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Exiting the cubicle farm and taking Web-Design full time

Robdavis

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Just got off the phone with a shop owner, didn't bat an eye at 4,200$ + hosting/retainer fee for me.
That's over a month's worth of dayjob pay for me even after tax withholding.

Other news: minor ghosting, including ghosting from the guy I closed back in december but he seems ready to move. Have other people lining up in my calendar that want to start work soon.

Was at my job today with a signed resignation but saw the "YoU DOn'T HavE to be a FReELanCeR" thread where even Lex D was railing against freelancing and got depressed... pussied out. I have been good at inventing hypochondria symptoms too but maybe I just didn't feel ready... maybe I should've just had more faith in myself. Going to see how much I can do on my current projects, currently trying to oversubscribe to contracts on my plate to force myself to quit.

All this took a long damn time and I thought about either giving up or kidnapping Fox to make him refund my course fee over these past two years but the most important lesson I wasn't getting until now was to never give up.
Sounds like you are making fantastic progress. This is a very inspirational thread.
 
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Andy Black

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Was at my job today with a signed resignation but saw the "YoU DOn'T HavE to be a FReELanCeR" thread where even Lex D was railing against freelancing and got depressed... pussied out. I have been good at inventing hypochondria symptoms too but maybe I just didn't feel ready... maybe I should've just had more faith in myself. Going to see how much I can do on my current projects, currently trying to oversubscribe to contracts on my plate to force myself to quit.

All this took a long damn time and I thought about either giving up or kidnapping Fox to make him refund my course fee over these past two years but the most important lesson I wasn't getting until now was to never give up.
I think the lesson from that thread is to back yourself and create your own path.
 

RicardoGrande

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Ugh, have these three proposals out right now that would replace 3 months of day job pay and I want to work on. After speaking with each of the owners these past two weeks, agreeing to a project/price and challenging them repeatedly "Okay, and you acknowledge that the budget will be x because you wanted y?" or "Okay, so we just wrapped up on this call, from 1 - 10 how secure are you in the knowledge that I will be able to deliver and from 1-10 how ready are you ready to get the proposal/invoice and start?" and getting 9s/10s... but here I am waiting days/weeks later.

The vanishing projects!

Luckily, this seems to be incredibly common, watching some sales training videos this morning I expanded my horizon that it's not "just" the initial prospecting and sales call... the fight isn't over until the whole project fee is sitting in the bank. I also learned that if I have any problems, the problem stemmed from the root- which was me, essentially there's a good chance I'm running defense for the prospect for them and not coming in with the authority and business attitude I need to.. Thinking seriously on dropping some dosh on sales training from Benjamin Dennehy. I don't think buying more courses is the answer and I've read "you can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar" but his free content has treated me very well. Ben's a heavy hitter when it comes to prospecting and running sales meetings and his students seem to get great results. I don't want to be out more than I have to be but I also know I need to SECURE and get at least 3 projects going before quitting to do this full time- especially if all these "warm leads" I've dug up may end up either ghosting before or after a sales call and a "close".

Once I can get to industry/networking events when I have my time back, things should get easier. If I can get to the point where 70% of web design agencies get where they can operate solely off of referrals... I'll be in heaven. Until then I'm still fighting it looks.
Wish me luck.

@Fox Any thoughts? These are people that confirmed a project and a close on the call and seemingly vanished into thin air.
 
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RicardoGrande

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Haven't given up- I will never give up, but it's been a rough past 6 weeks.
One project did come back and I locked down a month's worth of dayjob wages and I'm PRAYING he will give me large commercial referrals. Have more warm leads from earlier cold calls but with my experience so far I feel like most of these "warm" leads are just piss in the wind because I call and they start sh!tting out excuses to why they can't have a project anymore. Ran out of people to call using my prospecting as well so I switched to cold e-mail and working through that.

Honestly feel like hell, I pushed myself to the limits making almost three thousand cold calls in the past half year and had a pretty bad health scare that culminated in a specialist telling me I'd need to go for a looong MRI if my symptoms got any worse. Most of the last month was peeling back the intensity, working smart, and being mindful and meditating and taking more time for myself and hobbies like hiking.

Got to go to BNI and I feel that BNI will probably have to be my saving grace once I take this full time. Met some great business owners and they like me but can't go until I quit my dayjob. Feeling really bitter as of late given that I've put two years of my life into webdesign and I feel like I've only gotten piss in my face when I saw another TFF member start WD this February, have everyone on the forum popping into his thread and offering encouragement, and all of a sudden he's getting bukkake'd with five-figure projects.
I've struggled and stressed to try and figure out why I haven't seem the same level of success, to me it keeps coming back to the limitations of working around my dayjob- I will not give up, but I will not throw a paycheck away until I lock down solid projects and can expect referrals and to make a living despite record inflation and the threat of an economic crash.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk /s- I know there's a light at the end of the sh!t tunnel but damn I don't know when these tribulations will end.
 
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Isaac Odongo

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Most of the last month was peeling back the intensity, working smart, and being mindful and meditating and taking more time for myself and hobbies like hiking.
Oh!

Thanks for the rant and health changes. Better to be alive and young and strong. That way we keep working.

There is a calm and peaceful atmosphere after e every storm.

Congz for the effort man.

Guys will come to help you out.

~Isaac~
 

Choate

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Ugh, have these three proposals out right now that would replace 3 months of day job pay and I want to work on. After speaking with each of the owners these past two weeks, agreeing to a project/price and challenging them repeatedly "Okay, and you acknowledge that the budget will be x because you wanted y?" or "Okay, so we just wrapped up on this call, from 1 - 10 how secure are you in the knowledge that I will be able to deliver and from 1-10 how ready are you ready to get the proposal/invoice and start?" and getting 9s/10s... but here I am waiting days/weeks later.

What kind of questions are these? Not only are they too blunt, but I can't see these fitting into the sales process. Your questions should be about discovering problems. Especially the question asking the client if they think you will deliver... that's just detracting overall.

Got to go to BNI and I feel that BNI will probably have to be my saving grace once I take this full time. Met some great business owners and they like me but can't go until I quit my dayjob. Feeling really bitter as of late given that I've put two years of my life into webdesign and I feel like I've only gotten piss in my face when I saw another TFF member start WD this February, have everyone on the forum popping into his thread and offering encouragement, and all of a sudden he's getting bukkake'd with five-figure projects.

A whole two years? Did you know you are up against guys who have been on WordPress for 10-15 years and in website development longer than that? The market doesn't care about them and it doesn't care about you either. And it certainly doesn't care that other forum members getting 'bukkake'd with work'. Focus on you and solving problems.

The market also doesn't care that you want to replace your work income with these big projects.

