Moved to Scottsdale, Growing a Web Design Firm

[Empires]

Hey man - that's completely fair! I'm curious to see what the numbers look like since this is a completely different animal than what I'm used to (mainly because 1. there's no risk for the clients as they don't pay if I don't get them results and 2. there's no education to explain the value like with SEO as they'll know exactly what I'm referring to with this new business).

For now I figure those are just estimates and as I start doing massive outreach I'll be able to better refine my numbers.

Totally, looking forward to seeing your progress!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bigguns50]

Still following bro!

it showed me the legitimacy of this business

I've learned to try different business ideas and use "Proof of Concept". Good job!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Dionysos]

Great read! Thanks for sharing.

You definitely got the right mindset etc. Keep swinging and it'll be a matter of time until you really hit a homerun!

Though you are already doing great man, huge respect and keep going!

 

[Zwelethu]

I think you are mining data and soon you will find the best use for the service you're offering. All the best!

 

[Rex Wee]

Hey MJ - thanks for the push, I'll include a breakdown below of what's been up on my side since my last post.

After posting that the plan was to wind down the review business (and take on occasional clients with it or use it as an upsell to my main business) I had a networking connection introduce me to a huge company that wanted my review removal services (don't want to provide the specific name, but they apparently had a SuperBowl commercial this year which is crazy).

In addition to that, the same week I had an old review client who was very happy refer me to his brother's business. So without any real effort put into client outreach, I had a $6k month a few months ago which inspired me to pick things back up with that.

The main business still has the monthly recurring revenue from my SEO clients (most of them have been with me for 2 years and have been fantastic to work with and it's safer stable income), but my main focus has been more on the review side.

After my friend got me this huge client, she asked if I could offer a commission for future referrals so we agreed that any introduction she makes that turns into a client, I provide 10% for any review that comes down for that client.

Since that's been working well, I offered that same deal to some other trusted business owners I know who I know are well connected and network a lot. I've also been working on something on the IT side of things to identify review clients much easier (still in the works, but making big progress on that).

It really opened my eyes to how this could scale when I did $8.2k in just one week last month in June (just from a handful of clients) and how my larger clients are constantly getting reviews so it almost becomes a recurring revenue source for the larger ones.

I want to be able to post a larger update when I really have everything aligned so apologies for disappearing on here, but there's just so many unknowns right now for how this could go so trying to make it all happen.

On one hand, Google could smack me down and turn this virtually into nothing at any point, but when things line up, the amount I've been making for the relatively small amount of time (and how happy the clients are) has inspired me to really push myself on this and see what happens.

Happy to answer any questions!

Hi Dan,

I just discovered this amazing thread of yours. I skipped to this last page after page 10. Ha, ha!

You have accomplished so much in the last 3 years of building up your business. Congrats!

Can I ask - how many hours do you work each day? Do you tried to separate work and family hours?

I know this is way off-topic, but I'm just curious how hard entrepreneurs work on a daily basis.

Thanks!

Rex

 

[rutrika]

rep mgmt business
Congrats with your progress. What kind of business is that? - rep mgmt (outsourcing?)

 

[Bigguns50]

rep mgmt business
Congrats with your progress. What kind of business is that? - rep mgmt (outsourcing?)

Reputation Management

 

[Bravesamurai]

Hey everyone,

It's been about one year since I joined the forum and thanks to the great advice of some members of the community, I've been able to completely change my life and move in a better direction.

To keep it simple, I was working at an investment bank in NYC and absolutely hated my life / how I was treated.

This week I just moved into my apartment in Scottsdale after making the cross country drive solo. A few months back I started my web design business with the help of Fox's course which has provided tremendous value and I've already closed a $1250 and a $4000 sale so far (a few other possible ones in the pipeline too).

When I was trying to find my way, I probably cold emailed 250+ businesses and cold called 150+ with lots of rejection, but it was a great learning experience.

I know a lot of members are from the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, and as I'm new to the area, it would be great to meet up if anyone is interested to grab a coffee/drink sometime.

Thanks!

Hey, I’m looking to get into web design as well. Can you shed a bit more light on what Fox’s course is? Some links would be much appreciated!

I’m a total noob with web design and I think this is the direction I want to go into.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bigguns50]

Great update! There are a lot of big businesses in Manhattan. I would expect you can tap some of those. Congrats on the move and a record month!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[sravyasri]

Loved your story. Any updates @GuitarManDan ?

 

[MHP368]

Hey everyone,

It's been about one year since I joined the forum and thanks to the great advice of some members of the community, I've been able to completely change my life and move in a better direction.

To keep it simple, I was working at an investment bank in NYC and absolutely hated my life / how I was treated.

This week I just moved into my apartment in Scottsdale after making the cross country drive solo. A few months back I started my web design business with the help of Fox's course which has provided tremendous value and I've already closed a $1250 and a $4000 sale so far (a few other possible ones in the pipeline too).

When I was trying to find my way, I probably cold emailed 250+ businesses and cold called 150+ with lots of rejection, but it was a great learning experience.

