Growing A Web Design Business From Zero

[dmichaelmccann]

Hey everyone,

So I'm creating this thread to track my progress growing my web design business from zero.

First off a little background on me:

I'm an 18 year old high school student, and I have never made a single penny online, so I'll be learning a lot as I go. I started learning to code back in December 2017, and so far I have taken the courses on @Fox 's gold thread on web design that he recommended, along with the Fox Web School course, so I have a decent knowledge of HTML/CSS along with some sales.

Last week I decided that I was ready to start providing value to businesses and I decided to get on upwork to start. I read through @SinisterLex 's gold threads and watched his youtube video's on starting from scratch, and I managed to get approved on my first try two days ago. Over the last two days I've taken some tests, written a "you" focused bio, and have gotten everything ready to send proposals starting today.

End Goals:

My goal for this business right now is to create a full time income for myself so that I can become financially independent, and use the money I earn to start up a fastlane business in the future.

I'll be updating this thread pretty frequently as I go so that everyone can see the whole process, from never having made a single sale to hopefully soon making 6 figures/year with this business.

Although I've never made money online or outside of a job before, I'm doing my best not to let that scare me. It can honestly feel like a big leap to move ahead with something like this having never done anything like it before, so hopefully seeing the process in this thread will inspire people in the future who are having doubts about if they can be an entrepreneur.

Please feel free to ask me any questions or offer advice.

 

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[dmichaelmccann]

It took a lot more hustling than I thought it would but I finally got my second client.

After my last post I spent another week and a half cold emailing and calling businesses, and although I got a couple of responses, none of them were really interested enough and I couldn't sell them on the value of the new website, even when I offered them for free.

Two days ago I changed my approach and began joining several business networking groups on facebook in my area. I then sent out a message saying that I was new to web design and I wanted to help local businesses increase their online sales for free. Earlier today I got a reply from a nearby painting company, and now I am building him a free website.

Even though it is for free I am pretty excited about this one as this is the first time I got a client using a completely cold method. I also am building him a website completely from scratch using the Fox Web School system, so everything from design to content to photos is all in my hands. I look forward to seeing what I can do!

 

[dmichaelmccann]

I think I just made my first paid sale! Just 5 minutes ago I got off the phone with a woman who runs a private elder care business. She contacted me yesterday after I placed an ad on craigslist (thanks @Maxboost for the suggestion). It was nearly the same ad as a few posts above but I just raised the price point slightly.

She was pretty much already sold on a new website but I went through the whole process of asking questions and showing value, which made her even more confident in me. I ended up closing the sale for $200. Even though I probably could have charged a bit more I wanted to stay within the range I posted in my ad. It's a quick 3 page site so it shouldn't take more than a week anyways.

$200 isn't a huge amount of money but I am so excited as this is the first time I have ever made any money online working for myself. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to reply to this thread, especially @Fox for all of the value you have given me. I couldn't have done this without you guys.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

I had a good call with Fox yesterday afternoon. We went over some of the things I was struggling with and we decided that I should go in a new direction with the business.

To summarize the main points:

I'll be getting off upwork and will turn my focus to cold emailing and calling businesses. Although it is possible to make money on upwork, long term it will be better for me to start contacting real businesses that I can get results for. This will allow me to start charging higher prices after I complete my first few sites with proven results. I don't have any business owners in my personal network, so I'm starting with local businesses that have shitty websites.

To get those first 3-5 clients I'm going to offer my services free for the first few and then very cheap. My goal in the beginning is to build my portfolio, help these businesses out, and prove to future clients that I can make amazing websites. With these first few businesses I will be very upfront, letting them know right away that I'm new to web design but I'm a local guy that wants to help them for free. It's a simple pitch that should get some responses.

After those first few sites are finished, I'll have some good looking portfolio pieces that I can show to future clients. From there its all about showing the value a new website can deliver to their business. If I can communicate this effectively and then actually deliver that value, I should have no problem being able to charge premium prices very soon.

Thanks again Fox for getting on the call with me and helping me work through all of this. I think this sums it up but if you have anything to add feel free.