Couple issues I see here:

1) Mindset

2) Sales channel - I was in a web developer hour long lunch chat two weeks ago with a lot of agency owners and one guy who was particularly prominent was getting asked a lot of questions. He was against cold calling. He puts himself out there as much as possible but doesn't cold call. I think you need to be where your customers are already looking, and more often than not that's not going to be over the phone.

3) Sales process - Have you been in a sales development role before? It's nuanced and pounding out 100 calls a day doesn't mean a thing if you aren't refining your process in the right direction.

What's your personal website?
 

RicardoGrande

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Oh!

Thanks for the rant and health changes. Better to be alive and young and strong. That way we keep working.

There is a calm and peaceful atmosphere after e every storm.

Congz for the effort man.

Guys will come to help you out.

~Isaac~
Appreciate it Isaac, I wanted this thread to show every last bit of the WD journey, because most of the threads you may find either start from the "successful" point or gloss over the pain.


What kind of questions are these? Not only are they too blunt, but I can't see these fitting into the sales process. Your questions should be about discovering problems. Especially the question asking the client if they think you will deliver... that's just detracting overall.



A whole two years? Did you know you are up against guys who have been on WordPress for 10-15 years and in website development longer than that? The market doesn't care about them and it doesn't care about you either. And it certainly doesn't care that other forum members getting 'bukkake'd with work'. Focus on you and solving problems.

The market also doesn't care that you want to replace your work income with these big projects.

Couple issues I see here:

1) Mindset

2) Sales channel - I was in a web developer hour long lunch chat two weeks ago with a lot of agency owners and one guy who was particularly prominent was getting asked a lot of questions. He was against cold calling. He puts himself out there as much as possible but doesn't cold call. I think you need to be where your customers are already looking, and more often than not that's not going to be over the phone.

3) Sales process - Have you been in a sales development role before? It's nuanced and pounding out 100 calls a day doesn't mean a thing if you aren't refining your process in the right direction.

What's your personal website?
Hey man, thanks for coming in and lighting me up (serious).

The questions - those were after the main sales process. Being interrogated isn't fun for anyone, I needed something brief to type out into the update- as you could understand.

Time - I'm not worried, I see people here or on FWS that literally just start out reach and fall into profitable projects. I'm targeting small-mid size commercial and service business who either have no sites or old and bad ones so I know the pain is there.
Market doesn't care- hahaha I'm well aware which is why I invested in sales training, more on that later.

Mindset- Yes, I'm actually 10x better than I used to be but getting No's, "rejections" or ghostings still takes it toll because I hold myself to the standards I see on TFF or in the FWS group. Feeling good or bad or something is create and I know I'm asking bad questions that create a toxic mindset, but when I see a guy slinging HTML templates for 5k that's only been doing outreach for 3-4 months it stings like hell.

Sales Channel- You're right, I'm not an agency though, just one man running this from a desk in the 3-4 hours I can squeeze around dayjob shifts. IMO cold calling was the best path to take as now gives a damn about "web designers", CC is my way to put myself in FRONT of them and roll the dice on showing them their pain and having a chance to win a project. Cold calling gave me my current five-figure clients and I would have NEVER gotten them if I never picked up the phone to begin with.
Looking at a "sales engine" over time, The Admin Bar on facebook does a yearly survey and over 85% of the agency owners in their report that referrals are their #1 lead source. From that and talking to the business owners I cold call, working the grind, eating sh!t, and getting over the hump seems to be the best way to graduate into making a living and winning profitable projects when you're small and striking out.
I'm aware of other techniques but what I've done so far appeared to be the best way with my limited time. I've also been putting into networking and cold e-mail like @GuitarManDan and @GoodluckChuck have detailed in their progress threads and on the TFF group

Sales process- No, never at all haha. I ran into another FWS student who lost his job during corona and worked into 8k+ months from ground zero using HTML templates during corona and picked up the phone after talking to him. I made about 1k calls before I found the UKs most hated sales trainer Benjamin Dennehy and even bought a telephone prospecting bootcamp (based on the sandler training system) to learn how to betray expectations, earn the time to pitch, highlight pain and work to move to a sales call. The calling hasn't been bad, I think my average is 100/10/3 for calls/"interested"/sales calls but I keep having to put off work because most of my time each week is taken by my dayjob. By the time I can get around to the "warm" prospects, they've either forgotten, moved on, or make up excuses and "promise" they'll have work if I call at an uncertain point in the future (most likely a lie per Benjamin Dennehy"

A lot of what I've posted is just pent up frustration and that's my fault, still surprised at the total amount of effort and the seeming lack of results. I have about 40 warm business owners to reach back out to over the coming half year so I shouldn't write anything off yet, but since I'm not over that "hump" and being fed referrals, I feel that I'm at a standstill.
 
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Choate

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Ok, regarding cold calling, maybe the best example I can share is this:

When I was 22 and fresh out of college, I joined a insurtech agency and we were licensed to sell a variety of car and home insurance, like Progressive or Travelers.

Let's say there's 100 people on our sales floor and each one has an autodialer that dials leads who at least filled out a form on some bullshit lead gen site trying to find insurance quotes. You might autodial 100 or 150 people per day depending on how many just don't answer at all. We're expected to close 1-2 new policies per day. You hit bonus territory after you've closed 45 policies for the month.

How many people out of 100 do you think actually hit bonus? And of those that hit it, how many actually make something that isn't negligible?

Answer: not a lot. Maybe half of the people hit about 45-50 policies, which might mean $100-$300 in bonuses. 10-20 people might hit 50+ policies. 5-10 people might hit 55+ or 60+, with one or two outliers getting even higher - so anywhere from $2k to $5k in bonuses.

100 people just like you, dialing the phone 100 times per day, following a proven questions-based sales script selling a product that people need, to semi-warm leads, with the latest in insurance tech to be able to quote, sell, and close a policy within a 15 minute phone convo.

Yet half of the floor couldn't even sell enough policies to put bonus money on the table, or couldn't care to.

If you look at your current sales process and where you are now, do you think you'd be someone selling 60 policies per month? 50? Would you even hit the minimum of ~40?

Cold calling is so nuanced that what I'm trying to say is that without significant experience and an actual mentor, you have to be your own critic. You probably shouldn't record your phone calls due to most states being two-party consent, but you can at least record yourself talking, and you should, and listen to it after. Create a script, refine it, stick to it, veer from it, break it, rip it up, and try again with a new one. Record everything.

Because at the end of the day, this isn't a thread that's even remotely about web design. It's about cold calling. It doesn't matter what you are selling.

