Start Your 6-Figure Online Web Design Business Today...

Logan W · Sep 4, 2020

Hi @Fox,

Most of the comments are from English-speaking people. Do you have examples and testimonials from people who have succeeded thanks to your training in the francophone sphere?

I'm afraid that the success encountered will not be the same in the francophone sphere because it's a different market. It would be a big disillusion for me if I realize this during the training.

Thank you for your answer.

SFG · Sep 5, 2020

Fox said:
This year has been quite crazy so far, and a lot of people have reached out to ask me if web design is still a good option. While this is a marketplace post about my coaching program, it will also be a good general guide of the web design opportunities that exist right now.

Is web design still a profitable business in 2020?

You may be thinking, “Sure, web design was great when you started your gold thread in 2016, but what about now?”
Isn’t web design outdated now? Does anyone even still need a website and is it not oversaturated for making money?”

Maybe you have even thought about trying web design in the past, but you were never 100% sure if it was the right thing for YOU to pursue among all the different options out there. The most common questions I still get asked are:

How hard is it to learn and make money?

Can I learn this with no past experience?

How much coding skills do I have to learn to sell websites?

How fast can I sell my first project?

Is it too late for me to compete against others doing this for years?

Can I take this step without getting stuck in something that's NOT right for me?

If any of these questions sound familiar, then keep reading because I’ll answer all these below.

My goal is that by the time you finish reading this thread, you can definitively say either—“Yes, web design is a good option that fits with my long-term Fastlane plans”—or—“No, I can safely rule out web design for now.”

On top of this, you likely want a business to tick some important boxes:

Before we dive into the full thread, I want to quickly mention these points. With anyone on here considering making a change in 2020, these points are probably going to be on your mind. So I have covered them directly upfront:

You are looking for a viable business model that can actually work - no playing around

You’re looking for a business model with very little or no downside risk

You need to be cash-flow positive in a short amount of time. You can’t wait all year to start making money.

You don’t have the ability to invest $10,000s to buy a business or be able to order a bunch of inventory

You don’t want to have to go back to zero and start entirely from scratch—or even worse, try to get a job

You want something easy to run with no need for staff, an office, in-person meetings or supply chains

You prefer to build a skill set that is transferable if needed and useful in all business areas

You also want something that can be part of your bigger long-term Fastlane plan

You need to be able to start right away using only the skills and resources you already have

If some or all of this sounds accurate for you, then the good news is web design fits all these criteria. I'll do my best to show you how throughout this thread.

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One last intro point to keep in mind about the web design opportunity that exists right now...

Every business on earth is suddenly desperate to sell more.

They need to quickly and correctly secure and grow their revenue streams.

And all their customers only have one main place to interact with them at the moment:

Online.
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So what does it take to succeed in web design in 2020?

For the last 3+ years, I’ve been lucky enough to help a lot of people get started with web design. Through Fox Web School, this forum, and several other places we have built a great community of people who have learned web design in a practical and profitable way.

I try not to promote too heavily on the forums, but there have been at least 100 members on here I have worked directly with. I also started the Fox Web School YouTube channel that has now over 11,000 subscribers, and we used to have a Facebook group with over 12,000 members.

This has allowed me to work with, teach and coach literally thousands of web designers. What I want to cover below are the clear trends I have noticed on why some of these people succeed, while others get stuck or fail over and over.

Using an approach that works well some students have made very fast progress with zero previous experience. (I'll give specific examples in just a moment.)

They have sold their very first website for MORE than some web designers with 5+ yrs experience have ever made from a single project.
AND the best part is these same students also do an amazing job at helping their clients to make more sales and grow their business.

It is a total win-win for everyone involved.

What I have seen is that when it comes to succeeding or failing with web design, there are a few very different strategies that people follow.

In short—when people follow the right approach, they do very well—with the wrong approach it never works.

“So what are the different approaches and why do some people succeed when others don’t?”

Let's get right into it by first looking at what NOT to do...

The 2 common approaches to web design that WON’T make you profitable (or create freedom)

Wrong Approach #1 – You focus 100% on coding and technical skills instead of learning how to be a well-rounded business person.

95%+ of web designers fail to reach freedom because they spend all the time developing technical skills. They think if they are experts at Javascript or Wordpress they will be in high demand and profitable.

They quickly find out, though, that it just doesn’t work that way. Business owners don’t think in terms of code and design — they instead keep focused on their most important business challenges or problems.

Can you imagine a business meeting where the owner tells his team, “We badly need to put more money into HTML and CSS this month”? That is never going to happen!

What matters most to a business owner is what clearly keeps their business running and growing. These are going to be areas like increasing sales, attracting new customers, or making sure everything is running efficiently.

It is these key business areas where you need to clearly show how you can help.

To succeed you have to present what you can offer in a way that matters to them. If it isn’t easy for them to see the value in what you are selling, they will put it at the bottom of the list with 1,000 other things that need to be done someday.

What gets their attention is “here is how you can get more customers” not “I could improve your old Javascript”.

The people who do best don’t focus on selling the technical stuff - instead they look for ways to create value and then make it appealing for a business owner to invest in.
Often they actually have very little or average technical skills.

While advanced coding skills can get you a job, by themselves they won’t make you an entrepreneur. Focusing too heavily on your technical skills usually leads to you just becoming another cog in someone else’s business. With a “must keep learning more code” mindset it is easy to become overqualified without any clear way to make money or sell yourself.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of web designers don’t ever see this and keep heading in the totally wrong direction. And when it fails to work, they mistakenly double down on the exact skills that are already hurting them the most... “I don’t get it - I can code amazing - why can’t I find work?”. I have got a bunch of these types of DMs all the time - it doesn’t work.

Also there are so many easy ways to make a website in 2020 with very basic coding skills and anything extra on top of that can be easily outsourced. The truth is you don’t need to be that good technically to run a profitable web design business. The real skills that make you profitable are often not technical.

(A lot of old school web designers or people who paid big money for coding degrees will disagree. BUT these same people complain they can’t get hired and there are no good clients. Business and selling skills always come first.)

