Journey From $0 to $XX,XXX in Freelance Web Design

[Agbaya]

Hey Everyone,

As the title states I'm starting this progress thread to document the growth of a freelance web design business. I am starting from zero sales, zero customers, and zero network. I have nothing but a desire to learn and grow, along with a strong work ethic to make this work no matter what.

I laid out my reasons for wanting to go into this business in my Intro thread but in short, I want to be able to live off the funds from freelancing then bankroll the extra profits into starting an eCommerce business.

Although freelancing is still trading time for money, it gives you a certain flexibility that a traditional 9-5 won't allow, and will help me cultivate entrepreneurial mindsets and ways of thinking rather than employee ones.

Why create a progress thread on the forum then?

Because by far my greatest weakness is analysis paralysis.

It's so bad, I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out a name to register on the forum with and then another 10 minutes figuring out my profile picture haha.

Publicly stating what I intent to do here will give me an extra boost to stick with my goals, even when times get tough and I start questioning my will to persevere.

So please if you detect any hint of analysis paralysis or action-faking in this thread call me out.

Be rude if you have to (to a point) I have thick skin and can take criticism as long as it comes from a good place.

By now you must be thinking: Agbaya this is all good and all but have you actually done anything yet?

Yeah I have. Here's the action I've taken in the past 24 hours:

1. Created and account on Upwork and started sending proposals
2. Created two mock web sites to add bring the total size of my portfolio to 5 different web sites
3. Implemented the what I learned from the sales book SPIN Selling (which I highly recommend) to complete five cold calls of local businesses in my area

While I know I've gone ahead and tried to make things happen, its only a start. And I will be updating this thread regularly about my progress going forward.

Here are the goals I want to achieve by the end of September:

1. Create website for two local business and get positive testimonials from both of them.
2. Win at least one proposal on Upwork for a 5 star review.

If you've made it this far thanks for reading. If you have anything to share that will help out me or anyone reading please go ahead and comment. I don't care if you're @Fox or a brand new member, if you have something of value to add I'll listen.

Time to get to Work,

Agbaya

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

You have very defined goals. You know your strengths. You freely admit your weaknesses.

Hell, I'd say you're ahead of a lot of people right there!

And you have a great idea that can be profitable.

Go man go! The only one that can convince you that you can't do that is you - and I just don't see that happening! Bill Gates was successful way before he was rich. I put you in the same category. You know what you want, and you have everything lined up to get it!

 

[Agbaya]

Time for an update. I plan on doing these once a week on Sundays. I'll go over all the actions I took in the previous week and what I plan to do in the following one.

Since I started my thread on Tuesday I've made over a dozen calls to local businesses offering to update their website free of charge.

I didn't get a singe yes haha

Still, I did learn a lot and gained two or three leads that could turn into business in this upcoming week.

The first big thing I realized was that I was casting too wide a net. I called a couple gyms, a couple dentists, a couple moving companies, etc. Trying to be all things to all people was stressing me out and it resulted in me not sounding like I understood each business's specific problems on the phone.

To remedy this I've decided to niche down and only look to make websites for blue collar business first for a couple reasons:

1. It's much easier to reach the decision makers. Often times I was able to get through to the owner of the company or someone who knew the owner personally. As a result I won't have to deal with as many gatekeepers and can make my pitch directly to the person I will be doing business with.
2. Most of their websites are just atrocious. Redesigning them will be a huge value add that's impossible to miss.

As far as Upwork goes, I've decided to niche down on that platform as well. You'll hardily find any carpenters looking for a update on there, so I've decided to go into the eCommerce niche. Specifically, developing eCommerce sites for people. I like the niche because there's no shortage of people looking to set up a store on Shopify or Woocomerce and there's a slightly higher barrier to entry for those jobs: you have to be comfortable with PHP.

As a result I started learning PHP and MySQL for the purposes of getting the knowledge necessary to be able to apply for those jobs and I'm about 60% of the way there. My goal is to start sending proposals for those jobs by the end of next week.

Right now by biggest fear is moving too slow. I know that it's not good to compare yourself to others, but looking @Fox 's gold thread makes me think that I should be further ahead than I am now. If you guys think I'm spending too much time learning please let me know. Also going for eCommerce jobs and websites for local business could be splitting my effort too much. I think I can do it but I'm interested to hear what anyone has to say about that strategy.

Something that I feel deserves mentioning is that I started school again on Thursday. Fortunately it won't eat up too much of my time as I'll only have class three days a week, but being in a technical major will eat up some time that I would have had to work. Still no excuses. I'll just have to be more productive with the time I have.

Final couple thoughts before I sign off:

I was reading Unscripted last night when I got to the chapter where @MJ DeMarco talks about finding the meaning and purpose behind your Unscripted goals. I realized that I hadn't made these explicitly clear for myself and the next morning I immediately listed out the whys behind my goals in every area of life. I highly recommend doing this. It didn't get me excited to go out and work for 12 hours straight, but it gave me a sense of reassurance about my pursuit of the goals I have that will serve me in the face of adversity.

Secondly I recommend reading @Kak 's gold thread here: GOLD! - Where I have been this time... and why I'm famous at Wells Fargo

It taught me again about dominance or doing what it takes to get what you want in life. He'd gotten scammed and could have easily let the money he lost disappear forever, but he dug in firmly and did what it took to win. This is something that I have to work on and I appreciate the lessons @Kak taught me in that thread.

You have very defined goals. You know your strengths. You freely admit your weaknesses.

Hell, I'd say you're ahead of a lot of people right there!

And you have a great idea that can be profitable.

Go man go! The only one that can convince you that you can't do that is you - and I just don't see that happening! Bill Gates was successful way before he was rich. I put you in the same category. You know what you want, and you have everything lined up to get it!

Thanks @Real Deal Denver I appreciate the kind words