Journey of the German - Building a web design agency

[goodguude]

Hey guys and girls,

I am starting this progress thread as some sort of diary for me and for you. Despite having not very much to offer at the beginning of my journey, I hope that I can contribute some value to this forum in the future.

The Past:

I am living in Germany, where I am enrolled in my first year in economics at university. I turned 20 a few days ago, realizing that I haven't "accomplished" a lot in my life until now. I want to change that.

For more background, feel free to read my introduction: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/hallo-from-germany.68387/

Just until a few weeks / months ago I was completely fixed on becoming a professional in finance after graduation. I put a lot of effort into my studies to maintain a perfect GPA so I had a chance to interview at some banks /boutiques for an internship in their M&A - group.
Yesterday I got the call that I was given the chance to do an internship at one of the banks mentioned above.

Well, what can I say ... I declined the offer. At the interview (and probably already some time before), I noticed that it doesn't feel right to get into this business. I hated the thought of sitting in front of a computer the whole summer, formating PowerPoint slides 12 - 14 hours a day, not providing any "real" value.

I wanted to get into it because of all the wrong reasons: the pay, the exit opportunities and the possibility to write some fancy names into my linkedin profile, better known as "prestige".


The Now:

I incorporated a company a few days before turning 20 years old, providing web services like building websites and hosting those websites to local businesses.
Fortunately, a lot of those businesses in cities in the vicinity of my current place of residence are kind of technological "backward", having really outdated websites or no website at all.
A lot of opportunity for me and I already have two potential clients.

The main goals of this company are:
(1) accumulate some capital,
(2) get hands-on experience,
(3) take action.

Besides this business I am constantly trying to improve myself.
At the moment I am reading the book of MJ which delivers great insights.

And, unfortunately, I have to learn for some exams that I have to write next month. Since I don't want to drop out of university, this is some kind of "necessary evil". But I would be lying by saying I don't enjoy studying at all.
To be honest, I like it whenever I understand the subjects I have to learn and I also really like to help others on their way to understand these subjects, too.


The Future:

The next goals I want to accomplish include:

(1) Build the first websites for the clients and acquire new clients
(2) Start the 30 Days Gary Halbert Challenge
(3) Join local toastmasters group
(4) sell my xbox, tv, games

I will also keep working on myself - reading a lot of books and read through all the pieces of gold in this forum. Especially the posts of IceCreamKid help me to improve my personality and the ways I am thinking by A LOT. Thanks for this!

Okay, enough writing - next step needs to be taking action!

Thanks for reading.


Sincere regards,
goodguude

 

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[goodguude]

Hello fellow fastlaners,

nearly 2 months have passed since the last post. Time for a small update.

Things are pretty good at the moment. Secured some bigger contracts, so that September will (probably) be my first month with more than 5,000€ in profits. Started building a team of freelancers, consisting of copywriters, graphic designers, photo- and videographers and already used them to outsource some work on the current projects.

The quality of the work is better than if I am doing everything myself and I don't have to invest that much time in building a website anymore.


Regarding my other business venture in the pet niche:
We had some regulatory issues and therefor couldn't sell anything. Fortunately I have a meeting tomorrow, where this issue probably will be resolved so that we finally can bring our product to the market.


Thanks for your time!

 

[eekern]

@Andy Black has a lot of great tips for google adwords yes, as far as resources.

But in this example I could recommend facebook/Instagram ads because of the visual aspect of a restaurant. Meeeelted cheeeeeeese...

I get a lot of inspiration and tips from podcasts as well here are some:

- Agency Advantage
- Business unleashed
- The Smart Agency Masterclass
- Opposed Media Podcast

But to conclude, there is no better way to learn than trying and failing.

If you want to help a restaurant owner I would suggest to him that you run some ads for him for free, he only pay for adspend.

That way you become warm with facebook/adwords (both?) with no money down. When you get result you can start charging residual.

As @DaRK9 mentioned, selling to restaurant owners can be a bitch, and if he only give you 50$ adspend, you know you need to find a retainer client another place...

