gratis, gratuitous, at no cost;
I asked one of my highly respected mentors what he thought of that plan. Here is what he said;

kevin oleary laughing.gif
 
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CareCPA

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They also know you didn't make the video or you would have sent it over. Doubt they're going to pay you money when they know you're lying to them. Also, people aren't going to want to agree to see a video because they think it's boring and a waste of time.
Exactly.

I got an email a couple days ago. Sender said my website was good, but he had prepared a report and wanted me to book 15 minutes on his calendar to go over it.
There's no report. There may be by the time the call comes around, but there's no report when he emailed me. Don't lie to me. Don't waste my time. Don't clog up my inbox unless you actually have something to offer.

Now if you said "hey, here's the change you can make quick. If that works, let's book a call and we can discuss making other improvements to your site" then I'm more likely to actually read and respond. But it has to be tailored to me - the worst thing you can do is tell me to change something that isn't even on my website in the first place.
 

NewManRising

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free
/frē/

adverb
  1. 1.
    without cost or payment.
    "ladies were admitted free"
    synonyms: without charge, free of charge, for nothing, complimentary, gratis, gratuitous, at no cost;
I asked one of my highly respected mentors what he thought of that plan. Here is what he said;

View attachment 23243
Well, I know a few people who have gotten leads and referrals this way. The difference is, they took action and now have businesses making lots of cash. Meanwhile, you're a jackass not providing anyone any value but trolling them. Are you here to actually start a business or shoot people down that are trying?
 

NewManRising

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free
/frē/

adverb
  1. 1.
    without cost or payment.
    "ladies were admitted free"
    synonyms: without charge, free of charge, for nothing, complimentary, gratis, gratuitous, at no cost;
I asked one of my highly respected mentors what he thought of that plan. Here is what he said;

View attachment 23243
PS: and if you knew anything about sales, especially on a website or landing page, the biggest concern for a visitor is whether they can trust you. That is why you see testomonials or a portfolio. I guess you missed the lesson in sales about social proof and liking. What credibility does a person have if they have no work of happy client's to show for?
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Meanwhile, you're a jackass not providing anyone any value but trolling them. Are you here to actually start a business or shoot people down that are trying?

Correction: I'm a jackass that doesn't work for free. Hell, come to think of it, I don't even work cheap. Never felt the need. Never thought about it till now. I guess that's because I have a winner mindset and I expect to compete at the top levels of my business. I don't know what it's like to think I have to start out at the bottom. Oh well - thanks for the thought to ponder for a few moments...

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my website that will launch my third business right now. I have three hot prospects that have called me to do work for them just because they know me and know the level of work that I do. Oh, and I'm not going to be working for free for anyone - and I can guarantee you they will not expect me to.

That's my experience. But, in spite of that, I was young and inexperienced too. Like everyone. But I never considered that a disadvantage. I just worked harder to be better and to ramp up to speed quicker. No big deal. Everyone starts from the beginning. Some move up much faster than others though.

You might like knowing that my first business, which I launched when I was 25, paid me full fee right out of the gate. Knowledge - marketing - value. That's what I delivered, and that's what I was "gladly" paid for. Eventually over half my business came from referrals - all full price, btw. I also hold the record for "biggest payday" in one of my other business ventures. Eventually I will get close to that on the second one, as well. In time.

You could have learned something from my post. I could have given your more details here. But your immature jabs just short circuited that from happening. Too bad. That ol male ego causes so many problems... take a pill and on a scale of 1 to 10, try to surpass a 2 in any advice you offer next time.

You really hurt my feelings. Even jackasses have feelings too, you know...
 
Last edited:

Real Deal Denver

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Here's your help.

Oh, you sent me a mass email? Sorry, I must have missed that in the other 67 mass emails I get a day.

You want them to use you as a trusted adviser to market their business when you do such a wimpy job of marketing your own business to them? You better be a lot better than that. Do you expect them to say, "Sure - come on over and we'll be glad to write you a check?" You can't understand why they don't answer your email with a reply like that? Okay...

The people you will be talking to are very astute, and they have honed business skills that they've developed to not only survive, but to thrive. You better rise to that level with them, or they won't have the time of day for you.

Oh I love the business schemes people come up with. Build a website, send out 100 mass emails, and wait for the phone to ring. Um, just no. No.

And just so you know what help looks like, from someone very experienced in business, here it is.