Just remember that cold calling is a hustle and doesn't actually build brand value (and often has negative value associated with it). You can refine the process all you want and you'll carry that skill for life. That's great. But you should also work on a way to create inbound leads - website, blog, SEO, whatever. An asset, because not only will that bring in inbound leads but you can share it with your oubound leads. Maybe it's long term. But no one wants to cold call forever, and there isn't a magical pot o' referrals at the end of the rainbow once you hit 50,000 cold calls or 100,000 cold calls.
 

RicardoGrande

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Alright, pretty hectic last two months and had surprises at work and something personal I'm getting worked out.

Good things:
- Two clients came back out of nowhere, worked on and finished the 2k$ site, the owner offered to pay more if he needed changes down the line and promised to refer me to his contacts. He does a specialized service that works with a LOT of good commercial/B2B businesses so hoping this comes through. Working with the second client (mid 5 figure project) to figure out a time I can go on site and interview the owner more and do photography.
- Went to local BNI meetup, seems to be a good field (noticed they need a lawn service guy and tempted to just buy a van and mowers and just do that lol). Also got in contact with someone who's shaping up to be a mentor which is great.
- Followed up with one warmish lead who actually made time at 6pm to get on a call with me, asked for a proposal and when I gave a rough quote around 5.5k they didn't bat an eye. It'll be a lot of work and I'll push myself to the limits but having 5.5k is better than not. Waiting to hear back- not holding my breath but it'd be a nice end to my May.
- Re-aligned my brand to a new business name that doesn't sound like basic b!tch SMMA and got everything set up.

Rough things:
- Still working through mindset, I think I've honestly had a few panic attacks over the last 8-10 months and I see other people that quit their jobs to do this blow by me- but now I can successfully turn my focus around, realize where I stand and that everything is possible, and keep trucking
- Finally paid someone to gather leads in the verticals I like with the specifications I require. Squeezing out 5-6 cold e-mails a morning and trying to find time to call the owners since I have their direct number. This one scares me a lot and unlike my blind cold calls with my old method hearing a "no" feels like a blow. Only about 65 contacts out so far with only one e-mail reply which was a no haha
- I know I was complaining about the recession doom and gloom back in 2021 but the reality of this recession is hitting and a lot of warmish leads that ask for call backs will get my follow up call and try to find a way to push it off or tell me they're not interested (this is normal according to sales trainers). This could mostly be on me for not having a good follow up script- I need to figure out the line between being helpful and commanding respect and just being a pushy salesman.

Overall, in a better place and got into the multi-thousand dollar project range and I can point to past work for like industries to clients now. The only thing I need to do is keep up with outreach and build momentum and referrals.

Never give up.
 
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2legit2quit

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Alright, pretty hectic last two months and had surprises at work and something personal I'm getting worked out.

Good things:
- Two clients came back out of nowhere, worked on and closed on the roughly 2k$ site, the owner offered to pay more if he needed changes down the line and promised to refer me to his contacts. He does a specialized service that works with a LOT of good commercial/B2B businesses so hoping this comes through. Working with the second client (mid 5 figure project) to figure out a time I can go on site and interview the owner more and do photography.
- Went to local BNI meetup, seems to be a good field (noticed they need a lawn service guy and tempted to just buy a van and mowers and just do that lol). Also got in contact with someone who's shaping up to be a mentor which is great.
- Followed up with one warmish lead who actually made time at 6pm to get on a call with me, asked for a proposal and when I gave a rough quote around 5.5k they didn't bat an eye. It'll be a lot of work and I'll push myself to the limits but having 5.5k is better than not. Waiting to hear back- not holding my breath but it'd be a nice end to my May.
- Re-aligned my brand to a new business name that doesn't sound like basic b!tch SMMA and got everything set up.

Rough things:
- Still working through mindset, I think I've honestly had a few panic attacks over the last 8-10 months and I see other people that quit their jobs to do this blow by me- but now I can successfully turn my focus around, realize where I stand and that everything is possible, and keep trucking
- Finally paid someone to gather leads in the verticals I like with the specifications I require. Squeezing out 5-6 cold e-mails a morning and trying to find time to call the owners since I have their direct number. This one scares me a lot and unlike my blind cold calls with my old method hearing a "no" feels like a blow. Only about 65 contacts out so far with only one e-mail reply which was a no haha
- I know I was complaining about the recession doom and gloom back in 2021 but a lot of warmish leads that ask for call backs will get my follow up call and try to find a way to push it off or tell me they're not interested (this is normal according to sales trainers). This could mostly be on me for not having a good follow up script- I need to figure out the line between being helpful and commanding respect and just being a pushy salesman.

Overall, in a better place and got into the multi-thousand dollar project range and I can point to past work for like industries to clients now. The only thing I need to do is keep up with outreach and build momentum and referrals.

Never give up.
i gotta agree with Choate's post on here.

make sure you take care of your mental health man, that is not a joke. im not sure which country you live in - but if its a western country, i think you are overthinking your day job. you already don't like it, theres a million other day jobs out there and sounds like your quite experienced to leave and get another day job if you needed it.

i think you have come very far (im nowhere near your stage), but may i offer some suggestion?

change your approach. it seems like you are approaching from 'i need the client'. what if you approach it from 'the client needs me for the value i can provide them'.

another thing, is that, what sort of hobbies do you have? are there any meetups related to that? because if you carry a business card with you, i think you'd get much farther with meeting people organically and telling them what you do.

think of it this way, if you approach 1000 women on facebook, maybe youll get 4 replies (cold calling). if you approach 1000 women in person, you'll get maybe 100 numbers, and 10 actual dates.

im not saying cold calling does not work, but it does not allow people to know who you are be personable.

people trust, who they know. for a business owner to trust you to make their website, it may help if you know them a little more than through a random cold call.

meetups are one way, but theres probably better ways as well of marketing yourself and services.
 
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Just got off the phone with a shop owner, didn't bat an eye at 4,200$ + hosting/retainer fee for me.
That's over a month's worth of dayjob pay for me even after tax withholding.

Other news: minor ghosting, including ghosting from the guy I closed back in december but he seems ready to move. Have other people lining up in my calendar that want to start work soon.

Was at my job today with a signed resignation but saw the "YoU DOn'T HavE to be a FReELanCeR" thread where even Lex D was railing against freelancing and got depressed... pussied out. I have been good at inventing hypochondria symptoms too but maybe I just didn't feel ready... maybe I should've just had more faith in myself. Going to see how much I can do on my current projects, currently trying to oversubscribe to contracts on my plate to force myself to quit.

All this took a long damn time and I thought about either giving up or kidnapping Fox to make him refund my course fee over these past two years but the most important lesson I wasn't getting until now was to never give up.
Haha, I just read your journey start to finish. Very inspiring. Thank you so much for documenting all of this. It was very, very inspiring.
 

