I've spent a long time turning over a bunch of business ideas, and in previous threads I got told the obvious thing, and rightly so: I'm scattered. So I've taken MJ's advice literally —pick one thing you can do well and focus— and the chosen thing is web design with vibe coding
In the background I can also offer apps, software and digital products (all via vibe coding / AI), but I'm leaving that as experimental: the learning curve is steeper and I haven't gauged my real capacity there yet. With websites I've got it crystal clear. I've experimented plenty, I move well, and I know exactly what I can deliver. So the focus is web, which is also the most realistic option and what ordinary people with a business actually demand.
Traction so far (word of mouth with my contacts only): I've already closed three clients.
1. An architect. Very basic site (landing + project photos + contact), €300. Already paid half.
2. A friend with a YouTube channel setting himself up as a coach. Two-page site, €500. ~90% convinced, just pending the content details.
3. Another friend who wants to become a coach and, on top of the site, has commissioned a book telling his story (ghostwriting) to sell on the site itself. Web + book package, €1,500, still negotiating because he's tight on money.
I'll clarify the pricing because it looks inconsistent: my anchor rate is €1,000 per site. The first two came out cheaper on purpose: they're contacts and, above all, they're my first portfolio cases. I build them fast with vibe coding (I don't tell the client this — I give them a timeline of days and take my time, because delivering "in two hours" destroys the perceived value). The real work is in the design that fits each client and the copy that sells; everything else is details.
The acquisition plan I want to validate:
Moving from word of mouth to active promotion, and doing it on foot, door-to-door, in the physical world. The idea is to drop off an A4 sheet at every local business/shop (costs me ~€0.05 to print) with a short pitch, who I am, a link and a QR to my site and my contact. A flyer variant (an A4 cut into four) to leave in stacks on shop counters and bar tops, plus posters on the notice boards of supermarkets and shops. Years ago I promoted metal concerts exactly this way, and it worked.
Why physical and not online: I already ran this exact experiment job-hunting. I handed out hundreds of CVs in person (~300/week, pounding the streets several days a week) and got ~20 interviews. The digital version (hunting down emails/WhatsApp one by one and writing to them) is painfully slow, tedious, and reads as spam. In person it's like firing a machine gun: I go street by street, business by business, drop the paper —under the door if they're closed—, cross it off and move on. Zero friction beyond walking. I'm 35 and in shape, so that's not a problem.
On market volume: my town is mid-sized (~30,000 people), with maybe ~1,000 businesses with a physical premises in total. But the big city half an hour away by bus (~245,000 people) is a goldmine: in hospitality alone I counted ~1,500 venues, and adding retail, accountants, insurers, clinics, lawyers, etc. we're talking several thousand. More than enough material for mass campaigns. I'd start with what's close (MJ's advice: focus) and then expand.
My reasoning with the numbers (and this is where I want you to give it to me straight): if the conversion rate were similar to the CVs (~2–5%), handing out hundreds of sheets over two weeks could land me 3–5 clients at ~€500 each, and that already covers my month. With vibe coding I deliver a site in 1–2 hours, so the €/hour ratio is absurd; capacity isn't the bottleneck (I can very easily handle 3–5 sites a day), the bottleneck is getting the clients.
Where I doubt my own reasoning: the CV↔flyer analogy is shaky. A CV is received by someone who might already be hiring; the web flyer is received by someone who that day isn't thinking about their website. It could convert just as well or better (the need for a website is less saturated than the need for staff, and many have no site or a terrible one), but it could also convert worse, because there's no prior intent. That's why I'm framing it as a hypothesis to validate with a small first batch, not as a given.
Urgency context (because it changes the kind of advice I need): I want both — medium-term brand and fast acquisition — but right now the urgent one is the latter. I'm coming off closing an online sales business that hit its ceiling, off two months job-hunting with nothing decent (all slowlane: split shifts, garbage pay, relocating to another city just to not make ends meet), and I'm financially on the edge: ~€70 saved + €365 coming in at month's end, and that's it. I live at my family's place (rent, food, utilities covered), but I have ~€250–300/month in unavoidable fixed costs: my cat, my self-employment contribution (€90, tied to a grant I'd have to pay back if I deregister), payments to an accountant and to the tax office, and the gym (health, non-negotiable). In short: I need this to start generating cash now, even at modest prices. Better to start with something than to stay put.
My specific questions:
1. Do you think door-to-door physical acquisition makes sense for selling web design, or am I over-projecting the success I had with CVs?
2. What would you put (and NOT put) on that sheet/flyer to maximize conversion? I plan to put real care into the design of the paper itself, precisely so it's a demonstration of what I'm selling.
