I'm failing at my business

[maxkoss]

Ok. Where do I start… I’ve been doing web design and web development for a living for about 3 years now. Before that, I mostly had occasional projects for friends and relatives.

I’ve read a lot of books on business, marketing, and self-development to better understand how business works. In the 1-page Marketing Plan, I learned how to pick a niche. Since I already had 2 websites for beauty salons under my belt I chose to target the beauty industry.

I started posting on social media about my services and created some educational YouTube videos for the industry to attract new clients. I did cold calling for a while but hadn’t succeeded much. I did a cold email but that was the same story.

Then I launched a website giveaway on Instagram and I got my first client. Since then referral clients started to come in. I became kind of an expert in beauty industry websites. At this point, I created more than 40 websites for beauty salons and beauty manufacturers.

The problem I had I couldn’t predict how many clients I would have in the month. Sometimes I sell 6 websites a month, sometimes 0.

Of course, I undercharged myself at the beginning and I still do. Because I create fully custom websites for people. I create custom web design, and marketing strategy and then develop it myself as well.

After every completed project I tried to raise my price. But after 40+ websites in the industry, it feels like I hit the wall. I came to a realization that website is not doing much in that industry and beauty salon owners are not ready to pay a lot of money for the website for their business. They have a lot of traffic through Instagram and etc.

At every sales call, I try to talk about their problems, and how the website can help them. But I’m having trouble convincing them to pay the price I want. They don’t understand the value (if there is any in the industry).

At the same time referral clients just evaporated. And I feel lost and confused about what to do next. I feel like I’m failing. I missed something.

I realized that I need to work with different clients who understand the value and are ready to pay. But having mostly beauty services websites in my portfolio I don’t see how I can talk to another business.

My websites look great and are built great but they are not doing much for the business. And I feel that’s what every established business wants to see from me.

I just don’t know how to approach larger businesses and different industries at this point. Although I have some solid skills I don’t know how to communicate them to people.

If anybody has any advice on how to get on the right track I would really appreciate it. Because I don’t want to give up but I feel like I’m missing something.

 

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[ZCP]

@Fox

 

[Mavrick614]

For your own peace of mind, choose a service with MRR.

It's (almost) just as easy to sell someone a one off thing as it is to sell them repeat. And that is how you begin to predict your monthly revenue.

Either that, or you need to calculate X amount of hours spent cold calling = y amount of sales, then find out how many sales it would take to pay for a part time cold caller, then full time, then two of them, etc

If you don't do one of these two things you'll find yourself in the same position another 3 years from now.

Feel free to post numbers too if you want help with the calculations! If you've been at it for 3 years sustaining yourself absolutely don't throw in the towel, but realize, your results are simply the sum of your actions. If you want different results, choose different actions!

 

[Rperrett2]

Here is another way to go about it...
Instead of trying to sell websites because that's what you do, find another solution you can offer in the industry. You already have a client list so start talking to the salon owners about their pain points, what problems they need solved, where they need help in other areas. If you can solve any of those problems you might find a better business opportunity, or at least another revenue stream. I read a book called Start From Zero which does a great job breaking this down into specific questions to ask so you can find opportunity within a given niche or industry. And you're not actually starting from zero so you will be ahead of the game.

My wife owns a salon. I know one of the biggest issues with hers is when people cancel appointments last minute or no show. Then the stylist is stuck at the salon waiting for their next client while not making money...that sucks. Maybe online scheduling that takes a deposit for the appointments or automated follow ups to confirm appointments would be a value added addition to your existing clients web sites. Just a thought...hopefully it helps get you thinking bigger about what other value you can add.

 

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