The plan and concepts covered in that reply span miles, and years of experience. If you're astute enough to see them.

But you, and the OP, probably wanted their hand held with a A,B,C list of what to do to be successful. Google it. Maybe buy a book or two from Amazon Kindle (I have about 20 that I have not had time to read yet, but will). That's where all the wanna-be business people get their best information. LOL.

But don't do free. Ever notice how a lot of women will buy crap if it's on sale for 50% off? Hmmmm. Pay attention more. Nothing is worse than free. Unless you're at the rock bottom of the market and have 0 (ZERO) resources. A resource is defined as something - anything - you can say or show that indicates you have some value. Some. Value.
 
Last edited:

Bru

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update, so since I jumped in. I learned A LOT. Even though nothing of significance has even happened yet.

so far I've redesigned my website (it looks amazing right now), I Learned a lot more about SEO, I Set up a PayPal business account and learned how to send invoices and stuff with it, so if I get paid I won't have to worry about it.:cool: And last but not least, I've messaged and talked to a few people on Fiverr to figure out who will be doing my web design work, my SEO work, etc.

As for my current problem. Getting my first client. It feels like I'm tripping through the process. Here's what I've done so far to reach out to clients:
  • I created a LinkedIn, made it look appealing, and I tried "connecting" with the founders of business I found in my area that looked like they needed help with web design or were simply just not on the first page of google.
  • On the daily, I've been looking for businesses in my area that aren't on the first page of Google, & fit my client requirements (they have to earn a lot per customer I bring them, IE: roofing companies customers pay like $15k per roof, so doing SEO for them and bringing them an extra 10 or 20 customers a month can justify me charging a lot for my service) I built a little email list of businesses, and I've been sending out lots of emails.
I think that email strategy is working, I'm not sure. When I email these companies I send an email that looks like this:

"Hey, I was on your site after I looked up "chiropractor In Dallas" and I noticed that you weren't on the first page nor were you on the first-page google maps listings. This can be bad for your revenue, and simply put, it leaves a lot of money and customers on the table. There are, however, a few quick and easy ways to fix this, and I'd like to help! Instead of writing to you about the solution, I made you a short video.

In the video, I go over your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and your competitors SEO. Here are some of the competitors I talk about in the video:

Restoration Dallas Chiropractic | MaxLiving
Manning Wellness Holiday Drive to Benefit the Birthday Party Project
drericaperez.com/
www.modernbackandneckclinic.com/


It seems that this market is easy to tackle, as your competitors for "chiropractor in Dallas" are not yet doing SEO in the Dallas area. If you would like to see the video, reply to this email, I'll send it over.

Cheers,

(my contact information goes here)
"

The video I'm talking about sending would be a video where I go over their ranking on the search results page, show them how much traffic certain keywords are getting, and then I show them how much customers they could be bringing in if they ranked for said keyword. basically, I'm trying to show them the benefit of SEO, and I'm also giving them some tips.

The reason I'm not sending the video in the first email is to make sure that I only send videos and spend the time making them to the people that are actually interested. This saves me time (my most valuable asset) as opposed to making and sending videos to every email I find.

The problem With the system I have has been the response rate. currently, it Is zero. No noise on LinkedIn, and absolutely zero responses to my emails. I've sent out about 35 emails so far:
oEF4BP0.png

maybe I just need to send more. But as you can see, I've sent a follow-up email to a couple, it's been around 1 week since I first approached those, and now I'm waiting for a few more business days before I send follow up emails to the rest.

I think I had unrealistic expectations, If I'm being honest, Despite what people say about cold emails and cold calling, I was expecting the first 11 or so emails to find someone interested and secure a paying client in 1 weeks time, but that's not the case. I'm hoping this is a game of patience and consistency, So I'm going to continue sending emails, but I might tweak my email a little, make it sound better.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!
Hi, good seing you re working toward your goal. Keep the motivation!!

Consider chiropractors are not necessary always behind their computer, maybe calling them directly would be more efficient.
Try running a really quick SEO audit of their website (there are free tools online to quickly assess: page speed, meta description, titles, keywords...) . It can actually take 20 to 30min to spot a few improvement areas.
Tell them they can really get more visits to their site (try to identify a range, « between 150 and 300 visits a month ») and that with a bit of optimization they could easily get 3 to 5more patients a month. This would make the benefit more concret for them.
All the best
 
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seckram

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Hey, after reading your post I think it's time to start my own SMMA company. Your post is really great and a value bomb. Just wanted to ask if you would do your business targeting local businesses or you would do internationally. Taking into account that I live in Spain.
 