RicardoGrande

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Haha, I just read your journey start to finish. Very inspiring. Thank you so much for documenting all of this. It was very, very inspiring.
Your welcome man. @BizyDad just mentioned in another post this morning that a lot of threads make it look like "One day I just started doing x and 3 months later I'm now a millionaire/self employed/Andrew Tate", but we don't see many threads showing the whole process with ups and lows.

I knew from the start it'd be a tough fight, especially having a job to work around (just lost a prospect this morning to someone else who called them up, they had wanted to work with me in January but I forgot to follow up b/c of work) and wanted to document everything. I've been punched in the gut, humiliated, and experienced loss but I knew why I kept on track. When you stay consistent and keep improving by even 1%, you can get through the mud and get to the point Fox and Dan call "going vertical".
 

charlemagne

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Your welcome man. @BizyDad just mentioned in another post this morning that a lot of threads make it look like "One day I just started doing x and 3 months later I'm now a millionaire/self employed/Andrew Tate", but we don't see many threads showing the whole process with ups and lows.

I knew from the start it'd be a tough fight, especially having a job to work around (just lost a prospect this morning to someone else who called them up, they had wanted to work with me in January but I forgot to follow up b/c of work) and wanted to document everything. I've been punched in the gut, humiliated, and experienced loss but I knew why I kept on track. When you stay consistent and keep improving by even 1%, you can get through the mud and get to the point Fox and Dan call "going vertical".
Very true. I am just starting out in webdesign, as a relative is offering me pay to learn to make a website for them (great start gig, I at very least get paid to learn web design). I want to be in the industry mostly to learn sales and because I already like design. My goals are as follows: get comfortable selling, learn what creates value for a business, get good at running ads facebook/google, and be able to make killer sites. All said, I see it as a stepping stone to acquiring skills.

Luckily I live in an affluent ski-resort town so there are tons of mom and pop businesses with crap sites. I am fairly confident I can take the skills I learn (with this relative) and quickly build out some websites to help the people in my town get more conversions. It is kind of sad to see how far behind they are, and that is why they are getting pushed out by the big corporations moving in and attracting tourists.

All in all. Way to put your nose to the grindstone. If you are O.K with it I will pm you when I get stuck.

Cheers,
 

13retonnian

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Your welcome man. @BizyDad just mentioned in another post this morning that a lot of threads make it look like "One day I just started doing x and 3 months later I'm now a millionaire/self employed/Andrew Tate", but we don't see many threads showing the whole process with ups and lows.

I knew from the start it'd be a tough fight, especially having a job to work around (just lost a prospect this morning to someone else who called them up, they had wanted to work with me in January but I forgot to follow up b/c of work) and wanted to document everything. I've been punched in the gut, humiliated, and experienced loss but I knew why I kept on track. When you stay consistent and keep improving by even 1%, you can get through the mud and get to the point Fox and Dan call "going vertical".
Hey I've just begun marketing and your story is inspiring and informative thanks for sharing!
 

RicardoGrande

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Yep
Still in the desert of desertion.

I """have""" proposals out for two big projects that the client agreed to and asked for proposals and invoices on... nothing back yet, have the oddest feeling they're dodging my calls- been about a month since each sales call.
The only one that isn't like this yet is a local electrician that spoke with me last Friday and got his proposal on Tuesday- again I'm expecting nothing but it would be nice to have a project.

Have a couple who wanted follow ups but missed their sales call appointments, then when I follow up it becomes "oh uhhhhh I'm kinda busy but I'll have your information I'll totally reach out to you when I'm ready." which I'm fully aware is a quasi-death knell. For the other follow ups, haven't been able to get a hold.

Fighting this, got someone handling initial target finding for me. I'm at a much more difficult point now because I called the "easy", smaller businesses where I go through to the owners in my area, and now it's up to calling medium businesses and gatekeeper busting. Had a lady SCREAM at me over the phone like I was trying to skin her kids alive for trying to talk to the owner of a local 25 person business on Wednesday- ouch.

Highlights:
Health coach client came back out of nowhere, she actually did some design mockups herself which saves me a lot of time and looking forward to getting started and getting the invoices through.

An acquaintance also put me in touch with a guy that does FB ads, said my area is CHOCK-FULL of local businesses who need work and to not f***ing give up because he was in my place once, persisted, and he's in awe at how good his life was compared to how it was as a wage-slave just 7 years ago. He also says he may have some web design work for me through his clients. I feel like I've been betrayed and kicked down enough so I won't expect a damn thing- but it would be nice.
 
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Thank you @RicardoGrande for sharing your journey and being so honest about the ups and downs.

It's very inspiring. I just want to know why you're sticking to the same method of cold calling two-three years later?

Have you ever gotten any retainer clients? Do you know how? Have you tried referrals and word of mouth?

There are so many ways to market without cold calling but it seems like you're holding onto this one thing. Why is that?
 

RicardoGrande

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It's very inspiring. I just want to know why you're sticking to the same method of cold calling two-three years later?

Have you ever gotten any retainer clients? Do you know how? Have you tried referrals and word of mouth?

There are so many ways to market without cold calling but it seems like you're holding onto this one thing. Why is that?
Well, you have a dayjob that eats up most of your time and projects you absolutely have to work on outside of work and on the weekends outside of other obligations.
You tried cold e-mails and had an abysmal response rate and networking events that work with your job schedule are few and far between; You asked for referrals from past clients and they swear up and down they'll put you through to someone but it never seems to happen. Every path seems like a withered vine but you look back know you can pick up the phone and look at your e-mailed list or dig up some new numbers at work and bat a 90/10/1 ratio for 10 interested and 1 person that "claims" they're ready to go on a project.
What do you do?

You could quit reclaim time to try to perfect other methods but then you don't have a living and your current retainers only pay a fraction of your living expenses.
What do you do?

The American recession hits and compounds existing supply chain problems causing the blue-collar business owners you were talking to to either shy away, or promise to sit down with you or to start a project and just "send them a proposal" and then you find yourself having your calls dodged and proposals ignored.
Do you give up?

You can't, you're fighting for a better life, you're fighting for your existing family and the family you dream of having one day- to be there and available for your children in their lives and youth the way your own father couldn't.
So despite the bleak headwinds, the betrayal, the constant uphill bitter struggle; you find numbers, you pick up the phone when you carve out the time, sneaking out during your work lunches and sitting in a 130f degree car in the summer heat, and you try to make sh!t work despite the economy at large- because other people have done it, and you know you can too.

I do appreciate the concern, and I will work to not gloss over things I've tried when I post my updates.
__________________
Anyways, couple things in the fire but not enough for a serious update.
About 180 cold e-mails since mid-june and maybe about a 1-in-8 open rate but no responses.
 