Wrong Approach #2 – You focus on building beautifully-designed, custom-coded websites.

A lot of web design gurus out there will teach people that this is where the money is — spending weeks building fancy, custom-coded websites. But this approach doesn’t work well either.

First, you will end up working around the clock to make the perfect design. When you focus on selling design, you attract clients who think about how things look, rather than how well they work. You’ll have clients focused on the design of every pixel, section, and button. Many times, it means a lot of extra hours added to the project and dozens of rounds of changes.

I am sure some people on here have horror stories of these sort of projects! Design focused projects can be a nightmare.

Secondly, though, very few businesses care about design in the first place. When they don’t know what they want, they might say, “design,” but what they are really after is a solution to a deeper problem.

Your clients don’t really need elaborate custom illustrations, 3D graphics, tons of animations, and award-winning art. They don’t care much about a totally unique, fully custom website that’s nothing like a visitor has ever seen before.

What they are looking for is a real change in their business. They are secretly hoping that the fancy new design helps them get more sales, or brings in new customers. Often when you get to the core issue it was never really about design - it was something bigger they were after.

The cool thing is when you identify what really matters you can get a lot better results with much less work. There are way more effective (and easier) ways to help create sales than spending 100 hours on photoshop making custom graphics.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that visual design is useless or bad. It’s just one of the tools we can use to build great results. Just like with technical skills - it is nice to have but don’t let it be what you rely on to build your web business.

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Where both of the above examples go wrong is the same - putting specific skills before an overall approach that works.

Business owners don’t go to sleep thinking of code or design. They are thinking about their actual business.

Web design gets (very) profitable when you start to think bigger than just code and design...

The main reason people succeed with web design is by shifting their mindset to what really matters.
Instead of focusing on code or design they start to look at things from the business owners perspective.

These web designers only focus 20% of their time on learning technical skills and design, but the other 80% on mastering how to use and market those skills.
Many are not the “best” coders or designers, but they understand how to make their skills extremely valuable in the marketplace.

They realize that running a web design business has very little to do with technical skills or your design ability.

>>> It is all about creative problem solving and adding value. <<<

To give some examples, here are a few of the skills you can quickly develop to be running a profitable web design business in a short amount of time:

1) Problem Solving
Learn to see the overall situation and come up with creative solutions that make a difference. This is like the story of the expert who charged $20,000 for fixing one small part in a large factory. He wasn’t paid for the work involved - it was for knowing the right solution

2) Creating Value
This forum knows that money always flows towards value. When you learn to see web design as just a tool to be used to help a business solve their big problems and achieve their big goals, you can quickly increase your prices by 2, 5, 10 or more times. Business owners will always pay well for websites that offer real value.

3) Master Selling
Businesses need cashflow to survive. And every business is interested in either securing their cashflow or growing it. Most likely both. So knowing how to build a website that helps with sales is a super valuable and profitable skillset. (And knowing how to sell helps you get more bigger and better web design deals, too).

4) Communicating and Messaging
Along with selling, businesses also need a lot of help making sure they have the right message that reaches the right people. You become extremely valuable when you can help create and improve their messaging. This skill requires you to identify customer needs and understand the marketplace.

5) Mindset and Self-Management
This is an easy area to work on that gives you a massive boost over the competition. Most web designers struggle with managing themselves and their business. Being able to do both means you can make rapid progress and also see gains in other areas of your life too.

6) Combining Simple Skills
Scott Adams (creator of the Dilbert comic) calls this ‘Talent Stacking’. It is about combining several skills to create massive value. When you have basic proficiency in a bunch of different areas like web design, copywriting, email marketing and so on you start to open a lot of very profitable opportunities for yourself.

How many of these require a degree in computer science or a certificate from a fancy design school? None.

But these are the sort of skills that put you at the top of the marketplace. They are what make you profitable and in demand. If you look at any success thread on this forum you are going to see the people who succeeded have used a combination (or all) or these skills.

These types of skills are where you need to be focused to succeed. They are what will set you up for long term success as both a web designer but also in the bigger picture as an entrepreneur.

With that in mind let’s look at how you can get started with learning and developing these core business skills...

A realistic plan to succeed at web design in the short, medium, and long term

There are three main stages you will progress through in your web design journey. These stages also show why web design is such a great way to learn the key skills we talked about above and to prepare for your future Fastlane ventures.

***I’ve included student case studies from people on this forum to show you what to expect at each stage. If you are one of the people (or another student) then feel free to add in more details below if you wish.***

The first stage: Getting started

This is where most people are going to be when they first join the program. You will either have just started learning the basics of code or will have some coding skills but struggle with sales.

The first goal here is to change how you view web design and to focus on what matters most to a business owner. When you can see why they would buy, you can start to align what you are selling with what they want. This makes it a lot easier to sell, but it also means that what they hire you for is much more valuable for them, too. It is 100% win-win.

The second goal is to help develop the best mindset possible for business (and life). After hundreds of emails, facebook messages, and interactions with students, I’ve noticed that mindset is one of the biggest things that holds most people back. So we put a fair amount of focus on helping you to overcome mindset issues such as self doubt, procrastination, perfectionism or poor self-management.

In around 3 months, our students will typically land their first $1,000 project. Getting that first win under your belt feels great and creates a ton of momentum! While this isn’t life-changing money, it’s still a great first milestone, and it helps to validate the fact that you’re building a solid foundation of skills. You’re learning how to sell, how to close deals, and how to manage a project. You’re changing the way you see business. You’re beginning to help others and be in demand.

A good example of this is @Alfie

Alfi started just a few months ago having never coded before. He recently moved to Norway from Indonesia, so he had a few challenges with starting a new business. Once he joined, we got him going in the right direction, and he ended up closing his first deal for 2,000 euros for a coaching business.

The cool thing is that even though it was his first project, he got amazing results for his client and ended up creating a great sales system for both the online and offline part of their business. The owner was very pleased, and Alfi now has a great example project to use to land even bigger future projects.