3. Given the cash urgency, what fast channels would you add in parallel without scattering me too much?
4. With a €1,000 anchor rate, how would you approach positioning/pricing so I'm not competing on price from the start?
Any honest criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance.
In the background I can also offer apps, software and digital products (all via vibe coding / AI), but I'm leaving that as experimental: the learning curve is steeper and I haven't gauged my real capacity there yet. With websites I've got it crystal clear. I've experimented plenty, I move well, and I know exactly what I can deliver. So the focus is web, which is also the most realistic option and what ordinary people with a business actually demand.
Traction so far (word of mouth with my contacts only): I've already closed three clients.
1. An architect. Very basic site (landing + project photos + contact), €300. Already paid half.
2. A friend with a YouTube channel setting himself up as a coach. Two-page site, €500. ~90% convinced, just pending the content details.
3. Another friend who wants to become a coach and, on top of the site, has commissioned a book telling his story (ghostwriting) to sell on the site itself. Web + book package, €1,500, still negotiating because he's tight on money.
I'll clarify the pricing because it looks inconsistent: my anchor rate is €1,000 per site. The first two came out cheaper on purpose: they're contacts and, above all, they're my first portfolio cases. I build them fast with vibe coding (I don't tell the client this — I give them a timeline of days and take my time, because delivering "in two hours" destroys the perceived value). The real work is in the design that fits each client and the copy that sells; everything else is details.
The acquisition plan I want to validate:
Moving from word of mouth to active promotion, and doing it on foot, door-to-door, in the physical world. The idea is to drop off an A4 sheet at every local business/shop (costs me ~€0.05 to print) with a short pitch, who I am, a link and a QR to my site and my contact. A flyer variant (an A4 cut into four) to leave in stacks on shop counters and bar tops, plus posters on the notice boards of supermarkets and shops. Years ago I promoted metal concerts exactly this way, and it worked.
Why physical and not online: I already ran this exact experiment job-hunting. I handed out hundreds of CVs in person (~300/week, pounding the streets several days a week) and got ~20 interviews. The digital version (hunting down emails/WhatsApp one by one and writing to them) is painfully slow, tedious, and reads as spam. In person it's like firing a machine gun: I go street by street, business by business, drop the paper —under the door if they're closed—, cross it off and move on. Zero friction beyond walking. I'm 35 and in shape, so that's not a problem.
On market volume: my town is mid-sized (~30,000 people), with maybe ~1,000 businesses with a physical premises in total. But the big city half an hour away by bus (~245,000 people) is a goldmine: in hospitality alone I counted ~1,500 venues, and adding retail, accountants, insurers, clinics, lawyers, etc. we're talking several thousand. More than enough material for mass campaigns. I'd start with what's close (MJ's advice: focus) and then expand.
My reasoning with the numbers (and this is where I want you to give it to me straight): if the conversion rate were similar to the CVs (~2–5%), handing out hundreds of sheets over two weeks could land me 3–5 clients at ~€500 each, and that already covers my month. With vibe coding I deliver a site in 1–2 hours, so the €/hour ratio is absurd; capacity isn't the bottleneck (I can very easily handle 3–5 sites a day), the bottleneck is getting the clients.
Where I doubt my own reasoning: the CV↔flyer analogy is shaky. A CV is received by someone who might already be hiring; the web flyer is received by someone who that day isn't thinking about their website. It could convert just as well or better (the need for a website is less saturated than the need for staff, and many have no site or a terrible one), but it could also convert worse, because there's no prior intent. That's why I'm framing it as a hypothesis to validate with a small first batch, not as a given.
Urgency context (because it changes the kind of advice I need): I want both — medium-term brand and fast acquisition — but right now the urgent one is the latter. I'm coming off closing an online sales business that hit its ceiling, off two months job-hunting with nothing decent (all slowlane: split shifts, garbage pay, relocating to another city just to not make ends meet), and I'm financially on the edge: ~€70 saved + €365 coming in at month's end, and that's it. I live at my family's place (rent, food, utilities covered), but I have ~€250–300/month in unavoidable fixed costs: my cat, my self-employment contribution (€90, tied to a grant I'd have to pay back if I deregister), payments to an accountant and to the tax office, and the gym (health, non-negotiable). In short: I need this to start generating cash now, even at modest prices. Better to start with something than to stay put.
My specific questions:
1. Do you think door-to-door physical acquisition makes sense for selling web design, or am I over-projecting the success I had with CVs?
2. What would you put (and NOT put) on that sheet/flyer to maximize conversion? I plan to put real care into the design of the paper itself, precisely so it's a demonstration of what I'm selling.
3. Given the cash urgency, what fast channels would you add in parallel without scattering me too much?
4. With a €1,000 anchor rate, how would you approach positioning/pricing so I'm not competing on price from the start?
Any honest criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance.
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