I know a lot of members are from the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, and as I'm new to the area, it would be great to meet up if anyone is interested to grab a coffee/drink sometime.

Thanks!

Welcome to Arizona!

 

[ApeRunner]

My hometown is Mexicali, Baja, which has the same weather as Phoenix I believe. And I can verify. Humans adapt. Although, I'm not sure how healthy is to expose yourself to extreme heath every day.

 

[GuitarManDan]

You can hold off on the S election if you want, until you see if it makes sense.
S Corp traps you into payroll and an additional tax filing. A single-member LLC will show up on your personal return. You might want to wait until the added cost of running payroll and having another tax filing outweighs the cost of self-employment tax that is being saved.

Thanks! When I create the entity, will I need to make an election or is there a default that would make more sense?

This is the info I really need to dig into so I appreciate any advice. I’ve currently just been invoicing using FreshBooks and making it paid to me personally.

Need to investigate business bank accounts and all of that jazz too.

 

[GuitarManDan]

You are making me nostalgic! Congrats on the sales.

Thanks MJ! It’s been quite the ride so far starting a whole life over here in Scottsdale.

I have a few sales meetings this week too so hoping to start really bringing in some new business.

 

[GuitarManDan]

Keep grinding. Your going to make it!

Thanks! The main goal is to overdeliver now for these clients and keep focusing on growing.

 

[GuitarManDan]

Cool!

Next suggestion: Although it can be tempting to wait until you get a green-light on that big project/client, it's important to keep doing things to fill your funnel of prospective projects. That way, you're not dependent on any 1 project or client. And you'll care far less if you lose any project/client, since you'll have a bunch of other prospects in the pipeline. More prospects = less risk (and shorter time to generate revenue).

Hey man,

Completely agreed, this was just one of the highlights I wanted to share haha I've been tracking all of the prospects in my CRM and have been speaking with multiple businesses.

Definitely don't want to expose myself to that kinda risk where I hold out for one big deal!

 

[InspireHD]

Dan, you mentioned doing SEO for a personal training gym. Do you have a recommendation for a course that you use and like? I just finished a site for a friend who does personal training and he doesn’t believe he will get any traffic. I’m trying to prove him wrong and set him up with some good SEO.

Even an online resource would be great. I was searching around yesterday but wasn’t coming up with anything substantial. I also didn’t have a lot of time.

Thanks.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GuitarManDan]

Quick simple update just for tracking purposes.

Previous client asked for updates on his site that took around 3-4 hours to do. Charged $300 for that and collected that today. Using this as an opening to pitch SEO services too, he agreed to hear me out about that after we get these updates completed.

February so far has really been mostly about getting my name out there and really taking action to bring in SEO monthly packages. Been very encouraging all of the web design leads I've been getting just from previous work (can spend the large majority of my time on outreach for SEO while getting one-off web design projects).

2019 Challenge: $8,560 Revenue / $100,000 Goal (still have around $700 for another client's edits I did that will invoice soon and will update this).

 

[Twiizlar]

Congrats on your success so far. I also think you are severely underestimating the amount of knowledge and experience that goes into SEO. It seems to me like you have only taken 1 course and have never worked in SEO.

SEO is all about experience and applying/experimenting. SEO clients was to see past success as there are many scam artists out there in the industry. Also just because your a web developer doesn't mean you will be good at SEO. There is more to SEO than just technical on-site work.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback!

You know I was wondering that myself, I had one client come back and say they didn't need a website but a mobile app instead. I actually took a meeting with them figuring that if I could get an idea of their budget (they couldn't give me one) I could outsource to another firm and maybe start offering that.

Tried a few chasers though and haven't heard back, but there's definitely a big opportunity out there.

Honestly this may be out there already, but I'm still waiting for someone to make a huge company in a similar style of Squarespace or Wix but for mobile apps for the clients you want to do it themselves and not pay a crazy amount of money to make one.

Ok - I'll be "that" guy.

Can you fill me in on why a company would want an app made especially for them?

I see lots and lots of apps out there. Why wouldn't one of the ones already in use work for them?

This is a new area - hope you can bring me up to speed on this, as I know nothing about it at all.

Thanks ~

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GuitarManDan]

Ok - I'll be "that" guy.

Can you fill me in on why a company would want an app made especially for them?

I see lots and lots of apps out there. Why wouldn't one of the ones already in use work for them?

This is a new area - hope you can bring me up to speed on this, as I know nothing about it at all.

Thanks ~

Just being honest, I’m still not really sure. This is a new area for me and have only had this one prospect ask me about it.

For their specific purpose I kinda agree, seems like a lot of the functionality they want is available with other already existing free apps.

With the process itself I’d have to imagine it’s quite expensive to build an app from scratch.

 

[Andy Daniels]

Fantastic thread. You're a great writer, I can really feel your desire to help others and provide value. So inspiring.

Way to keep on hustling for those sales, it's clearly paying off!