Another example is @Isaac Oh

Isaac started a few months back and has gone from a $500 project to a $2,500 project to just recently enjoying his first month over $10,000. Keep in mind he only just started to learn code when he joined, too. This isn’t about just charging massive prices either - his clients are getting massive value and huge results from his websites.

Now keep in mind these are some of our top student results, but it goes to show what is possible within just a few months with minimal technical skills, just by working on the right steps in the right order, addressing your mindset and approach, and having the support to keep you on track.

Medium Term (2-3 years):

This is where you start to focus on stabilizing your income and building a solid base of clients and referrals. While we all love a big payday project, to succeed long-term, you also want to build that reliable base of consistent cash flow.

So this stage is all about building the right relationships, helping businesses in a big way, and being seen as more of a trusted advisor than a freelancer.

The cool thing is that as you build more trust with each new client, you also get to learn a lot about how successful businesses grow and thrive. You’ll be getting an inside look at how their businesses run and developing real, transferable skills. On some projects you can get dozens of hours working directly alongside seasoned business owners.

This experience helps with a lot more than just web design. It can be very hard to get this kind of insight elsewhere but with web design, business owners share openly with you as you work together. You get a lot of exposure to what makes a business successful, what creates sales, and what keeps customers coming back. It’s like a free mini MBA of sorts.

To give a few examples of people at this stage who started with just making websites and now have mastered several very valuable Fastlane skills…

A great example of this is @GuitarManDan . You probably have already seen his own great gold progress thread on here but I will quickly cover his progress....

Dan started his web design business in 2018 using our previous course and had a very decent year or two. However, he wanted to take things to the next level and didn’t want to get complacent. He joined the Fox Sales Legends program around midsummer last year.

Since joining he has made even more progress and along with some big website sales he has done really well with building ongoing recurring revenue too. To give just one example he landed a $25,000 sale alone was from a cold email technique that I shared in the course (but Dan gets all the credit for taking tons of consistent action!).

Now while the big sales are cool the great thing is Dan has built an amazing (and highly valuable) skillset that is a great foundation for moving to more Fastlane business ventures. He now has the cashflow, experience, confidence and mindset that I am sure will lead to a ton of future success.

I asked for a direct quote (maybe he can add more below) and he was nice enough to say: “I couldn't have done it without the help and support of this community. It helps me stay accountable to myself and always push to improve each and every day.”

Long-term (3-5 years)

I hinted at this with Dan's story, but our end goal with this approach to web design is much bigger than just making some websites. This last stage is really what separates our school from other courses.

As much as we love web design (and we do!), we always see it more of a launching pad than an end destination.
Our end goal is always for our students to use their web design experience to go on to even bigger and better things.

Web design is a great way to get profitable and learn a bunch of skills, but it does have some limitations too. Once your income gets to around $100,000, you will be basically working a fulltime job, either doing the projects yourself or outsourcing to others.

This is a great first goal for someone who is struggling right now, but the better goal is that once you are profitable you start also transitioning from web design to launching an even bigger and better business.

If you think about any successful Fastlane business, you are going to need a certain set of skills. You will need to learn how to find unfulfilled needs in the marketplace, how to create a valuable product or service, how to sell that service, how to market and scale your business, and so on.

Once you have those skills, you’ll probably want to move on to something bigger than web design. It is a natural next stage, and one we have built into the way we teach from the very beginning. We have done our job right when you get to a stage where you are ready to use what you have learned (and your cash flow from projects) to reach for that next level.

A good example of this is @MJ DeMarco himself. Now obviously MJ isn’t a student or has taken any of my training but if you look back at MJ’s story (before his big successes) he first started paying his bills and improving his skills through web design work...

“I aggressively marketed my website. I sent out emails. Cold-called. Mailed letters. I learned search engine optimization (SEO). Because I couldn’t afford books, I visited the Phoenix library daily and persisted to read about Internet programming languages. I improved my website, learned about graphics and copywriting. Anything that could help me, I consumed.

Then one day I had a breakthrough; I received a call from a company in Kansas who raved about my website service and wanted me to design their website. Sure. I obliged with a price of $400. They thought the price was a steal and within 24 hours, I built the company their website.  I was ecstatic. In 24 hours, I had most of the rent payment. Then ironically, not 24 hours later, I received another call from a company in New York asking for the same thing… a new website. I designed theirs for $600 and it took me two days to complete. I had another rent payment!   Now, I know this isn’t a lot of money, but from poverty to $1000 in three days felt like winning the fifty million dollar Powerball.

My first few months in Phoenix, I gained traction and survived on my own for the first time in my life. No flower boy. No bus boy. No pizza delivery. No sponging off mom. I was purely self-employed! I was momentous acceleration, a wind at my back that foreshadowed a directional change into a new universe of wealth generation.’

and...

“I took a contented pause thankful of my recent move and glanced at my bank balance. It was more than $5,000 and it was more money than I ever knew. Now I realize that $5K is not a lot of money, basically it is bankrupt. However at that moment in my life, it meant not having to get a job for at least another year. You see, that $5,000 bought me one year of freedom. Freedom to pursue success. Freedom to do what was necessary. Freedom to pursue my dream. For the next year, I was guaranteed to own every hour of my life.”

Links:
https://www.mjdemarco.com/my-story/
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/one-year-of-flf.56628/#post-417628 (post #17)

This is a great example of starting web design in the best way possible - with a focus on using it to go much further when the time is right. And I fully agree with MJ here and think web design is NOT a great long term option. The best web designers are always people who used web design to go on to do something much bigger! That is how you make it truly Fastlane.

But for someone on here right now without a solid business plan, who doesn’t have a ton of money in the bank to invest, and who might be struggling with core business abilities such as mindset or sales, then web design can be a perfect option to get you to where you want to be long term.

What are the key ingredients to make Web Design work for me?

The mistake I have seen over and over is people who have the best of intentions, but head completely down the wrong road. They focus on developing the wrong skills, working with the wrong type of clients, and having no idea how to increase their sales or results.

What can seem like progress at first, can quickly turn into a dead end. They end up working for free or cheap for months on end, yet things are still not improving. They are no closer to big sales or any real success.