 

[Maxboost]

Closed my first sale. I posted this on Craigslist. Maybe this might help you get a first paying client:

For a limited time, I will build your website (1-4 web pages) for $100. These services will cost typically $500-$2000 depending on what services you want.

I am building a portfolio for my web design services.

I am proficient in HTML, CSS, JQuery, Javascript, Bootstrap, and Wordpress.

Stop paying yellow pages $250/month, I have knowledge of SEO and google adwords to increase your conversion rates, which will produce sales. This will more than cover the cost of the website the moment it is launched.

Provide a description of your business, your expectations of your site and your industry.

If you have an existing website, I will revamp your site with a modern new design with compelling content.

You can pay after the website is complete and uploaded. All I ask in return is a good testimonial for my web design business.

I will only contact those who meet my criteria or who are willing to pay more.

Thanks.

I also built a website for a friend. THIS was a HUGE time waster. Also be aware of those people on craigslist who will ask for help but are not interested in your services. These people will waste your time as well. My plan is to do a few more $100 jobs before moving up.

My biggest learning experience so far is to ask the right questions, make sure to put up a rough draft of the website before building, make sure you have the right pictures from your client, make sure that you have full creative control of the process and make sure they are serious about needing a website. So many time wasters out there!

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Just closed another $200 sale through craigslist to clean up a guy's wordpress website. I just need to clean up the design by getting rid of some text related to the theme he has, swap out some images, integrate his social media, and write a couple paragraphs of compelling text for his pages.

This is the same price as I closed the first sale for but much less work. This one should only take a few hours to complete everything. I also have 2 more potential leads coming in for full website builds that I may talk to on the phone this week sometime. I'm hoping to close my first sale of at least $1K with one of these guys.

These first few months have been a struggle at times but now I can feel myself finally gaining some momentum. I'm so glad I started this business and pushed through the desert of desertion, even when there were moments I thought I wouldn't cut it as a web designer.

 

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[Deleted20833]

1. Sign up to be a hosting affiliate (host gator will pay $125 for a new signup if you get a certain amount, or you can go with wp host and they pay $250 flat out)

2. Go on craigslist and list in the free section that you'll build a simple WordPress website for free

3. when you get them on the phone tell them all they have to do to get their free website is to sign up for a hosting company and to use your affiliate link

4. they buy hosting thru your link, which means the hosting company pays you ($125- $250)

5. Now customer gets a free simple WordPress (they're usually like 3-5 pages long) and you're getting paid

Let me know what you think

 

[dmichaelmccann]

I got my first client this week! A few days ago @Crexty reached out to me through the forum and after some messages and a call I am now designing a free site for his commercial cleaning business. He had already done a portion of it but I am going in, adding some new pages, and making sure everything is optimized to get him great results.

I also made a cold email list of about 20 local businesses to contact when I run out of work.

I want to thank everyone who has helped me on this journey so far. This week has really been a breakthrough after all those months I spent learning code and sales!

Next goal:
Get my first paying client and build them a completely new, amazing site that gets them results.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

The painting company website is now up and running as of two days ago. I spent nearly every free hour of my time building this since early last week when I got the sale, including two 12+ hour days last Saturday and Sunday but I had a lot of fun doing it and it was completely worth it. It's amazing how easy it is to put in the work when you have the end results and possible rewards clearly in your mind. The owner said he loves the website and I really hope it can help get him results.

Unfortunately I haven't heard back from the drywall repair company for a week. I sent them an email yesterday asking if they still wanted to go ahead but no response.

Whether they respond or not my plan now is to start contacting lots of people in residential painting and similar niches through email and calls that have bad websites. Now that I have a relevant portfolio piece I can show them I am going to start charging. I'm also planning on keeping an active presence in my facebook business groups. The fact that I have done one website for a guy that is in a lot of the same groups I am could help me build some trust with other members.

I can feel that first paid sale coming soon!

 

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[GoGetter24]

The road has been a little tough but I am still grinding to make that first paid sale.

I'd recommend you do some watching of "Dan Lok" on YouTube (can't remember which fastlaner introduced his videos, but thanks).