BUT NO NEED TO JUMP SHIP, I just wanted you to be aware of it - it is a reason why all people who start in web design end up in customer acquisition

Agencies start with website since they have a system in place (a own team that upsell adwords, SEO, print etc etc.. ) But in your situation as a small consultant without a team behind your back, it is better to sell a service and become an expert in that niche instead of focusing on websites first. Because then you will always be the. website. guy.

 

[codo3500]

If I had to start again, with a web agency, I'd try this (not saying it'll work, but I did something kinda similar):
- Go to an event like the ones by ClickFunnels or Digital Marketer (i.e. Traffic & Conversions Summit)
- Meet heaps of 'consultants', they love going to this stuff.
- None of these guys have decent web developers, they struggle so hard with it.
- I'd find someone with a 'big fish', a client that is a household name. Offer an insane (but believable) commission to the consultant if they can sell them on a new website. I'm talking 40%. They'll sell it for you. Only caveat is - you get to put your name on the bottom of the site. Odds are this consultant already manages their 'digital strategy', such as Adwords etc.

These types of consultants have been awesome for us. I just had another one drop me a 5 figure deal I can't say no to, despite how busy I am, it's just TOO good haha. This all happened yesterday, he'll sign the documents Monday - he's moving fast, because I'm making his life easy. If you want to know how to sell to these consultants and get them to refer to you, they really only have 3 motivations, and they are:
1. Look good to the client
2. Make extra money
3. Not have their time wasted - they want you to just 'take care of it'

Look at it from this perspective, if they can make some extra bucks from a client they're already spent hundreds of hours grooming to trust them, PLUS they look like they provide a more comprehensive service, then they have a huge win.

A lot of our biggest deals have come from these types when I think about it. It's so much harder to sell a 15k site from a 'cold lead' than to have it sold as part of a bigger strategy by someone they already trust to manage their Adwords/Facebook budget every day.

And also, I'm not talking about 'agencies', I've never gone to PPC agencies. It might work, it might not. I'm talking about one-man-band consultants that typically outsource everything anyway.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions on it.

 

[Greg Black]

Hey guys and girls,

I am starting this progress thread as some sort of diary for me and for you. Despite having not very much to offer at the beginning of my journey, I hope that I can contribute some value to this forum in the future.

Having been there, done that and got the T-Shirt, in both my own agency and other people's agencies, I would do the following:

• Don't be a generalist, offering all types of services to any type of local company.
• Pick a niche market to work with
• Productise your offering - find things that you can replicate and stamp out
• Specialise on a platform / service area - could be Wordpress, membership sites, shopify, adwords, seo, direct marketing etc - but pick one.
• Once cash flow is good, start to look at how you can work within your chosen niche to create long term assets, such as website rental, recurring memberships etc.

I hope this is useful.

 

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[goodguude]

Hey guys,

another little update from me.

So, I just turned 21 last month. And I am pretty unsatisfied with the results I achieved with my business(es) so far. The web design business is constantly doing between 1,000 - 2,000€ per month. I am feeling like I am making no real progress here, despite working a lot. It seems like the usual "work smart, not hard" problem.

So, I have a few things that I know need to change, to become more successful in the long run. They are

(1) Learn to say "NO
I have to stop taking on clients who are penny pinchers and don't acknowledge my services, selling websites for less than 1,000€ just to "have some work in the pipeline". THIS. NEEDS. TO. STOP. Really.

(2) Start doing more work to acquire new customers
I am bothered selling my services to other people. I don't want to make promises about "how a beautiful new website" will benefit their business, because I can't guarantee that. It always can happen that, despite having a professional looking website, their will be no significant effects for the client. And then he will be like "Wow, that dude really overpromised and underdelivered".
At the moment my only way of getting new clients is through referrals.

- I need to become more confident in the services I offer (hey, how can I expect that clients acknowledge the value of my services, if even I am not confident about them?)
- I have to pick up the phone and start cold calling (which I am quite afraid of, to be honest).
- I have to start attending local business meet-ups a lot more to network with other business owners.