Web design is definitely not an area where hard work is necessarily going to pay off - you have to think strategically.

Where is a good place to start?

Get a good game plan. No matter how low your current skills or experience might seem, with a solid plan to follow you can make way faster progress than the other 90% of people going in circles. With a smart approach, one or two projects done the right way will add up very fast.

Along with that surround yourself with the people who are already getting good results and learn from them. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The people who run successful web design businesses use the same effective tactics over and over again. This is where a coach or mentor is going to be key. You might think I am biased (since I also coach) but I invested a lot in coaching when I first started. I still do.

On top of this it's crucial to have a solid support system to keep you motivated and focused. Working as a web designer can be disastrous if you are alone. By being a part of a group of like minded peers though you can keep yourself accountable while making a ton of personal and business progress. You got to have a strong network.

These core ingredients to web design success is why we have structured Fox Web School the way we have. We saw what was needed and transitioned from video courses and “do it alone” content to building a school that provides you all of what you need to succeed.

What Fox Web School Can Offer

Nobody needs another generic course that gets you average results. There are plenty of these, and they churn out people who will never make more than a few $100 for a website.

What you need is the right coaching and blueprint (along with a proper community) for creating real success. You want a place to develop the right skills in the right order - and stay motivated and enjoy wins in the process.

That is exactly what you get with us at Fox Web School.

We focus on helping you master valuable skills that make a difference.

In fact over the last year we already put this to the test. We worked with a great core group of students from this forum and elsewhere and put all of this into practice.

We called it the “Fox Sales Legends” program and it was built with a specific end goal of first getting profitable with web design and then using web design to go even bigger.

Some of these students are the people mentioned above, but there are many others too. The program has had a lot of success stories over the past year and we now have a very solid core community.

Based off what was proven to work the best from the last year of the program we now have a detailed structure for 2020 to take you through the following stages:

a) Stage one - Get Going

You’ll learn what makes a website high value, how to sell a website, and how to prospect for initial projects.

After that, there will be an example of an actual website project.

The goal of this stage is to get you to land your first paying customer ($1,000 or more).

By the end, students will be able to sell consistently and be ready to increase their profits.

b) Stage two - Getting Profitable

This section of the course will show you how to go from $1,000 projects to $10,000 plus project/monthly income.

You’ll learn more advanced selling, prospecting, proposals, and how to solve even bigger business problems.

You’ll also get better at skills like negotiating, networking, communication, workflow, and proposals.

c) Stage three - Get Growing

In this final section, you’ll figure out how to use your combined web experience, skills, and cashflow to get into creating your own business.

We will look at finding ideas, ways to add value, how to start a new business, and how to get your first customer.

The goal of this stage is to help you create a new “Fastlane” style business that can cover your living and lifestyle costs for now while still continuing to grow further.

(This is a quick overview - below we cover how to get the full details if you wish)

Also at the risk of repeating myself, getting profitable is NOT about technical skills - it is primarily about mindset and approach.
Skills are a part of the solution yes, but they come after you know what needs to be done and why.

Also, you get access to our amazing community...

Weekly live calls

Every week, we have a group call where you can share your progress, ask questions, and speed up your learning pace. These 90 minute video calls are a great place to interact and take advantage of the “hive mind” approach to problem solving. I personally run each one and you’ll also get detailed feedback, advice and coaching on each call.

Directly from taking part in the weekly group calls, a lot of our students have had massive breakthroughs and gotten great results.

Membership to the private Fox Sales Legends Facebook group

You’ll also get full access to our private Facebook group, where you can interact with your fellow students. You all know what a private Facebook group is, but this one is actually active (ha!) with very detailed information and feedback.

I have a deal with the students - tag me in any post and we will get it solved. It is pretty common to see whole sale pitches and proposals get created and then successfully closed in the facebook group each week. If you join and have any issue with web design, your business, motivation, mindset etc - we are always in the FB group ready to help.

Private Accountability Slack Group

A lot of students asked for this and we put together a great system to make it happen. Here’s how it works: each student, if they wish, gets their own private accountability group with around 5/6 other students. We keep it tight so you can form a close bond and keep each other moving forward. If you are on board for this, we have a “no one gets left behind” policy!

These groups are really cool to experience - everyone is super committed and wants to help each other overcome obstacles, keep themselves accountable, and celebrate each other’s wins.

These groups have been proven to be an incredibly supportive environment that keeps you focused and moving forward. Participating in a group also helps you not to stray too far off track and take daily action. While I miss not being involved in some of the big sales, it is cool to hear the stories of when a mastermind managed to tackle a big challenge together!

>>> If you are interested click here and take a quick quiz to see if you would be a good fit to join <<<

What you need to be able to join…

Compared to a lot of other coaching programs, and the fact we work with you for a full year, our cost to join is reasonable. We run a tight operation though, and do require a few things from you to make sure it makes sense to work together:

- willingness to commit and stick with a proven plan
- a few hours of time each week to learn and apply what we teach you
- some savings or cash flow to cover your cost of living as you learn the business
- you want guidance and coaching to help you take the shortcuts and avoid the long detours

But on the other hand here are some things that you don’t need to join:

- advanced or even intermediate coding and programming skills
- prior business experience - we teach you business skills from scratch
- a ton of free time - we get that you have a life and maybe a job to support yourself before the biz takes off
- a personal website, business cards etc. - there are better ways to get started without wasting time
- living in an English-speaking country (we have students from around the world, including Europe, South America and Asia)
- a perfect mindset - it’s ok if you have some fear and doubts with these types of things. That’s what we’re here for!

We aren’t miracle workers, but if you are willing to apply yourself and have the minimal resource to make this possible this is a realistic option to start learning web design the right way. If you are a good fit we will be doing everything we can to make sure you succeed.

There’s never been a better time to join…

The Fox Sales Legends program of course isn’t the only way to jumpstart your web design business but we do think it is the best way:

You could lose $200k and 4+ years of your life getting a degree in computer science or graphic design—only to be stuck working a job for someone else.