Don't take another free job. No more free [shudder]. How do you think it sounds on the receiving end? "My website was free". It sounds like it's junk. How about "My website cost $20,000". It sounds hardcore. These are businesses you're making sites for, right? They don't want free: it's a business, it's serious. They want "it will increase your revenue by 50%". You have one testimonial from that guy, and you have a showcase website (your own and his), right? That's enough.

You should solidify your offer, and get paid upfront (or at least a 50% deposit). If you can't make a sale, it's either because you can't convince them of the value of your offer (in which case work on that), or you're not getting enough leads (make more calls).

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Another solid week in the books. Unfortunately no sales for full website builds but I did close a $300 deal for onsite SEO with the same guy that I did the wordpress website cleanup for.

I also sent an email to the painting company that I built the free website for. They said that the new website has gotten them a few new clients since it has been up, which feels pretty awesome for me because they told me that they never got any sales from their old website. Now I can confidently say I built a website that got results for someone.

This coming week I'll be working on the onsite SEO for this guy's website and looking for some new clients. I only have a few more weeks left of high school so I definitely want to pick up a few new clients for the summer. I can't wait to do this full time for a few months and really scale the business up before college starts.

 

[1step]

Offer to make the Wordpress sites for $5. You'll make like $.50 an hour but you'll get great experience and a lot of five star reviews. Explain exactly why your bid is $5 and you'll get lots of people to accept your proposal.
In the future most of these people will need another site and they will likely come back to you.
Once you do this enough times you will need to turn away work or get help to fulfill your clients work.

This exact situation has happened to me on Upwork but on the purchasing side in another niche.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Summary of the past week:

A few days after my previous post I finished building my first website for Crexty. While I did not follow the system I would normally use (fox web school style) since I was building off what he already had (and he provided the content), the website turned out nice and should help him get good results.

On Wednesday and Thursday I sent out cold emails to the list of 20 that I made earlier. From that group I got 2 responses saying they might be interested. However, when I sent a follow up to try to schedule a call, I think they may have disappeared on me. No word from either for the past 2 days.

I spent too much time waiting around thinking that I was going to close at least one, but oh well, lesson learned. From now on if I don't have any active clients I'm going to continually send emails.

I also set up an LLC for the business earlier this week, and yesterday I set up the bank account. I spent today making another email list and catching up on all my schoolwork.

Early this coming week I'm planning on calling the first 20 businesses I emailed, and then midweek I'll send out another round of emails to new businesses depending on call results. I haven't gotten my first paying client yet but I'm feeling pretty good and I think it will only be a matter of time.

 

[silentjay]

I think the fact you're already getting out there, cold calling/emailing is excellent.

Few years ago I met some web designers who just started out. They had a very fancy expensive office, the latest macbooks including those super expensive apple monitors. Custom made furniture. Design books they never read but looked pretty on the shelves. Lots of debt too looking at their accounts. They spent most time taking pictures of their stuff to stick on FB.

They invited me to join them to do the programming side of things as I'm a web dev rather than designer. Gave it a miss but did give them some advice, that they should be spending 90% of their time doing sales (like you are). They thought they were above sales, that surely sharing some cool photos of their cool stuff on social media taken with their expensive DSLRs of their cool shit and showing how hipster they were would mean people would be beating a path to their door? They are now bankrupt.

Quick tip: make sure the sites your making, especially the free ones, link back to your site in the footer.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Time for a progress update:

Since my last post, I've just been grinding away at the cold emails and calls. I've reached out to about 60 in the past 2.5 weeks. I wish I could do more but school during the week is still limiting my call time, so I'm glad that will be over soon. I've gotten a couple people on a second call but haven't been able to close any sales.

I've still been mostly contacting painting companies and also general contractors with a few employees, but haven't had much luck convincing them of the value of a new website. Most of the ones I talk to say that they get their clients from word of mouth and that they are pretty happy with their sales overall, even though they are always looking for more.

At this point, since I have some portfolio pieces, I know it is just a numbers game until I close some sales, but it is getting a little frustrating. I'm going to start to branch out into some slightly different niches to see if that works better.

In the past couple days, I've also decided to really get the word out about my business in my extended network. Back when I started this business I decided to tell no one except for the forum and my family, because I just didn't want to hear the doubters saying I couldn't do it since I was some high school kid with no experience. Now that I have made a few sales though I am a lot more confident and don't really care what everyone else thinks anymore. My high school friends probably don't have a lot of business connections but maybe this could bring a potential sale or two to be.