(3) Making the transition from "the dude who builds websites" to an agency which provides complete online solutions for businesses
Made the first step when I started working together with freelance photographers. My next step needs to get in contact with some copywriters, so I can take that burden of making time to write the text for the website off the business owner's head. That's one of the problems I am encountering the most. Website delays because the client just has no time to deliver the content.
Now I will deliver it for him. I want that he doesn't have any work to do after an initial conversation. So he can lay back, do the work which is most important for his business, while I bring his whole online presence to a new level. That also brings me to point (4).

(4) Start offering SEM services
What's the worth of a professional and fancy website, if no one sees it?
Back in May I started going through a pretty extensive Udemy Course about the basics of Google AdWords. Simultaneously, I started implementing the things I learned there in some own campaigns, e.g. for our pet product test or for the AdWords account of my dad's business. At the moment I am taking two more courses about proper Landing Page design and some Advanced Remarketing Tactics. And, starting in August, I will work as a working student for a really successful online marketing agency (especially PPC and Social Media Marketing) here in Germany. There I can further improve my skills and also have a look at how those successful agencies manage all the communication and pricing and so on with their clients.
Also, I am having a pilot project with a local roofing company. I will set up their online marketing. And I do this for free for the first month, so I can get some more experience in this field. I just need to see that this really works, before I can confidently offer it as a paid service to other customers.


Wow. That text was longer then I expected. But I had to write those things down. They will help me progress. They shall keep me accountable.
I would be really happy to read some thoughts of other fellow fastlaners. Feel free to comment.

Have a nice day!

 

[eekern]

I agree. Amazing things have happened since I did even more for free.

5) F*ck websites. You want sales don't you?

I've an order for twenty 12" pizzas for the local Dell factory. Can you deliver for 9pm?



(Out of interest, which do you think needs to be "sold" the hardest?)

HAHHhahah, yes. For me website is just a gift I use to start a relationship, as Andy pointed out, if their impression of a website is "I have manage to live without a website for 10 years, and you need to convince him to invest in one, F*ck it - focus on what he really wants... customers."

Big agencies are good at linking web design, SEO, to customers, but PPC and direct mail is your real upsell that will get him results.

Use the website as a relationship builder, not only will the project be super easy aka. "WordPress theme", but he won't ruin your month with "small changes" since he got it for free.. now you can talk real business. And when you produce tangible result for him, you can charge 10x more than what you could for a website.


But all tips aside, you are young and I think you should get the projects for reference, experience and some pocket change, good luck developing your skills !

 

[goodguude]

Today, I approached somebody I have really no connection to for the first time.
It's a lawyer.

I built the main page of the potential new website and sent them an email. Tomorrow I will call them.

Let's see how it goes. @Fox said, that my website looks decent.
It would definitely be an improvement compared to their old website.

I will keep you informed!

 

[Thiago Machado]

.

So I thought about building an awesome website for them for free - I will get a nice website for my portfolio and probably also some word of mouth.
This could be my foot in the door in this niche.

What do you guys think?
@Fox @Andy Black @eekern @Thiago Machado

Have a nice day!

This worked for me.

Since it's a warm lead, they'll be way more receptive. And if you tell them you're going to give them a website for free, now their ears are wide open.
Do a good job, and they'll tell everyone about you.

So yes. Take this approach if you can.


Quick question:

How many cold emails did you send out?
You can't just send out 1 and then say you failed.
Send out at least 100.
It's reasonable to expect a 1 - 3% conversion rate (probably even more if you follow fox's method).


I think Fox's approach is brilliant.
Create a "your law firm here" mockup website and then cold-email prospective clients.
Do this with 100 people and then see how many respond.


So in order to do the free website approach, I'd do something like this:

Let's say you have a friend who's good friends with a lawyer. Ask for his contact info and then connect with him. Tell him how "billy" told you to contact him because you're creating these beautifully looking websites that generate massive sales for your clients, and now, you're looking to cater your services exclusively to lawyers. You asked around and "billy" said that you're one of the best, and that you have no website (or online presence or w.e.)

Then, proceed to tell him how you'd like to design him a website 100% free of charge.(All he has to do is pay for hosting).

And if he doesn't like it, he can just cancel the hosting subscription within 30 days.

So he has absolutely nothing to lose.