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Hi Sean, thank you for the great post that was really helpful!

During the early stages of your Digital Marketing Agency I was wondering how you were able to make enough money from each project and still pay someone else do to the actual work?

A problem I am experiencing right now(at my own digital marketing agency), is that after hiring a web developer or social media manager to do the actual work, I am left with little in the form of profits.

Thank you!

T
 
Last edited:

Sean Marshall

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I'm wondering what makes free value makes people strangers to prospects?

Anything that makes their lives easier or shows them how to make more money, easier. Period. Make it a no-brainer for them.
 
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Sean Marshall

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Got a website up. Been watching a few SEO videos. Basically went through some keyword research exercises, technical SEO, and moving onto on-page SEO. I am having a few frustrations though.

Just start selling. The answers to all of these questions will take care of themselves as you speak with real business owners. Make a sale and you'll get it all sorted fast.
 

Sean Marshall

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The reason I'm not sending the video in the first email is to make sure that I only send videos and spend the time making them to the people that are actually interested.

If email is your only source of new leads, you're going to be exactly like the millions of other agencies (especially those based in India).

Business owners delete these. I know. My clients tell me. I even get them!

Provide value right out of the gate.

Side note - chiropractors are not worth it. Too much competition. I've already shared a lot of other industries in this thread that are worth your time.
 

Sean Marshall

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Just wanted to ask if you would do your business targeting local businesses or you would do internationally.

Both! In Spain, you'll have to evaluate if they:

1. See the need to market their business online
2. Have the budget to do so

Everything depends on that.
 
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Sean Marshall

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Hi Sean, thank you for the great post that was really helpful!

During the early stages of your Digital Marketing Agency I was wondering how you were able to make enough money from each project and still pay someone else do to the actual work?

A problem I am experiencing right now(at my own digital marketing agency), is that after hiring a web developer or social media manager to do the actual work, I am left with little in the form of profits

Increase your prices and/or find more affordable contractors. My entire team is in the Philippines. Very cost effective.
 

Andy Black

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Just start selling. The answers to all of these questions will take care of themselves as you speak with real business owners. Make a sale and you'll get it all sorted fast.
Amen. There should be a bot posting this at random throughout the forum.

@ZCP
 

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If email is your only source of new leads, you're going to be exactly like the millions of other agencies (especially those based in India).

Business owners delete these. I know. My clients tell me. I even get them!

Provide value right out of the gate.
...unless you email a lead of course. But then that’s providing value right out of the gate.
 
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NewManRising

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Yeah, I plan to collect leads by office walk-ins, organic traffic to my website (which could take awhile), and maybe even sending a postcard/flyer through the mail. A niche I was interested in has a few local businesses. I just have to come up with a great offer and USP. As of right now I don't think my offer is strong enough.
 

Twiizlar

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Congrats on your success, you obviously know what you're doing in terms of sales.

After taking a look at Homepage - Social Rocketship , let me know if you need help. Your seem to be missing very basic SEO, not a good look for someone who sells SEO.

I'm only being snarky because companies like this plague the industry and give us SEOs a bad name. You might be able to fool a couple clients but this isn't sustainable.

Good luck selling your course though, i'm sure people will eat it up ;)
 

ExaltedLife

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Hey @Sean Marshall,

Thanks for this thread, it's great. Do you ever get feedback from your customers where they say things like, "Wow, thank you so much, this is awesome!" Are they usually very happy with what your company does for them?
 
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Bru

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Hi @Sean Marshall
I m starting to have some volume of work and will start to scale by hiring a team of freelancers.
By any chance, would you mind to communicate how you did to build your team? Where and how you approach them?

One challenge from my side is that I ll probably need also French speaking team members as a big part of my customers and market is speaking French.

Thanks in advance
All the best
 

Timothy Bryce

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Increase your prices and/or find more affordable contractors. My entire team is in the Philippines. Very cost effective.

Thanks a lot Sean!

I was also wondering how you justify your prices to clients?

My experience has been that with a commodity type business like web design or digital marketing, I am often undercut on price by competitors.

How are you able to get around this and charge larger fees?

Thank you!
 

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