You could go through a coding boot camp ($10-25k) and get a foundational knowledge of how to build websites—only to still be stuck working for someone else at the end of the program.

You could take dozens of cheaper courses and programs that focus on coding and design. You end up skilled in one area but again without any clear consistent way to make money.

You could try “google” your own way. We get a lot of students who join after doing this for months and years. They often get badly stuck and have to spend even more time unlearning bad approaches and “work for cheap” mindsets.

What all of these approaches also miss is a real community who actually cares that you succeed and a system in place to make sure you stay on track.
Plus a coach who actually cares if you succeed or not.

The bottom line is that joining Fox Sales Legends is super reasonable with an easy way to make back your investment:
- You can join for only $1995 as a one-time payment (one year full access)
- Or you can enroll on the payment plan for only $900 upfront, followed by 11 monthly payments of $150

Over a whole year of working together either option is easy to offset with a few smaller projects.
Even just one decent project will cover the full cost of the program and many manage to do this within the first few months.

>>> If you want to know more - just click here to take a quick quiz that lets us know you’re interested <<<

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The current C0VlD-19 situation and why it is actually a great time to start web design

It’s no secret that the current situation at the moment is a challenge for all businesses. The beauty of web design is that you can do it from home, with no possible issues from supply chains, in person meetings, shipping, staff, etc.

At the same time, a lot of businesses are now desperate for problem solvers just like you to help them secure and grow their online sales and systems while making the whole business more efficient. This is the exact approach that we have always focused on at Fox Web School. So with the trend going more and more in that direction, it means a lot of new opportunities.

While some businesses will cut back in other areas, they are often looking for ways to invest in a clear solution to improve their cash flow and bring in more customers or clients. A lot of our current students have quickly adjusted and are back on track with new sales or never had many problems in the first place.

So while things are changing a lot at the moment, I think right now there are a ton of opportunities to be helping businesses with all of their online systems and with creating new sales.

If all this sounds good to you, here’s how to join

As much as we’d like to accept everyone into the Fox Sales Legends, we are really focused on making sure we only let in people we know we can help in a big way. I haven’t even promoted this program on my Youtube channel yet cause I knew this forum was the best group of people to start with.

Also if you do reach out and we don’t think that we can help you - that is 100% fine. We don’t do any pushy sales stuff or fake scarcity tactics. We will gladly point you to other resources which are a better fit for now and we can keep in touch.

So that’s why there’s no checkout page or “buy now” link. We take the time to get to know each new possible student first before we offer them the chance to join. We work closely with our students for a full year so it matters to us that they want to succeed as much as we want to help them.

>>> To apply for the Fox Sales Legends, please click here to fill a quick quiz <<<

You’ll be taken to a short questionnaire where you’ll put in some basic information. This helps us decide what the next best step is and how we can help you or guide you in the right direction.

If you are a good fit for the Fox Sales Legends, I can’t wait to work with you and see you succeed along with the current students.

>>> Yes, I want in! Click here to apply for the Fox Sales Legends mentorship program <<<

Thanks,

- Rob

P.S. In this time of worldwide economic uncertainty, you need skills that will get you paid. With the Fox Sales Legends program, web design is really just a useful vehicle to help you develop a full range of overall business skills.

No matter what your long term plan, or how big your business or lifestyle goals, you’ll always need to know how to sell, get clients, solve problems, and keep a good business mindset.

You get all that in the Fox Sales Legends program (while also developing the useful skill of web development). So I hope you’ll decide to apply. Here is the link again to book a call…

>>>>> Full link: Apply for the Fox Sales Legends mentorship program <<<<<

Hey Fox! I applied on August 31th but I have not get any feedback from you guys. Can you please review my application? Appreciated

Fox · Sep 7, 2020

Logan W said:
Hi @Fox,

Most of the comments are from English-speaking people. Do you have examples and testimonials from people who have succeeded thanks to your training in the francophone sphere?

I'm afraid that the success encountered will not be the same in the francophone sphere because it's a different market. It would be a big disillusion for me if I realize this during the training.

Thank you for your answer.

Hey @Logan W - ya we got around 7/8 members from France and they have their own accountability group too. If you want to apply we can pass on some of their contact details and you can ask them for their own thoughts/progress with the program. Just mention it on the application form or send me your email as a message on here so I can look out for it. Thanks.

Fox · Sep 7, 2020

SFG said:
Hey Fox! I applied on August 31th but I have not get any feedback from you guys. Can you please review my application? Appreciated

I will look into this right away and get back to you, thanks.

MTF · Sep 7, 2020

Logan W said:
Hi @Fox,

Most of the comments are from English-speaking people. Do you have examples and testimonials from people who have succeeded thanks to your training in the francophone sphere?

I'm afraid that the success encountered will not be the same in the francophone sphere because it's a different market. It would be a big disillusion for me if I realize this during the training.

Thank you for your answer.

I understand where you're coming from but it still reminds me of this corny joke:

Client: Do you have experience marketing new food products?
Sales rep: We have quite a lot of experience there.
Client: Does that include experience in selling frozen food?
Sales rep: Yes, it does.
Client: How about frozen vegetables?
Sales rep: We’ve brought several types to market over the years.
Client: Spinach?
Sales rep: Actually, yes, spinach too.
Client [leaning forward now, voice straining in anticipation]: Whole leaf… or chopped?

The francophone market might be a little different but you should focus on what's the same. And there's waaaay more that's the same than what's different.

Colin MacLeod · Sep 11, 2020

Salutations @Fox !

It's very clear you're helping a lot of people. Well done, and thank you for sharing the system!

It appeals to me. My background is web tech & e-commerce - both hands-on coding, but also pre-sales and business analysis. Have been doing that since 1999, mainly for high end / blue chip customers.

I've dabbled in various businesses over the years - mostly nothing to do with my core skillset. Success varied from modest/steady success (daycare business) to significant fail (a franchise - it broke a number of CENTS principles). So far, I always ended up back freelancing to keep ticking over.

I watched your intro video on YouTube and it seemed to suggest the path is 2 phases:

Phase 1: create a web development business
→ in order to gain the skills and funding for
Phase 2: start your own business selling goods and services online.