Why I think this approach is better:

You start off by having a "mini-relationship" with them. You have a friend in common. And a good friend wants to add value to your life. He wants you to happy. So there's a lot of social proof in that. Lots of credibility and influence too.

When you contact someone 100% cold, most people will just see you as an annoying salesman, interrupting their day, while you out their "preying" on people for a commission.

Sure, cold calls work. But I think there are better, less-stressful ways of going about this.

So from my experience, stop selling and start developing relationships.

P.S. - I'm actually having a lot more fun with the whole website + design thing than copywriting lately. It seems like an easier sell too. Idk... I just might have to create a progress thread on this as well. What do you think?

 

[Andy Black]

Most don't immediately see how it will end up with more sales. For the most part this is true. Which is why that is the only thing I outline when presenting a demo site.

For restaurants you need to focus on reservations. If they don't use OpenTable or any online reservation system, you are most likely talking to the wrong people already.

FREE is a word they don't hear very often. Restaurants are flooded with catches for everything. Buy 2 of this get this. Sign a deal for X months, then we will give you this allocated wine. Get our platinum marketing package and get a billboard for 3 months. Blah blah.

They almost never hear "No charge. No obligation. Let me do this for you."

F all the "if you are good at something never do it for free BS." Say the word free to a restaurant owner and see what happens.

I agree. Amazing things have happened since I did even more for free.



Also, where are you on this sliding scale of percieved value?


1) I'll show you how to do it.

Buy my eBook and learn how to build a great website for your pizza restaurant that will have hordes of hungry students beat a path to you - before your competitors do!


2) I'll help you do it.

Hire me to coach you in the fine and lost art of building a website for your pizza restaurant.


3) I'll do it for you.

Hire me to build a website for your pizza restaurant.


4) I've already done it.

I've built a fully functional website for your pizza restaurant. Do you want it?


5) F*ck websites. You want sales don't you?

I've an order for twenty 12" pizzas for the local Dell factory. Can you deliver for 9pm?



(Out of interest, which do you think needs to be "sold" the hardest?)

 

[DaRK9]

I also tend to trade websites a lot to remove bills. I'll reduce or remove up-front costs for services/items. Just use a pretty informal contract.

Part of my rent is from running my apt complex's adspend. $300/mo
My hair is taken care of. 1 hair cut a month for myself and girlfriend. $120/mo
I have around $400/mo in food from 5 restaurants each month.
Get $80/mo in gas from the construction company near my apt for doing their site. They have their own pumps.

Don't do anything crazy complex or time consuming for trade though just in case it goes sour.

 

[DaRK9]

I agree. Amazing things have happened since I did even more for free.



Also, where are you on this sliding scale of percieved value?

1) I'll show you how to do it.

2) I'll help you do it.

3) I'll do it for you.

4) I've already done it.

4. Always. I've never walked into an appointment without a demo site made.

If they approach me first, then its 3. Then I lock them in on agreeing to a demo.


Another real life "lead magnet" is to setup and optimize their Google Business page. Use https://moz.com/local/search and manually fix the main errors, add images and correct hours categories.

 

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[Fox]

Little thought for today: 60% of running your own web design company is sales. Lock sales down and everything else will fall into place.

 

[goodguude]

Hey!

Long time no see. I want to give a little update. So, what happened since my last post? Tl;dr at the bottom!

At first, I (probably) killed all of my exams. Because of my performance at university I will be a tutor in statistics as of October, earning 400€ per month for not a lot of work.
Additionaly, I maybe will get a scholarship worth 300€ per month.
With 700€ a month you can live relatively good in my city, especially as a student.

The next thing: my TV will finally get sold tomorrow. Makes another 220€.
I am still looking for a buyer for the xbox one plus games. Looking forward to get rid of it.

Also, I started kickboxing again. It's really funny and good for my shape. I am doing more sports in general.

The most important thing as of today: I probably made my first sale.
I will create a website for a local restaurant. They also want a logo, which I will outsource and they need some nice photos for their website, for which I will get a little commision since I referred them to a photographer I know.
If everything goes well, I will have my first profit of around 500€.