This week I'm also going to head to my town in person and visit businesses with bad websites or no websites at all. I should have done this a long time ago because I'm sure business owners would trust someone from the same town as them who visits more than a random cold caller, but I'm glad I'm doing it now.

I'm sure something will fall in soon. I've just got to keep working and spread the word in any way I can.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Quick update:

I'm officially done with high school now and have exactly two months from yesterday until college starts. These next two months are going to be a critical time for growing my business as I'm going to be looking to take on lots of new clients, build some great sites, and make more money. I joined @Kung Fu Steve 's coaching program to help me make this happen. I'm 100% planning on keeping the business going in college, but there may or may not be less time, so I want to get a steady stream of referrals and inbound leads going by then so I don't have to spend so much time looking for new clients. I'll be able to do this by delivering great work to a lot of new businesses.

I've been thinking a lot about running the business while being in college, and I think doing this full time the next 2 months will tell me a lot about whether I am prepared for the real world or if I should stay in school. I'm in no rush to drop out as I'm not taking out any loans, and I will definitely stay for the whole first year, but it will be something to think about if I get up to the 100k per year mark in business income.

On the business side of things, I'm finishing up the site I mentioned in the last post for the copywriting agency and starting to look for new leads. The copywriting site was the first one I've built from scratch using Wordpress and Elementor so it took a bit of time to learn, but it was definitely a good experience.

Right now I'm talking to one potential client for a site that would definitely be my biggest project so far, but nothing has closed yet. Other than that my sales funnel is running a bit dry, so it is probably time to start going to business networking events and get cold calling again soon.

 

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[dmichaelmccann]

Eldercare website is up and finished. This job overall was a bit more stressful and difficult than the last one, mostly due to the client, but I think I learned some valuable lessons for the future of my business.

The sales call went pretty well and the lady seemed normal on the phone, although a small red flag did pop up when she ignored the list of questions I sent her for the writing and instead just sent me a list of the things she wanted the website to say. It was not very detailed and a lot of the things she wrote I did not think should be put on the website because they were not relevant or should not be talked about until she is hired for an eldercare job.

Anyways, I worked all weekend and loaded up the first draft to my website on Sunday night. I changed some of the content she sent around and didn't include some things that I thought would hurt her sales. When she saw the website though she EXPLODED, screaming at me that I didn't write exactly what she said, that I didn't know what I was doing, and that I was trying to take it over as "mine", whatever that means. I was a bit angry but I decided to send a super professional email and a few hours later I got an embarrassed and remorseful reply back. I explained what I was trying to do and although there were some things she didn't budge on we managed to compromise on a lot of it.

There were a few other near outbursts later but it was relatively smooth sailing from there compared to the start, although she refused to pay me by anything other than moneygram. Fortunately the payment went through fine and I can move on.

I learned from this job that there is never any reason to send an angry, emotional reply to a client, no matter how difficult they are being. If I had been anything other than professional we probably would have ended the relationship and since I didn't take a deposit I would have lost my first sale.

Now that this job is over I'm going to go back to cold calls and try to charge a lot more for my services. I don't know if the price had anything to do with the problems in this job but I think since I was so cheap this lady may have not have viewed me as an expert. I'd much rather have a smaller number of clients who come to me because of my value than a larger number who come to me because I am cheap.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

I finally broke through this week with a couple sales after a bit of a slump.

I closed one $300 site through my marketplace ad for a small copywriting/online advertising agency. I'm looking to really overdeliver on this one since it is for a forum member and it will let me expand into a new niche. It should take around 2 weeks to make sure everything comes out perfect with it.

I also made some smaller sales for other services through craigslist, both from my own ads and searching for web design related gigs across the country. I closed a $150 deal for some basic local SEO and helping set up online advertising for a furniture website. I also sent out a proposal for a basic $50 per month maintenance package for a health company's wordpress site today. I haven't heard back from them yet but I'm feeling pretty good about it. It would be really cool to get my first recurring income even if it is only for 50 a month.