Is that right?

Here's what's holding me back from "pushing the trigger" on your program - I don't want to spend 2 years developing a web business for smaller clients. Am I right in thinking that's the approach?

Colin MacLeod · Sep 12, 2020

@Fox Having re-read your initial post in full and given your excellent material on YouTube, I realized how short sighted I'm being. The opp looks very exciting indeed and feels like exactly what I need.

That, and I told my better half about it. She said, what are you waiting for, it sounds great. Sign up already!

Fox · Sep 15, 2020

Colin MacLeod said:
@Fox Having re-read your initial post in full and given your excellent material on YouTube, I realized how short sighted I'm being. The opp looks very exciting indeed and feels like exactly what I need.

That, and I told my better half about it. She said, what are you waiting for, it sounds great. Sign up already!

Hey thanks for applying.

With any of these questions it nearly always is better to have a talk. At the moment we got some current students who help with the calls so they can give their direct experience with everything with the program. Basically you can ask whatever you want and we anyone under any pressure to join.

Since you already applied I am sure we will talk soon anyway. Thanks.

Kasimir · Sep 15, 2020

@Fox Great value, thanks a lot for sharing. Also learned a lot on your Youtube channel.
One question: why don't outsource it in the beginning, so you can focus 100% on the sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction?

Colin MacLeod · Sep 15, 2020

Fox said:
With any of these questions it nearly always is better to have a talk.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense - thank you. You provided a plethora on the forum and your YouTube channel already. Perhaps in future I need to "seek first to understand then to be understood", on in Fast Lane Forum terms, "read first the whole post first, then reply later".

Looking forward to speaking with you.

Fox · Sep 15, 2020

Kasimir said:
@Fox Great value, thanks a lot for sharing. Also learned a lot on your Youtube channel.
One question: why don't outsource it in the beginning, so you can focus 100% on the sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction?

- Margins

It is possible but for a lot of people the margins won't be there yet. If you are selling websites for less than 3k then outsourcing all the design is going to take a decent % of the profits. You will either be tempted to hire someone very cheap or you end up making not-so-much till you get to 5-10k+ projects.

- Results

I find people who go down this route often end up hiring whoever to build the websites and end up with an average end result. A good website is going to have the problems/needs of the business in mind with all aspects of the design and your average outsourced designer isn't going to care too much about that (especially with a lower budget).

If you want to really deliver a high value website that really helps a business then you either need a very good team in place (back to budget) or you want to be involved with some part of the project yourself.

- Skills

If you were good enough to sell and manage a web design team and still be making good margins then I would say skip the website part and sell something else. There are other areas with better margins that you could use your sales + management skills for. Web design is great for learning these skills but if you already got them then maybe just skip the web part and go right to a bigger fastlane business.

If you don't have the skills though then it would make sense to build the websites yourself for a while. You can pick up a ton of knowledge and experience with each project and also retain a lot of the profits. Even on a smaller 2k project if you are doing everything yourself its like 90% profit.

---

No exact one "right" way to do it but those are my rough thoughts. As long as you have the skills then you got a lot of options. If you don't have the skills then just start normally first and see how it goes. The faster you learn and progress the more you can adjust the model or move on to something else using what you have learned.

Kasimir · Sep 15, 2020

Thanks for the detailed response. I see it similar, in the beginning, you have only a small margin, but you can focus 100% on getting sales, marketing and customer needs. Which boosts the business. I'm yet not sure if I want to start in this sector but your information is very valuable. And you're probably right it's easier if you do the websites in the beginning, but for me, the easiest way is not always the best one.

The reason I came up with this idea was because I didn't see anybody doing it so. But that may be an indicator that's not working. I just wanted to hear your opinion about it, thanks.

Fox · Sep 25, 2020

For those with the "can web design be Fastlane" question this video by @MJ DeMarco is a great watch. This is exactly how we try to fit the program in with the bigger ventures that web design can lead to.

Karoline · Sep 28, 2020

Fox said:
This year has been quite crazy so far, and a lot of people have reached out to ask me if web design is still a good option. While this is a marketplace post about my coaching program, it will also be a good general guide of the web design opportunities that exist right now.

Is web design still a profitable business in 2020?

You may be thinking, “Sure, web design was great when you started your gold thread in 2016, but what about now?”
Isn’t web design outdated now? Does anyone even still need a website and is it not oversaturated for making money?”

Maybe you have even thought about trying web design in the past, but you were never 100% sure if it was the right thing for YOU to pursue among all the different options out there. The most common questions I still get asked are:

How hard is it to learn and make money?

Can I learn this with no past experience?

How much coding skills do I have to learn to sell websites?

How fast can I sell my first project?

Is it too late for me to compete against others doing this for years?

Can I take this step without getting stuck in something that's NOT right for me?

If any of these questions sound familiar, then keep reading because I’ll answer all these below.

My goal is that by the time you finish reading this thread, you can definitively say either—“Yes, web design is a good option that fits with my long-term Fastlane plans”—or—“No, I can safely rule out web design for now.”

On top of this, you likely want a business to tick some important boxes:

Before we dive into the full thread, I want to quickly mention these points. With anyone on here considering making a change in 2020, these points are probably going to be on your mind. So I have covered them directly upfront:

You are looking for a viable business model that can actually work - no playing around

You’re looking for a business model with very little or no downside risk

You need to be cash-flow positive in a short amount of time. You can’t wait all year to start making money.

You don’t have the ability to invest $10,000s to buy a business or be able to order a bunch of inventory

You don’t want to have to go back to zero and start entirely from scratch—or even worse, try to get a job

You want something easy to run with no need for staff, an office, in-person meetings or supply chains

You prefer to build a skill set that is transferable if needed and useful in all business areas

You also want something that can be part of your bigger long-term Fastlane plan

You need to be able to start right away using only the skills and resources you already have

If some or all of this sounds accurate for you, then the good news is web design fits all these criteria. I'll do my best to show you how throughout this thread.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One last intro point to keep in mind about the web design opportunity that exists right now...