For the future:

I will have another meeting with another local company. This will probably result in another contract, too.

And I am going to apply for my semester abroad in the USA.
I contemplate with the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
Other possibilities include two universities in Houston, but I really hope to get into University of Arizona.
My university offers just one slot there for 30.000 students. But I am confident that I will be able to get this one slot.

Maybe I will meet some fellow forum members during my semester abroad.


tl;dr:
- killed all exams
- 700€ of additional cash flow as of october
- sold my TV for 220€
- doing more sports (kickboxing)
- probably got first webdesign contract for 500€ profit
- next meeting for another potential webdesign contract in the neXT
- probably in Arizona or Texas for half a year as of October 2017


goodguude

 

[goodguude]

Time for a new update.

Well, the deal with the local restaurant seems to be off the table - one day the owner of the restaurant just decided to stop all communications. She isn't answering any calls or messages - without a reason.

But there are (really) good news as well.
I landed another deal for a website, which will go through.
Profit: 400€

And I managed to get a deal that includes multiple websites for a single person.
The volume will be around 2.000€. That's really sweet.

Looking forward to the upcoming weeks!


goodguude

 

[Andy Black]

Fortunately, a lot of those businesses in cities in the vicinity of my current place of residence are kind of technological "backward", having really outdated websites or no website at all.

They're not alone!

The next goals I want to accomplish include:

(1) Build the first websites for the clients and acquire new clients

100%

(2) Start the 30 Days Gary Halbert Challenge

Will this help you acquire new clients?

BTW: "Starting" something should be a goal.




Some great listening for you:

• www.tropicalmba.com/consulting
• www.tropicalmba.com/services

Maybe even this fella:

• The biggest reason websites suck

There's a few threads about building agencies.

• I want to start a digital marketing agency

Check out @codo3500's AMA on the inside.

@eekern has a progress thread I think.

The most recent pages on my own INSIDERS progress thread are of me building an agency, as well as moving away from that model.

I'm sure there's plenty more if you do a search (I used Google here).



Good luck!

 

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[DaRK9]

Well, the deal with the local restaurant seems to be off the table - one day the owner of the restaurant just decided to stop all communications. She isn't answering any calls or messages - without a reason.

If you are local, show up before service. I work in that industry and this is common. They will forget to call wine reps, food distribution etc back as they are used to them coming into the restaurant.

Also, selling anything to restaurant owners (small business owners in general) is a bitch. One good tactic I use is to try and get a customer to use my demo site vs their existing site.

"Make a reservation." If they fumble around on the site to do this simple task, it needs to be updated. If the owner doesn't get it after that. Walk away.

 

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[Andy Black]

It seems like a lot of small business owners just don't really care if they have a useful website or not.

You mean they already know this?

 

[eekern]

(4) sell my xbox, tv, games

Just rep+ you 100$ for this one, this step alone gave me 1-2hour extra on my business A DAY !!

 

[Andy Black]

If I had to start again, with a web agency, I'd try this (not saying it'll work, but I did something kinda similar):
- Go to an event like the ones by ClickFunnels or Digital Marketer (i.e. Traffic & Conversions Summit)
- Meet heaps of 'consultants', they love going to this stuff.
- None of these guys have decent web developers, they struggle so hard with it.
- I'd find someone with a 'big fish', a client that is a household name. Offer an insane (but believable) commission to the consultant if they can sell them on a new website. I'm talking 40%. They'll sell it for you. Only caveat is - you get to put your name on the bottom of the site. Odds are this consultant already manages their 'digital strategy', such as Adwords etc.

These types of consultants have been awesome for us. I just had another one drop me a 5 figure deal I can't say no to, despite how busy I am, it's just TOO good haha. This all happened yesterday, he'll sign the documents Monday - he's moving fast, because I'm making his life easy. If you want to know how to sell to these consultants and get them to refer to you, they really only have 3 motivations, and they are:
1. Look good to the client
2. Make extra money
3. Not have their time wasted - they want you to just 'take care of it'

Look at it from this perspective, if they can make some extra bucks from a client they're already spent hundreds of hours grooming to trust them, PLUS they look like they provide a more comprehensive service, then they have a huge win.