This should be enough to keep me occupied for the next couple weeks while I continue to look for new leads and learn more skills on the side. The past month I've really been focusing on learning SEO and improving my copywriting skills. I haven't had a chance to really implement those new skills into a website so the next few will be a great opportunity.

 

[Fox]

I am going to jump on a call tomorrow with @dmichaelmccann and go over some things. I’ll come back afterwards and make a bigger post here when I got some more details.

 

[Fox]

Nah that’s it. Thanks for taking the time to talk. I’m sure you will make this work.

 

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[Maxboost]

Summary of the past week:

A few days after my previous post I finished building my first website for Crexty. While I did not follow the system I would normally use (fox web school style) since I was building off what he already had (and he provided the content), the website turned out nice and should help him get good results.

On Wednesday and Thursday I sent out cold emails to the list of 20 that I made earlier. From that group I got 2 responses saying they might be interested. However, when I sent a follow up to try to schedule a call, I think they may have disappeared on me. No word from either for the past 2 days.

I spent too much time waiting around thinking that I was going to close at least one, but oh well, lesson learned. From now on if I don't have any active clients I'm going to continually send emails.

I also set up an LLC for the business earlier this week, and yesterday I set up the bank account. I spent today making another email list and catching up on all my schoolwork.

Early this coming week I'm planning on calling the first 20 businesses I emailed, and then midweek I'll send out another round of emails to new businesses depending on call results. I haven't gotten my first paying client yet but I'm feeling pretty good and I think it will only be a matter of time.

Damn your kicking a$$ wish I had your focus at your age.

 

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[Stargazer]

Don't do too many for free

Say you want something simple in return ie How much business came from the existing website and what the change was when yours was implemented. That is still pretty much free isn't it?

It will give you an idea of the value you are providing in $ terms which will give you a shot of confidence and authority on reaching out to other similar operators in different locations.

Dan

PS: When I was 18 I was in The Upper VIth and simply came home from school; watched TV, read or went out to my friends. I am so impressed with people like you.

 

[dmichaelmccann]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give a quick update on my progress as I have not in a while. The road has been a little tough but I am still grinding to make that first paid sale. I have been doing a lot of traveling for college related things and I caught the flu on Easter which took me out for a week and a half, so I haven't been doing as much work as I've wanted to which is frustrating.

I'm pretty much back to 100% now so I'm planning to hit the cold emails and calls hard next week. If I don't get anything after that I'm probably going to start looking through my personal and extended network again even though it didn't turn anything up the first time. I don't really want to take another free job but I may also consider that just so I can get some work if nothing comes up in the next week or two.

 

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[WJK]

Tell them your price, OR that you'll make the web site in exchange for their personal introduction to another business person in your area, and a good review of your work on your personal web site. That way you are getting something of value for your time and they are paying for it in kind. If you can build up a network of contacts, you'll have it made for years to come.

 

[Fox]

Congrats! It took me a few jobs to get over $200 haha.

Do a great job and that second sale will come a lot easier. It snowballs fast when you get people great results.

Start small and grow fast...

 

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[Maxboost]

I think I just made my first paid sale! Just 5 minutes ago I got off the phone with a woman who runs a private elder care business. She contacted me yesterday after I placed an ad on craigslist (thanks @Maxboost for the suggestion). It was nearly the same ad as a few posts above but I just raised the price point slightly.

She was pretty much already sold on a new website but I went through the whole process of asking questions and showing value, which made her even more confident in me. I ended up closing the sale for $200. Even though I probably could have charged a bit more I wanted to stay within the range I posted in my ad. It's a quick 3 page site so it shouldn't take more than a week anyways.

$200 isn't a huge amount of money but I am so excited as this is the first time I have ever made any money online working for myself. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to reply to this thread, especially @Fox for all of the value you have given me. I couldn't have done this without you guys.

nice! I over delivered on this guy's website and now he is referring me to his buddies. Make sure you KNOCK THIS OUT OF THE BALL PARK. Word of mouth is huge!!!