Every business on earth is suddenly desperate to sell more.

They need to quickly and correctly secure and grow their revenue streams.

And all their customers only have one main place to interact with them at the moment:

Online.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what does it take to succeed in web design in 2020?

For the last 3+ years, I’ve been lucky enough to help a lot of people get started with web design. Through Fox Web School, this forum, and several other places we have built a great community of people who have learned web design in a practical and profitable way.

I try not to promote too heavily on the forums, but there have been at least 100 members on here I have worked directly with. I also started the Fox Web School YouTube channel that has now over 11,000 subscribers, and we used to have a Facebook group with over 12,000 members.

This has allowed me to work with, teach and coach literally thousands of web designers. What I want to cover below are the clear trends I have noticed on why some of these people succeed, while others get stuck or fail over and over.

Using an approach that works well some students have made very fast progress with zero previous experience. (I'll give specific examples in just a moment.)

They have sold their very first website for MORE than some web designers with 5+ yrs experience have ever made from a single project.
AND the best part is these same students also do an amazing job at helping their clients to make more sales and grow their business.

It is a total win-win for everyone involved.

What I have seen is that when it comes to succeeding or failing with web design, there are a few very different strategies that people follow.

In short—when people follow the right approach, they do very well—with the wrong approach it never works.

“So what are the different approaches and why do some people succeed when others don’t?”

Let's get right into it by first looking at what NOT to do...

The 2 common approaches to web design that WON’T make you profitable (or create freedom)

Wrong Approach #1 – You focus 100% on coding and technical skills instead of learning how to be a well-rounded business person.

95%+ of web designers fail to reach freedom because they spend all the time developing technical skills. They think if they are experts at Javascript or Wordpress they will be in high demand and profitable.

They quickly find out, though, that it just doesn’t work that way. Business owners don’t think in terms of code and design — they instead keep focused on their most important business challenges or problems.

Can you imagine a business meeting where the owner tells his team, “We badly need to put more money into HTML and CSS this month”? That is never going to happen!

What matters most to a business owner is what clearly keeps their business running and growing. These are going to be areas like increasing sales, attracting new customers, or making sure everything is running efficiently.

It is these key business areas where you need to clearly show how you can help.

To succeed you have to present what you can offer in a way that matters to them. If it isn’t easy for them to see the value in what you are selling, they will put it at the bottom of the list with 1,000 other things that need to be done someday.

What gets their attention is “here is how you can get more customers” not “I could improve your old Javascript”.

The people who do best don’t focus on selling the technical stuff - instead they look for ways to create value and then make it appealing for a business owner to invest in.
Often they actually have very little or average technical skills.

While advanced coding skills can get you a job, by themselves they won’t make you an entrepreneur. Focusing too heavily on your technical skills usually leads to you just becoming another cog in someone else’s business. With a “must keep learning more code” mindset it is easy to become overqualified without any clear way to make money or sell yourself.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of web designers don’t ever see this and keep heading in the totally wrong direction. And when it fails to work, they mistakenly double down on the exact skills that are already hurting them the most... “I don’t get it - I can code amazing - why can’t I find work?”. I have got a bunch of these types of DMs all the time - it doesn’t work.

Also there are so many easy ways to make a website in 2020 with very basic coding skills and anything extra on top of that can be easily outsourced. The truth is you don’t need to be that good technically to run a profitable web design business. The real skills that make you profitable are often not technical.

(A lot of old school web designers or people who paid big money for coding degrees will disagree. BUT these same people complain they can’t get hired and there are no good clients. Business and selling skills always come first.)

Wrong Approach #2 – You focus on building beautifully-designed, custom-coded websites.

A lot of web design gurus out there will teach people that this is where the money is — spending weeks building fancy, custom-coded websites. But this approach doesn’t work well either.

First, you will end up working around the clock to make the perfect design. When you focus on selling design, you attract clients who think about how things look, rather than how well they work. You’ll have clients focused on the design of every pixel, section, and button. Many times, it means a lot of extra hours added to the project and dozens of rounds of changes.

I am sure some people on here have horror stories of these sort of projects! Design focused projects can be a nightmare.

Secondly, though, very few businesses care about design in the first place. When they don’t know what they want, they might say, “design,” but what they are really after is a solution to a deeper problem.

Your clients don’t really need elaborate custom illustrations, 3D graphics, tons of animations, and award-winning art. They don’t care much about a totally unique, fully custom website that’s nothing like a visitor has ever seen before.

What they are looking for is a real change in their business. They are secretly hoping that the fancy new design helps them get more sales, or brings in new customers. Often when you get to the core issue it was never really about design - it was something bigger they were after.

The cool thing is when you identify what really matters you can get a lot better results with much less work. There are way more effective (and easier) ways to help create sales than spending 100 hours on photoshop making custom graphics.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that visual design is useless or bad. It’s just one of the tools we can use to build great results. Just like with technical skills - it is nice to have but don’t let it be what you rely on to build your web business.

----

Where both of the above examples go wrong is the same - putting specific skills before an overall approach that works.

Business owners don’t go to sleep thinking of code or design. They are thinking about their actual business.

Web design gets (very) profitable when you start to think bigger than just code and design...

The main reason people succeed with web design is by shifting their mindset to what really matters.
Instead of focusing on code or design they start to look at things from the business owners perspective.

These web designers only focus 20% of their time on learning technical skills and design, but the other 80% on mastering how to use and market those skills.
Many are not the “best” coders or designers, but they understand how to make their skills extremely valuable in the marketplace.

They realize that running a web design business has very little to do with technical skills or your design ability.

>>> It is all about creative problem solving and adding value. <<<

To give some examples, here are a few of the skills you can quickly develop to be running a profitable web design business in a short amount of time:

1) Problem Solving
Learn to see the overall situation and come up with creative solutions that make a difference. This is like the story of the expert who charged $20,000 for fixing one small part in a large factory. He wasn’t paid for the work involved - it was for knowing the right solution

2) Creating Value
This forum knows that money always flows towards value. When you learn to see web design as just a tool to be used to help a business solve their big problems and achieve their big goals, you can quickly increase your prices by 2, 5, 10 or more times. Business owners will always pay well for websites that offer real value.