A lot of our biggest deals have come from these types when I think about it. It's so much harder to sell a 15k site from a 'cold lead' than to have it sold as part of a bigger strategy by someone they already trust to manage their Adwords/Facebook budget every day.

And also, I'm not talking about 'agencies', I've never gone to PPC agencies. It might work, it might not. I'm talking about one-man-band consultants that typically outsource everything anyway.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions on it.

Haha. I'm moving that way as a one-man PPC consultant. This would work for plenty of AdWords consultants OP. Their client's websites suck.

EDIT: OP, you couldn't pay me to attend one of those events, so try figure out how to find guys managing big budgets but with low profiles.

I've literally had clients ask me to take over management of their website, SEO, content marketing, etc. To date I've turned them all down, but it shows the power of getting in the door as a specialist and delivering more revenue to a business.

 

[Fox]

I am thinking about doing a dedicated thread on my web development journey. Maybe some recorded interviews with other guys on here, cold calls, breakdown my business set up, easy ways to code good sites, pricing etc. While I don't consider myself hugely successful yet there has been a lot of PMs regarding stuff I know I can add a lot of value too. I will try get something up in the next week.

 

[goodguude]

Hey guys and girls!

I wanted to give a little update about my situation. So, what happened in the last few weeks?

The before mentioned websites are already finished. Just the texts, that the clients need to provide me, are still missing.
I really need to get in contact with an excellent german-speaking copywriter in the near future, so I don't have to wait half a century for the texts of the clients.

It seems like the texts will be sent to me within the next week. So my revenue for my second month in business - September- will be around 2.000€

Revenue in August: 0€
Revenue in September: 2.000€

My main goal for the next month(s) is to maintain and potentially grow this number. Therefor I need to get in touch with more potential clients.
I will concentrate my client-search on lawyers since they have really reaaaaalllyyy shitty websites here in Germany.

Additionally, I will raise the prices I charge for a website to around 1.000 - 2.000€ for those kind of projects.


Oh, and I will pursue a second degree in computer science besides the economics degree.
This is the result of my interest in AI / machine learning, but this is maybe a topic for a different thread and a different time.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day,
goodguude

 

[Ika]

A webagency I knoe here in Germany doubled their prices to seem serious to lawyers.. They told me those people expect a higher price - Good luck with that!

Gesendet von meinem XT1032 mit Tapatalk

 

[goodguude]

Well, the above mentioned approach went nowhere. I sent the email with the demo of the website. The next day I called them at around 11 am and asked the secretary I could speak to the lawyer himself. She denied and said "if he is interested he will answer your email later that day".
Needless to mention that no answer was sent that day.

So, my first try in "cold calling" was a F A I L. But I am happy that I did this step. My next approaches will become better and better, finally resulting in new clients in the future - at least that's my hope.


But I don't have just bad news for you. Another opportunity knocked on my door!
A good friend of mine has a connection to the owner of a renowned law firm in my city. They have an ugly website.

So I thought about building an awesome website for them for free - I will get a nice website for my portfolio and probably also some word of mouth.
This could be my foot in the door in this niche.

What do you guys think?
@Fox @Andy Black @eekern @Thiago Machado

Have a nice day!

 

[Fox]

Ya if you can get a good contract do it for free and get rolling.

Also with your template that you used for the cold call - if you keep it generic maybe you can use it for multiple businesses. So instead of saying "Jimmys Law Firm" use "Your Law firm" and then ring every operation in town.

Try door to door two. This is a sales games so thats a huge main skill to work on right from the start. If you can get sales everything else will fall into place.

 

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[PatrickWho]

If you don't mind me chiming in, I found having clients.yourdomain.com/client1, clients.yourdomain.com/client2, clients.yourdomain.com/client3, etc. to be the best approach.

This means you have a subdomain called 'clients' or 'demo'... then you use a subFOLDER in the directory where that subdomain lies to show the specific demo. This will keep your server files better organized and easier to navigate. Just make sure http://clients.yourdomain.com doesn't reveal all your clients. You can do this by putting a blank index.php file or something in the root folder for clients.yourdomain.com.