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RicardoGrande

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Alright, it's been another month on the grind:

Negatives:
- Views but no bites on cold e-mails, I have yet to call a good chunk of those owners.
- 3k$ commercial service business job is on hold as owner goes through some book keeping- he's also thinking about shuttering said business and taking on a job himself that will allegedly pay him eye-watering (EYE-WATERING) amounts of money to sit in an air conditioned office to boss around other people in his trade while having none of the liability he currently has as a business owner.
- 3k$ animal business job, who's secretary begged me to call to schedule a time to come in and talk to her and the owner to settle on a timeframe to fix their broke-@ss website and do photography is now dodging me, had the phone slammed on me last time I called.
- 4k$ manufacturer job #1 has kicked the can 2 months down the road.
- 4k$ manufacturer/service job #2 has ghosted as far as I can tell- called from my google voice number and no response so hoping it's just them being busy, but hope is the cope of bad salesmen.
- Procrastination, I know have ADHD so I'm not too disappointed but I'm really at a point where I have to recognize and catch productive times and then fight like hell when I'm sitting staring at my monitors feeling like I'm hitting a mental wall trying to do simple website tasks when I'm on "down" days (or weeks God forbid).

POSITIVES:
- After 4 years of ups and downs, beating myself up and having panic attacks, FINALLY successfully did Tony Robbins 10-day mental diet. I was at a place where I was trying to kill myself with pity and fear and drinking and just decided I'd f#$!ing had enough. Literally just stopped asking myself hair raising questions over random BS that hadn't even occured yet. Re-framing and focusing on my systems and WHY I'm doing this "You're not looking for a new job because you've worked multiple, each is a raw deal of drinking sh!t out of people's asses" over fears "b-but if I don't have a job... how will I make a living?!?!" has really helped. I've dropped bothering with 90% of random outlandish fears and judo flip the remaining 10% to see them as BS, and remind myself of where I am, where I'm building momentum, and building hope for the future.
- Back on cold-calling, found a new way to dig up leads at work after I exhausted my old method, about 150 calls out so far, not easy but it did give me ONE amazing job and one opportunity.
- My VERY FIRST client that ended up getting me doing WD seriously came back and wants a site buildout for his new business that will be about two weeks of dayjob pay with the option to buildout a further site based on how well it goes in his new venture.
- Stumbled across a business owner that was re-inventing and re-rolling his current biz into another with a cold call, he lit my a$$ up at first but then invited me over personally to talk. It's e-commerce so I'm scared sh!tless of random potential security risks and handling processes and automating the inventory/shipping but it'll be about 1.5 months of dayjob pay and he says he has a few other friends that'd be interested in talking to me depending on how that job goes. also will be my largest monthly retainer so far at 200$/mo.
- Wrapping up a simple multi-page site for a health coach right now that is worth about 1 month of dayjob pay
- Had a long talk with a service business guy, felt bad and offered to set him up with an old template I did for someone else for free out of pity. He was ecstatic and said if it went well he'd like to run google ads and he promised to post me up to his FB country-wide group of other people in his industry. - Also got insight that a LOT of local service businesses can't find labor at all in the current job market, but I don't know a good way to attack that problem at this point.

Not the amazing progress I've seen in other threads where so much money and referrals are getting thrown at me that I can quit my dayjob and work from a laptop in bali- but I never gave up and the extra few K I've picked up, business experience and connections are helping to cushion my mindset and ramifications of the economic quagmire the U.S. is stumbling through right now.
 
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RicardoGrande

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Been a minute, time for an update:

Positives
+ Followed on two video lessons from the FWS group, sending out personalized e-mails to owners with bad sites following Alex Berman's script, then calling to follow up. Appear to be getting a 35% open rate with the custom e-mails. Used to call if they opened the e-mail, now calling everyone. I'm still working to find a good script since it's a different type of call.
+ Keeping cold call volume up to businesses with no sites but a good chunk of yelp/houzz/google reviews (they have the revenue to support a website investment), had a few yes's and working to get them scheduled for meeting calls.
+ One business owner was open to a website re-design and an ad campaign, trying to squeeze in andy black G-ads videos so I can get a game plan together and sit down with him to formulate a plan.
+ Almost done with my two big projects, #1 wanted a bunch of a changes so it's been getting dragged out, #2 doesn't have products ready or any pictures for the e-comm store and running into problems explaining "We can't really publish your e-comm store if we don't have any products or pictures of your products but I'll do my best..."
+ Have a couple of leads that asked for follow ups that are coming up this week and through September. Could result in two projects.
+ Cold called a plumbing company when I was behind one of their vans in a traffic jam. Had a chat with the owner. Did a site audit and he immediately set up a call with me. Got him on the call, talked through everything and encouraged him to think about how he's losing a lot of potential traffic because his website (in his own words) is broken on desktop and mobile. Made the offer for 2.4k which is what I did for another company using wix (sent over their site for reference and he and his wife LOVED it, wife kept asking questions if I could do that for them). I used the contrast principle pointing out that his current marketing shop is charging him 12k$/yr but he had some apprehension about the 2.4k, I let him know if he had reservations, we could reduce the scope of the project to lower the cost and fix the immediate need. He said he'd get back with me.

Negatives:
- Procrastination: still a tendency and still something I'm fighting. Sticking with it and doing focus blocks. Worst enemy right now is just random anxiety.
- Also feeling avoidant on making calls because I feel like a dog getting kicked but I've picked myself up 3,000 times, what's another 3,000.
- Mindset: it's been about two years and the doubt is creeping in, I know plenty of other of FWS students in the trenches with me (post-covid economy seems to be affecting a lot of businesses) but I'm catching myself wondering if I should pause and lose all the momentum to snag more career certifications and snag a different job.

Funny:
- Guy responded to cold e-mail saying he hated the "internet marketing service" he was using, wanted a site and GMB optimization and told me to call him to set up a time. Called him to set up a time, "Hey Adam, It's Ricardo, just following up to your reply, what time were you looking at to talk over the direction you wanted to go with the website?", he sounded disgusted that I called and hung up. ... C'est la vie, things like this used to cripple me but I'm almost over it at this point.
- Got a callback from the owner of a local contracting company that also got screwed over, we spent a good 40 minutes discussing where she was at, what she results she needed and what she was missing out on at the moment. We closed on 1.2k to stand an old site of hers back up (I specifically mentioned I usually do sites around 3k$+ to put the contrast principle to work) and she agreed and asked for an e-mail. Sent it, she replied a week later saying she wasn't actually interested after all. Immediate reaction is to blame myself for not selling better, but she did sound intent on having me start immediately. She did also mention she would close or sell the business in 4 years, so maybe coasting seemed more comfortable.
 