 

[Thomas Baptiste]

Okay, I've read through this thread. You are really proactive and persistent man and you have been successful in your ventures thus far. It's inspiring. You mentioned that this business is somewhat of an avenue to get started off to be financially independent and then later start a fastlane business. Honestly as a web dev myself, this process of selling websites is too time consuming in my opinion and the time spent is not worth it in the long run. The networking that you do now is of outmost importance. Remember don't chase the money, solve a need and he money will come regardless. I've seen your reported progress from free jobs to start off, to paid jobs; it's great that youre making money doing something you enjoy, but it is still somewhat slowlane. There is no automation in this system of yours right now and the fact is, if you want to land a huge job that will get you the figures you are imagining, you'll need to improve your skillset. Learn some more web related stuff, and against popular opinion use content management systems like WordPress more than you currently do. They save a ton of time and if you're efficient in php you can tailor it to your needs exactly. Keep up the good work though. You're surely doing exactly what I wanted to do when I started web technologies.

Edit: keep posting and updating.
You may not realize but the experiences that you share on this thread are very helpful, especially to the lot of us that are aligned to this same path of yours. Thanks for that.

 

[Fox]

Great. Cool to see a new thread on web design from a beginners prospective.

Tag me if you need any feedback but I will be watching this thread closely.

Where are you at right now with sales?

 

[Ocelot]

Hey @dmichaelmccann great thread.

I'm in the exact same position as you, though you're a couple of months ahead of me. I've been following @Fox new course for getting started and have been reaching out to businesses that have active Facebook pages but no website to try and get my first free site done.

No luck so far but I've spent the morning compiling a Google spreadsheet full of leads to message on Monday. I think in the beginning when you have no results it's a numbers game and takes some grinding. But I'm not shy of putting in the grind, and it sounds like you aren't either.

Really pleased to hear you've managed to get a few free sites under your belt. It's only a matter if time until you close someone for a paid site.

I'll be following this thread closely and also plan to make my own in a couple of weeks when I've found my first free client.

 

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[dmichaelmccann]

Been a while since my last update. I was waiting for something big to update everyone on but not much has happened so I thought I would just share my progress over the past ~3 weeks.

Overall it's been pretty frustrating. Still waiting on some final content pieces for the copywriting agency site so that still isn't online. It'd be nice if it was because I still need a few more good portfolio pieces, but there's not much I can do besides sending an email asking if I can help in any way every once in a while.

Sales wise I've only closed one deal since my last post, website updates/maintenance plus social media help at $30 an hour for a small company in the sports/outdoors niche. I got this one through responding to a craigslist ad. They bought 5 hours up front for $150 and have only used 2 in 3 weeks, so there's not a ton of money here.

I had kind of a forced vacation the week around July 4th (went down to Florida with family for grandparents 50th anniversary) so didn't get any work done that week. The rest of my time has been spent looking for leads and doing a full revamp of my own business website, which just went online a couple days ago. I upgraded it from 1 to 4 pages and used all of the SEO and copywriting knowledge I've gained over the past few months. I also included a blog section for case studies on how I helped the businesses I've worked with and the results I got for them. I wrote the first case study on the painting business from a while back too.

Looking at the big picture, I feel like I've kind of hit a wall lately. I've reached a point where I'm making semi-consistent income; not a ton of money but decent for a college student with low living expenses. The problem is that I'm having trouble making the next step to the 4 figure sites. I feel like I've delivered high quality work to the clients I have, but their businesses are just too small to see the crazy good results that Fox and others get for their clients. While the new sites I've built have converted much better than the old ones, there's only so much I can do with these sites that get 30-50 monthly visitors. And that's not to mention that every paid client I've had has been super low value and a complete pain in the a$$ to work with (interestingly the two free clients I had early on were both super nice guys and very helpful).

I need to move up and target bigger businesses that will see great, tangible results, but other than grinding away with cold emails and calls I don't know how. I've started to branch out to facebook and business groups again and am planning on attending a few networking events but am still searching for other solutions, as I really don't want to be dependent on Craigslist for leads.

Anyways, I apologize if it seemed like I was ranting there at the end. No one ever said this would be easy and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make this business succeed, so I'm not trying to complain or anything like that. I know I have the ability to make this business a success; I'm just at a crossroads right and need some guidance on what to do next.