Keep it up, you're doing great

 

[MakeItHappen]

Annoying news is I found out I have some unexpected medical stuff going on and will need to have surgery within the next week or two, so I may be MIA for a while.

I am sorry to hear that. All the best for you!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GravyBoat]

I also have gotten really great at my sales emails so I know I did a great job of really showing the value.

Will you post an example of what you're using in here?

 

[GravyBoat]

Sorry if you already mentioned it but what CRM are you using to keep track of all your prospects/customers/projects/etc?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GravyBoat]

What are you doing to get so many referrals? Referral program/discounts or just straight word of mouth / asking / networking?

 

[Pat D. Rick]

I just read through the whole thread in one go. It's like a good ebook with lots of useful insights and has it's gold status well deserved.

Kinda like my own progress, but I'm just staring out (and not living in Scottsdale). Totally agree that networking events is the best way to find new clients. Nothing's better than human interactions. And a good way to get over my shyness as well.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GuitarManDan]

Me: "I thought this was lazy season. You're right though. This isn't the best time to miss my friends funeral. Well, gotta get busy."

Haha yeah seriously I was tempted to tell him off.

Not to get too personal but it was a close younger cousin so it wasn’t even like a distant friend.

 

[Twiizlar]

Hey Everyone,

OK, time for some tough love for myself. Regardless of what's happened in the past few months (random health issues, surgeries, etc) I have a goal and I need to put my head down and make this happen.

I just flew back to AZ last night and am working on some planning for the week and the next month or so to make this happen. Here's what I'm thinking to make $10k in monthly recurring rev. happen by June 30th of this year.

Here's where we stand:

• Goal: $10k per month
• Current: $2k per month (difference of $8k per month)
• Average Client Value will be around $1,250 per month
• Client Needed: Approximately 6

Current Pipeline:

1. Previous web design client (Investment Firm) - verbally agreed to $1,150 per month (have a call with him tomorrow actually) where things should kick off. However, although this is one of my favorite clients because he's a great guy, he is good for his word but he delays things a lot so I'm not going to have my hopes too high that this closes tomorrow.
2. Previous web design client (Fashion Designer) - this would be absolutely huge, I pitched them to help with SEO for $2,250 per month for a 12 month contract. I completely sold his right-hand man on it, but he is going to present it to the fashion designer this upcoming week. Basically, this guy is absolutely loaded so he flat out told me money isn't an issue, and I know the put myself in a great spot to really show the value. They also know, like and trust me since we've worked together so fingers crossed this one goes through... would be huge.
3. New prospect (Investment Firm in Scottsdale) - when doing outreach, have had 2 phone calls with a biz owner who said he's very interested in moving forward in having me redo the website (pitched for $4-7k) and SEO (packages from like $1k to 3k per month). No idea when this one would kick off and if this goes through, I'd have to do the website first so realistically it would have to close very fast for me to get this in time for my June 30th deadline.
4. New prospect (Law Firm in Scottsdale) - when doing outreach, owner responded and said he's be interested in $1,000 per month SEO work for maybe 3-4 months just to see how it goes and then take it from there.

Next Steps:

The above 4 are the most promising but there are a lot more in the pipeline as well that I need to follow up with. I think it's safe to assume that since I need 6 clients, I will get at least 2 from the current pipeline.

That means I will need to get 4 new clients from networking/outreach/referrals/etc by June 30th of this year.

• So far, when doing batches of outreach, I've gotten probably an average of 1 new client for each batch (typically reaching out to 10-25 businesses). This outreach is highly targeted and I'm using a strategy where I provide a detailed audit for the business that gets a much higher response rate (and takes me way more time).
• Following that logic, if I do 4 batches of big outreach that should yield me 4 new clients for SEO. Now, I need to get that out ASAP since it obviously isn't instant and the buying cycle is usually a few weeks to a month or so.

Strategic Plan:

• For the month of May, reach out to approximately 60 more businesses with my highly-targeted outreach approach (and be sure to follow up appropriately) to secure the 4 new clients, plus keep following up with the pipeline to lock in the other 2 clients.

It's ambitious, but I'm so damn close to going from ok monthly revenue to locked in solid 5 figures a month recurring revenue.

I'll just keep my focus on that goal for now, but after hitting the $10k per month mark I'll reanalyze and determine what my goal is to hit in MRR by Dec 31st of this year.

Will keep everyone posted!

How are you doing the SEO audits for the outreach? Are you using an automated tool like SEOptimer or do you have craft each one.

Also, I heard that people don't open emails from people they don't know if it has an attachment.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[srodrigo]

@GuitarManDan Sorry if I missed this from previous comments, but I've got a few questions about your SEO monthly services:

• What do you do exactly? Is that something like making sure SEO keeps improving?
• How much work/time does it take you? I really like the recurring revenue approach compared to one-off jobs only
• Related to the question above, are you outsourcing anything at the moment? Sounds like building the websites plus the monthly services would eventually overload your schedule. How do you plan to scale this?

EDIT: Typos.