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James Klymus

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Shout out to you for sticking with it so long. Just read through the thread over the past few years.

I see a common thread here, which is doing things that suck for a very long period of time.

No wonder your mental and physical health are suffering.

If I were you, I would look at a couple things.

If you still need a job, Could you apply your skill set to another company where there’s more flexibility and even better pay?

If you keep cold calling, how can you call them up with an offer that is extremely compelling, as opposed to “where can I send this report video?”

If I were to cold call businesses for lead gen, I would first spend some money on ads to get leads for a business, then call them up saying I have some hot leads for you, want them? No strings attached. I would assume they would want to work with me if I could keep getting them leads like that.

I would also focus on more inbound marketing. Outbound has been kicking your a$$. Cold calling is cool as a tool to use in the beginning, but you’ve been at it for years now.

In your own words, you feel like a dog getting kicked when you cold call. Is that any way to live for 2+ years?

Maybe if you were looking at a potential 9+ figure exit in the future, but will that happen with web design?

Can you pick a niche, study what problems they face, then figure out how to solve their problem? Maybe they don’t even need web design.

Use chat gpt to supplement your research. Ask it what problems x business faces, then see how you can solve them.

I have respect for you for sticking it out for so long, But just remember, getting your a$$ kicked for 2 years straight isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for a successful business.
 

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Shout out to you for sticking with it so long. Just read through the thread over the past few years.

I see a common thread here, which is doing things that suck for a very long period of time.

No wonder your mental and physical health are suffering.

If I were you, I would look at a couple things.

If you still need a job, Could you apply your skill set to another company where there’s more flexibility and even better pay?

If you keep cold calling, how can you call them up with an offer that is extremely compelling, as opposed to “where can I send this report video?”

If I were to cold call businesses for lead gen, I would first spend some money on ads to get leads for a business, then call them up saying I have some hot leads for you, want them? No strings attached. I would assume they would want to work with me if I could keep getting them leads like that.

I would also focus on more inbound marketing. Outbound has been kicking your a$$. Cold calling is cool as a tool to use in the beginning, but you’ve been at it for years now.

In your own words, you feel like a dog getting kicked when you cold call. Is that any way to live for 2+ years?

Maybe if you were looking at a potential 9+ figure exit in the future, but will that happen with web design?

Can you pick a niche, study what problems they face, then figure out how to solve their problem? Maybe they don’t even need web design.

Use chat gpt to supplement your research. Ask it what problems x business faces, then see how you can solve them.

I have respect for you for sticking it out for so long, But just remember, getting your a$$ kicked for 2 years straight isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for a successful business.
I agree, years of doing a mundane outbound, semi-spammy task like cold calling can hurt the ego. It's been hurting mine with cold emailing, which is a bit more ego-protecting than cold calling.

I too will ask ChatGPT for some in-bound tactics, I just hate social media.
 
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RicardoGrande

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Shout out to you for sticking with it so long. Just read through the thread over the past few years.

I see a common thread here, which is doing things that suck for a very long period of time.

No wonder your mental and physical health are suffering.

If I were you, I would look at a couple things.

If you still need a job, Could you apply your skill set to another company where there’s more flexibility and even better pay?

If you keep cold calling, how can you call them up with an offer that is extremely compelling, as opposed to “where can I send this report video?”

If I were to cold call businesses for lead gen, I would first spend some money on ads to get leads for a business, then call them up saying I have some hot leads for you, want them? No strings attached. I would assume they would want to work with me if I could keep getting them leads like that.

I would also focus on more inbound marketing. Outbound has been kicking your a$$. Cold calling is cool as a tool to use in the beginning, but you’ve been at it for years now.

In your own words, you feel like a dog getting kicked when you cold call. Is that any way to live for 2+ years?

Maybe if you were looking at a potential 9+ figure exit in the future, but will that happen with web design?

Can you pick a niche, study what problems they face, then figure out how to solve their problem? Maybe they don’t even need web design.

Use chat gpt to supplement your research. Ask it what problems x business faces, then see how you can solve them.

I have respect for you for sticking it out for so long, But just remember, getting your a$$ kicked for 2 years straight isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for a successful business.
Appreciate it, some things to keep in mind:
- I work a dayjob and have to work around that.
- The outreach is a simple system, I dedicate a chunk of time or a lunchbreak for emails or calls and then I forget about it with a nonzero chance of landing a job that's worth a 1-3 dayjob paychecks due to the effort, the largest hangup being clients unavailable for a sales call outside of business hours.
- Cold calling has only been the past year after false-starts with my personal and extended network 21-22. The volume depends on what I can find but usually 15-25 touches a day. There have also been mutiple breaks and a large one when I confronted a health issue.
- I regularly research and test different email scripts and call patterns.
- Inbound may be better but I am as of yet unproven and still building my portfolio of paid jobs and getting results. I've started joining facebook groups but the momentum on being trusted is still growing.
- I'm doing all the networking I can around my schedule (big ingredient in GuitarManDan's success) but about 80% of them and CoC meetings are during business hours and can't attend.

I've seen suggestions roll through but the cold calls, as inefficient as they are, seem to be the only reliable method to dig up clients if most of my waking hours are eaten by work or client projects.

Job: This is the "flexible" job haha, pay isn't great but not policed and can leave the same time everyday. I've put out my resume but any step up in position would be salaried, on call, and wildly varying amounts of hours... that's why I've fought this hard to make WD work.

Your observations are sound, I re-examine my total strategy when I look at my outbound scripts every two weeks but unless I can rip a few more hours away from work I believe I'm working the best system I have available. Not doing bad in the grand scheme of things but it definitely isn't easy, and wanted to write out all these problems so any other normal Joe with a job can have a better expectation of the work needed to make WD work out.
 

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I came a hair's breadth from just dropping WD today. To be honest, it's still weighing on my mind.

Contact and finding semi interested people at the 3/10/100 ratio isn't a problem. The problem is all the ghostings for people that specifically ask for meetings or go through a meeting and ask for a proposal then drop off the face of the earth.

Just yesterday:
- Call someone who asked for follow up-
"Oh hey Ricardo! Yeah haha thanks for calling back I was thinking about our website- listen I'm busy right now, could you call in the evening? I'll text you to confirm"
"Yeah sure"
- 5:30 rolls around, no peep, get a text-
"Sorry I'm eating dinner, can I call you at 7:15pm?"
"Sure just let me know"
-No contact at 7:15, shoot confirmation text-
"Oh hahah yeah sorry lost track of time, can you text me to set up a time tomorrow?"
"Will do."
-lunchtime today-
"Alright Mr. Local biz, you wanted me to reach out, does 5:30 today work out?"
-No response-
-Text him an hour later-
"Okay, looks like this may not have been a good fit, do you want me to follow up on this or leave this project and move on?"
"NOOOO nononono haha I'm sorry! Uhhhhhhh text me in 6 weeks! bye!"