 

[DaRK9]

Hey DaRK9!

Thanks for sharing your experience regarding this industry.

Yeah, it seems like this sector isn't the holy grail at all. But before I can take on bigger projects, I need to get a bit more experienced and I need to build a portfolio. With every completed website I get better and better - and whenever I get better I am able to provide more value to potential clients and therefore charge a higher price.
@Fox and @codo3500 are like idols for me - providing massive value to their clients and working on 5 - digit - deals.

I will try your mentioned tactic. It seems like a lot of small business owners just don't really care if they have a useful website or not.

Most don't immediately see how it will end up with more sales. For the most part this is true. Which is why that is the only thing I outline when presenting a demo site.

For restaurants you need to focus on reservations. If they don't use OpenTable or any online reservation system, you are most likely talking to the wrong people already.

FREE is a word they don't hear very often. Restaurants are flooded with catches for everything. Buy 2 of this get this. Sign a deal for X months, then we will give you this allocated wine. Get our platinum marketing package and get a billboard for 3 months. Blah blah.

They almost never hear "No charge. No obligation. Let me do this for you."

F all the "if you are good at something never do it for free BS." Say the word free to a restaurant owner and see what happens.

 

[eekern]

I am thinking about doing a dedicated thread on my web development journey. Maybe some recorded interviews with other guys on here, cold calls, breakdown my business set up, easy ways to code good sites, pricing etc. While I don't consider myself hugely successful yet there has been a lot of PMs regarding stuff I know I can add a lot of value too. I will try get something up in the next week.

Don`t think about it - I know a lot of people who would get a lot of value form that.

 

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[goodguude]

Any updates?

A bit late, but yes!

So, I had some more clients. For one of them I built an eCommerce website and now he pays me around 300€ / month just for looking after his shop and minor changes to it every now and then since he absolutely doesn't want to deal with the technical aspects of that website.
I also rebranded the agency a bit. New logo, new own website - targeting higher paying clients in the real estate and law sector. Still have to look how it works out.

Recently I started to learn more about Google Adwords. Really interesting topic - and there are just so so many things one can do wrong.
Wanted to learn it because two friends of mine and me decided to start our own eCommerce business, selling products for pets.
We had a little test, lasting 3 days, to see if the product we want to sell gathers some interest. And it did, we made a few sales! (And refunded the money directly after their purchase, saying we are out of stock, of course.)

Our plan is to launch the whole thing end of may. Until then I have to become a Adwords Genius haha.

What else is there to say?
Well, I did an internship at the private equity unit of a german bank. And I F*cking hated it.
Sitting in the office every day, doing useless stuff in some Excel files (those tasks really make me aggressive). It was like "hey, here we have a list of 600 companies. Please add their email addresses, phone numbers, bla bla bla to it".

That internship showed me again that I want to build a business myself. I would become miserable after years at a job like this.

 

[Andy Black]

Hey guys,

another little update from me.

So, I just turned 21 last month. And I am pretty unsatisfied with the results I achieved with my business(es) so far. The web design business is constantly doing between 1,000 - 2,000€ per month. I am feeling like I am making no real progress here, despite working a lot. It seems like the usual "work smart, not hard" problem.

So, I have a few things that I know need to change, to become more successful in the long run. They are

(1) Learn to say "NO
I have to stop taking on clients who are penny pinchers and don't acknowledge my services, selling websites for less than 1,000€ just to "have some work in the pipeline". THIS. NEEDS. TO. STOP. Really.

(2) Start doing more work to acquire new customers
I am bothered selling my services to other people. I don't want to make promises about "how a beautiful new website" will benefit their business, because I can't guarantee that. It always can happen that, despite having a professional looking website, their will be no significant effects for the client. And then he will be like "Wow, that dude really overpromised and underdelivered".
At the moment my only way of getting new clients is through referrals.

- I need to become more confident in the services I offer (hey, how can I expect that clients acknowledge the value of my services, if even I am not confident about them?)
- I have to pick up the phone and start cold calling (which I am quite afraid of, to be honest).
- I have to start attending local business meet-ups a lot more to network with other business owners.