Looking at my previous batting average for follow ups, I pin it at only a 4% chance the next call doesn't get kicked down the road too. I viscerally remember one guy in June, who'd been keeping in touch with me for 9 months, got on the phone for his project call finally and instead opened up that his wife just broke her leg and hung up on me- never responded to the follow up e-mail the next week either.

I KNOW I can't fully sell on the initial cold calls because I only have 25 minutes max to call in my car on my lunchbreak, but almost everyone who wants me to reach back out either needs work and knows it or recognizes the pain points I mention in my script, ask questions about results I've produced and then want to move forward because of those. From everything I've seen or studied, this is as qualified as I can get them unless I learn how to cast magic spells that can suck their wallets through the phone receiver and slap those into my hands and I've removed most of the time wasters, or so I thought. The displaying potential value is huge deal and I'm also running a new script that frontloads that after my usual permission-opener that gets me a foot in the door with the owners like 70% of the time. I'm not sure of what else I can do that would seem attractive except for outright lying.

I'm at my wit's end, had 7 follow ups ripen this week, 4 told me to call back in a few months (again) (one guy told me to call him next october), one ghosted on his meeting call (this evening) and one told me to call him that evening then blocked my number, one wanted to re-review a proposal I sent 5 months ago and I will probably have to go back out to his office and re-sell him again considering the time gap.

Again, I've been able to provide value and basically summon some money out of thin air with cold calls but I can't tell if something is still drastically wrong with me and I haven't iterated through it yet, if it's the economy, or if not being able to set calls during business hours is kneecapping me.

Cold e-mails: still nada, about 35 custom e-mails and a slew of followups since the last post, I've also changed how I present the results I've produced for others in the past to be more "you(them)" focused and spelt out more easily.

Positives: one guy I'm in talks for his site rebuild confirmed I wasn't be annoying by keeping in touch every 1-2 weeks compared to other companies that call him 4x a week and on weekends- I guess I have that going for me.
 

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I came a hair's breadth from just dropping WD today. To be honest, it's still weighing on my mind.

Contact and finding semi interested people at the 3/10/100 ratio isn't a problem. The problem is all the ghostings for people that specifically ask for meetings or go through a meeting and ask for a proposal then drop off the face of the earth.

Just yesterday:
- Call someone who asked for follow up-
"Oh hey Ricardo! Yeah haha thanks for calling back I was thinking about our website- listen I'm busy right now, could you call in the evening? I'll text you to confirm"
"Yeah sure"
- 5:30 rolls around, no peep, get a text-
"Sorry I'm eating dinner, can I call you at 7:15pm?"
"Sure just let me know"
-No contact at 7:15, shoot confirmation text-
"Oh hahah yeah sorry lost track of time, can you text me to set up a time tomorrow?"
"Will do."
-lunchtime today-
"Alright Mr. Local biz, you wanted me to reach out, does 5:30 today work out?"
-No response-
-Text him an hour later-
"Okay, looks like this may not have been a good fit, do you want me to follow up on this or leave this project and move on?"
"NOOOO nononono haha I'm sorry! Uhhhhhhh text me in 6 weeks! bye!"

Looking at my previous batting average for follow ups, I pin it at only a 4% chance the next call doesn't get kicked down the road too. I viscerally remember one guy in June, who'd been keeping in touch with me for 9 months, got on the phone for his project call finally and instead opened up that his wife just broke her leg and hung up on me- never responded to the follow up e-mail the next week either.

I KNOW I can't fully sell on the initial cold calls because I only have 25 minutes max to call in my car on my lunchbreak, but almost everyone who wants me to reach back out either needs work and knows it or recognizes the pain points I mention in my script, ask questions about results I've produced and then want to move forward because of those. From everything I've seen or studied, this is as qualified as I can get them unless I learn how to cast magic spells that can suck their wallets through the phone receiver and slap those into my hands and I've removed most of the time wasters, or so I thought. The displaying potential value is huge deal and I'm also running a new script that frontloads that after my usual permission-opener that gets me a foot in the door with the owners like 70% of the time. I'm not sure of what else I can do that would seem attractive except for outright lying.

I'm at my wit's end, had 7 follow ups ripen this week, 4 told me to call back in a few months (again) (one guy told me to call him next october), one ghosted on his meeting call (this evening) and one told me to call him that evening then blocked my number, one wanted to re-review a proposal I sent 5 months ago and I will probably have to go back out to his office and re-sell him again considering the time gap.

Again, I've been able to provide value and basically summon some money out of thin air with cold calls but I can't tell if something is still drastically wrong with me and I haven't iterated through it yet, if it's the economy, or if not being able to set calls during business hours is kneecapping me.

Cold e-mails: still nada, about 35 custom e-mails and a slew of followups since the last post, I've also changed how I present the results I've produced for others in the past to be more "you(them)" focused and spelt out more easily.

Positives: one guy I'm in talks for his site rebuild confirmed I wasn't be annoying by keeping in touch every 1-2 weeks compared to other companies that call him 4x a week and on weekends- I guess I have that going for me.
I would like to share a massive shout out to your effort and consistency in trying to make it work until nowadays.

As much as I am not in your same position but I have my hands in WD, please, allow me to share a few personal thoughts with you (be mindful, are just personal).

Reading through the action, it seems like the main issue is targeting the wrong people. We might think they would benefit from having a web app that leverage their business, but we don't know if they are in the position of looking for that. Thus, the rejections and lack of interest. There is plenty of people out there with a clunky website or no website at all. Plenty of businesses that do not care about improving their current state of things. About making a web app for them? It might do or not the difference to their business, that's up to you to spot the need. But do not waste too much time on cold calls and emails hoping to farm a lead or two while spending tons of precious hours with people who don't care either about web pages for their businesses.

It's not necessarily WD or you who sucks at what you do, it seems you are selling salad at the American Royal World Series of bbq.

How about building your own website first? Let your website speak for you rather than cold calling or emailing directly. Back to your website, how about you store everything you built for the few customers who were satisfied of your job, or to show mock ups web sites regarding different industry fields you are targeting? Max 3 clicks: landing on your website, looking at the reason why they need a web app and why they should contact you for the job (it could be done with a media well edited), and finally an input form to submit an expression of interest.
How about investing a few $ on Google Ads to allow potential leads landing to your well structured website and to the heavy lifting for you?

Hope this helps.

Wish you all the best for everything you are trying to achieve!
 
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RicardoGrande

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I would like to share a massive shout out to your effort and consistency in trying to make it work until nowadays.