(3) Making the transition from "the dude who builds websites" to an agency which provides complete online solutions for businesses
Made the first step when I started working together with freelance photographers. My next step needs to get in contact with some copywriters, so I can take that burden of making time to write the text for the website off the business owner's head. That's one of the problems I am encountering the most. Website delays because the client just has no time to deliver the content.
Now I will deliver it for him. I want that he doesn't have any work to do after an initial conversation. So he can lay back, do the work which is most important for his business, while I bring his whole online presence to a new level. That also brings me to point (4).

(4) Start offering SEM services
What's the worth of a professional and fancy website, if no one sees it?
Back in May I started going through a pretty extensive Udemy Course about the basics of Google AdWords. Simultaneously, I started implementing the things I learned there in some own campaigns, e.g. for our pet product test or for the AdWords account of my dad's business. At the moment I am taking two more courses about proper Landing Page design and some Advanced Remarketing Tactics. And, starting in August, I will work as a working student for a really successful online marketing agency (especially PPC and Social Media Marketing) here in Germany. There I can further improve my skills and also have a look at how those successful agencies manage all the communication and pricing and so on with their clients.
Also, I am having a pilot project with a local roofing company. I will set up their online marketing. And I do this for free for the first month, so I can get some more experience in this field. I just need to see that this really works, before I can confidently offer it as a paid service to other customers.


Wow. That text was longer then I expected. But I had to write those things down. They will help me progress. They shall keep me accountable.
I would be really happy to read some thoughts of other fellow fastlaners. Feel free to comment.

Have a nice day!

I'm on my phone so here's an unstructured jumble of thoughts based on first reading:

1) Take what I say with a pinch of salt. Take what anyone says with a pinch of salt. You don't "need to", "have to", "must do", or "should do" anything anyone else says. Careful using those phrases yourself too... they can blind you to alternatives.

2) As per point 1)... maybe you don't "need" to do cold calls. I don't do them and get plenty of leads. I'm not saying not to, just to get you to question everything.

3) What works for me instead of cold anything (cold calls, cold emails, cold "traffic", etc) is to "spend my money on diesel and coffee". Consider physically meeting everyone you know locally, getting to know then, and finding out if you can help them. You can check out the thread I created of the same name. (Notice how I didn't say you "need" to spend your money on diesel and coffee, or that you "should" check out the thread...)

4) So you're positioning yourself currently as the dude who does websites. Is that "the dude who does websites in <your neighbourhood>"? That could be pretty niche. When people find you, what were they looking for? When people introduce you to someone else, how do they refer to you?

5) Getting clients to create copy/content is a big bottleneck. They don't know where to start, and make it (starting) a bigger job than it is. We throw up something into pages as best we can. This helps the client to get going as they tear into what you've written. They can't start with a blank canvas it seems, so go darken the page for them maybe?

6) Maybe don't worry so much about not being as niche as you'd like yet. Myself and @JoeyF chat about this in a recorded Skype call (see my signature for link to master thread of all calls). Our experience was we took on all comers and learned over time what did and didn't work for us. We found patterns and almost found our focus through natural elimination. That's one way of doing it... not saying it's the only way.

7) Consider *not* telling everyone their beautiful new website will bring more business. Literally, some people just want to be proud of their site so they can give out business cards when they meet people. Yes, it should bring them more business, but for some people they are literally embarrassed by their site and want to make it look pretty.

8) Positive feedback from clients will help your confidence, help your stories, help you make sales, and help you increase prices.

9) Me personally, I prefer lots of smaller clients coming though my pipeline as I can learn faster and grow my network quicker too. I know @Fox has a different philosophy, which goes to show you don't "need" to do anything other than what suits you, adds value, and helps you achieve *your* goals.

10) I'm biased, but I think you're onto something if you can offer AdWords *and* the websites/landing pages.

11) Beware positioning yourself as doing everything. I get "in" as a specialist and then clients start asking for other services.

12) A way to niche down while adding more services is to focus on a specific vertical. What if you were the "guy who does websites and online marketing to help dentists get more leads?"

 

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