It's not necessarily WD or you who sucks at what you do, it seems you are selling salad at the American Royal World Series of bbq.

How about building your own website first? Let your website speak for you rather than cold calling or emailing directly. Back to your website, how about you store everything you built for the few customers who were satisfied of your job, or to show mock ups web sites regarding different industry fields you are targeting? Max 3 clicks: landing on your website, looking at the reason why they need a web app and why they should contact you for the job (it could be done with a media well edited), and finally an input form to submit an expression of interest.
How about investing a few $ on Google Ads to allow potential leads landing to your well structured website and to the heavy lifting for you?

Hope this helps.

Wish you all the best for everything you are trying to achieve!

Appreciate it, It's not easy but I need to get out of wage slavery.
For the other points: from everything I've seen, everyone else who got caught up trying to "perfect their website" and do seo optimization is still at square 1 selling a commodity in a sea of "125$ website!" offers whereas cold-calling allowed me to punch the market in the face and start taking 4-figure projects out of thin air.... as painful and time-consuming as cold calling can be.

Everyone walks in here and says great things about inbound and suggesting abstract things like "honing rankings" and "building a community", from the spying I've done on my local competitors, almost none except the aforementioned 125$ websites guy and godaddy seem to get any appreciable traffic. I do have my GMB up (for now, I think they're trying to lock my account again) but have seen no appreciable bump to my website or calls to my gvoice number in the past 5 months. I did enter a few FB contractor groups but the admins had a hair-trigger for sniffing out and banning service vendors who did things like I do.
I could spend countless hours trying to optimize, hound for backlinks, pop a couple a hundred for local citations... or spend that money for my VA to dig up leads to e-mail and continue to call and squeeze out at least one project every 2 months.



Side update:
Consulted the FWS group and apparently everyone is having issues with cold e-mails right now. I was distressed sending about 500 and having only 7 responses, 5 "no's" and 2 people that ended up ghosting. One student suggested that the number to get 3 meetings a month has floated up to 500 e-mails needing to be sent instead of just 100. Mind you these are personalized, short e-mails with calls to action and case studies following alex-berman's proven method and using follow ups.

Essentially, everyone is taking it up the pooper when they try to do cold-outreach, only safe people appear to be those with big networks and constant referrals (The admin bar survey seems to back this up).

At this moment I'm starting to de-prioritize web design. I still hate the day job and my life to an extent but I'm going to crunch through my current projects and reach out to the two guys that said I could run their Google ads campaigns for free as a learning experience and if that results in referrals. I'll also continue light cold-email/call outreach as well. From everything I've read, it seems to be thrice as difficult as it was just 3 years ago, don't know if it's the economy or not. My targeting probably sucks but I aim for sustainable, real-world businesses that help to build and support my region with hard labor.
If it doesn't work now, I'll refocus on getting a new dayjob.

Currently brushing up on my dayjob related skills and crunching through a course that will be able to tie in with my work experience and hopefully land a large pay bump. Studying Ryan Moran's stuff and working to implement it on the side as outlined in my other progress thread. I would like this to turn around because forum heavy hitters and freelancers I talk to IRL say it's beautiful (albeit stressing) having control of your time. To be able to go to the park at 10am on a weekday and breathe the cool autumn air, but one needs a viable gig to unlock that life.

Thank you for reading.
 
Last edited:

ChocolateFactory

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Maybe your value proposition is just not good? I can’t imagine why I would want to pay for a pretty website - even if you were really good, which I’m skeptical about. Not to shit on your business idea, but if it’s not even your day job, I find it hard to believe you would be very good at it? It sounds a bit like you’re doing it because it’s easy. If it’s easy, where’s the E from CENTS?
Maybe you could have more success if you offer a commission deal? “You pay us $200 and 10% of every new lead we bring you through the website.”
That could get me interested. For anything else, I can use Wix or Squarespace and just do it myself. Or maybe I wouldn’t be able to, but that’s what I would think. Web design is so 2000… I think you have to offer a complete package that includes digital marketing and a sort of success guarantee. People are interested in value, not things.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I think you have to drastically change your approach, not just keep doing more of the same. You’ve been doing this for a long time now and it’s obviously not working the way you’re going about it. “Everybody’s struggling” - that’s absolutely possible, but that doesn’t put a single additional dollar in your pocket. I don’t think encouragement helps you, you should realize what you’re doing isn’t working, so you have to change something. You also sound (understandably) frustrated, that makes selling even more difficult than it is to begin with. Maybe you should start with doing something about your day job, since it sounds like it’s costing you a lot of energy doing something you don’t like. Just my 0.02.
 

RicardoGrande

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Update:
Spent time crunching through the two prior projects while balancing the dayjob, but the dayjob got a whole lot worse. Been applying/interviewing but nothing good yet- things also getting explosive and getting some good motivation to make this work (again).

Storytime:
Went over contact sheet around start of year, one guy's website was a worse mess than I found it last year. Turns out he found out his last WD was just outsourcing the work to a random foreign country, and discovered this when someone called to tell him his site was plastered in WP errors.
Sent him an e-mail with screenshots of the errors- just got an immediate "CALL ME." in reply. Currently racing to get a rough submitted for approval b/c he notified his old dirtbag dev he'd go with me and said dev paid someone to put up a template to try to woo him back (after ignoring him and taking his money for a year).
If this does go through, it's money and a great case study.

Outreach/current projects:
Did get back on cold e-mails, great open rates but haven't followed up because my life is super hectic at the moment. Still have yet to finish my two current big projects, one will require steeling myself and reaching out because I haven't heard back since December (oof) and the other I haven't made proper time for- don't make my mistakes people, block out time, taking back "one evening" turns into multiple then a weekend then snowballs if you get scared about restarting and reaching out to the client.

Thank you for reading- if this reads as hectic it's because everything is super hectic, wish me luck.
 
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Keushei

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Cold call
Cold approach local businesses
Cold message on any socials

I've been in your position, and the way out is to promote the hell out of yourself.
You'd better be your biggest fan.

Lmk if you need any help with your outbound strategies.
hey, I could use some help with outbound strategies. Im currently in the works of building a linked in following to create organic growth
 

Qasiel

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Just read through the thread and it sounds like you've been on quite the journey over the past few years!

I'm doing similar things to yourself, although the majority of my work has come through warm leads and I'm currently negotiating a sale through a cold email. I've got a couple of projects on the go at the moment, both with potential for many incoming leads, but I'm wanting to scale more and I feel like I've been at this for a while, like yourself, with little wins here and there but nothing to fully constitute a self-sustaining business as of yet.

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experience so far. I love the idea of checking in every now and then to help with accountability and I'm wondering if it's something I should adopt myself.

Wishing you the best of luck!
 

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