3) Master Selling
Businesses need cashflow to survive. And every business is interested in either securing their cashflow or growing it. Most likely both. So knowing how to build a website that helps with sales is a super valuable and profitable skillset. (And knowing how to sell helps you get more bigger and better web design deals, too).

4) Communicating and Messaging
Along with selling, businesses also need a lot of help making sure they have the right message that reaches the right people. You become extremely valuable when you can help create and improve their messaging. This skill requires you to identify customer needs and understand the marketplace.

5) Mindset and Self-Management
This is an easy area to work on that gives you a massive boost over the competition. Most web designers struggle with managing themselves and their business. Being able to do both means you can make rapid progress and also see gains in other areas of your life too.

6) Combining Simple Skills
Scott Adams (creator of the Dilbert comic) calls this ‘Talent Stacking’. It is about combining several skills to create massive value. When you have basic proficiency in a bunch of different areas like web design, copywriting, email marketing and so on you start to open a lot of very profitable opportunities for yourself.

How many of these require a degree in computer science or a certificate from a fancy design school? None.

But these are the sort of skills that put you at the top of the marketplace. They are what make you profitable and in demand. If you look at any success thread on this forum you are going to see the people who succeeded have used a combination (or all) or these skills.

These types of skills are where you need to be focused to succeed. They are what will set you up for long term success as both a web designer but also in the bigger picture as an entrepreneur.

With that in mind let’s look at how you can get started with learning and developing these core business skills...

A realistic plan to succeed at web design in the short, medium, and long term

There are three main stages you will progress through in your web design journey. These stages also show why web design is such a great way to learn the key skills we talked about above and to prepare for your future Fastlane ventures.

***I’ve included student case studies from people on this forum to show you what to expect at each stage. If you are one of the people (or another student) then feel free to add in more details below if you wish.***

The first stage: Getting started

This is where most people are going to be when they first join the program. You will either have just started learning the basics of code or will have some coding skills but struggle with sales.

The first goal here is to change how you view web design and to focus on what matters most to a business owner. When you can see why they would buy, you can start to align what you are selling with what they want. This makes it a lot easier to sell, but it also means that what they hire you for is much more valuable for them, too. It is 100% win-win.

The second goal is to help develop the best mindset possible for business (and life). After hundreds of emails, facebook messages, and interactions with students, I’ve noticed that mindset is one of the biggest things that holds most people back. So we put a fair amount of focus on helping you to overcome mindset issues such as self doubt, procrastination, perfectionism or poor self-management.

In around 3 months, our students will typically land their first $1,000 project. Getting that first win under your belt feels great and creates a ton of momentum! While this isn’t life-changing money, it’s still a great first milestone, and it helps to validate the fact that you’re building a solid foundation of skills. You’re learning how to sell, how to close deals, and how to manage a project. You’re changing the way you see business. You’re beginning to help others and be in demand.

A good example of this is @Alfie

Alfi started just a few months ago having never coded before. He recently moved to Norway from Indonesia, so he had a few challenges with starting a new business. Once he joined, we got him going in the right direction, and he ended up closing his first deal for 2,000 euros for a coaching business.

The cool thing is that even though it was his first project, he got amazing results for his client and ended up creating a great sales system for both the online and offline part of their business. The owner was very pleased, and Alfi now has a great example project to use to land even bigger future projects.

Another example is @Isaac Oh

Isaac started a few months back and has gone from a $500 project to a $2,500 project to just recently enjoying his first month over $10,000. Keep in mind he only just started to learn code when he joined, too. This isn’t about just charging massive prices either - his clients are getting massive value and huge results from his websites.

Now keep in mind these are some of our top student results, but it goes to show what is possible within just a few months with minimal technical skills, just by working on the right steps in the right order, addressing your mindset and approach, and having the support to keep you on track.

Medium Term (2-3 years):

This is where you start to focus on stabilizing your income and building a solid base of clients and referrals. While we all love a big payday project, to succeed long-term, you also want to build that reliable base of consistent cash flow.

So this stage is all about building the right relationships, helping businesses in a big way, and being seen as more of a trusted advisor than a freelancer.

The cool thing is that as you build more trust with each new client, you also get to learn a lot about how successful businesses grow and thrive. You’ll be getting an inside look at how their businesses run and developing real, transferable skills. On some projects you can get dozens of hours working directly alongside seasoned business owners.

This experience helps with a lot more than just web design. It can be very hard to get this kind of insight elsewhere but with web design, business owners share openly with you as you work together. You get a lot of exposure to what makes a business successful, what creates sales, and what keeps customers coming back. It’s like a free mini MBA of sorts.

To give a few examples of people at this stage who started with just making websites and now have mastered several very valuable Fastlane skills…

A great example of this is @GuitarManDan . You probably have already seen his own great gold progress thread on here but I will quickly cover his progress....

Dan started his web design business in 2018 using our previous course and had a very decent year or two. However, he wanted to take things to the next level and didn’t want to get complacent. He joined the Fox Sales Legends program around midsummer last year.

Since joining he has made even more progress and along with some big website sales he has done really well with building ongoing recurring revenue too. To give just one example he landed a $25,000 sale alone was from a cold email technique that I shared in the course (but Dan gets all the credit for taking tons of consistent action!).

Now while the big sales are cool the great thing is Dan has built an amazing (and highly valuable) skillset that is a great foundation for moving to more Fastlane business ventures. He now has the cashflow, experience, confidence and mindset that I am sure will lead to a ton of future success.

I asked for a direct quote (maybe he can add more below) and he was nice enough to say: “I couldn't have done it without the help and support of this community. It helps me stay accountable to myself and always push to improve each and every day.”

Long-term (3-5 years)

I hinted at this with Dan's story, but our end goal with this approach to web design is much bigger than just making some websites. This last stage is really what separates our school from other courses.

As much as we love web design (and we do!), we always see it more of a launching pad than an end destination.
Our end goal is always for our students to use their web design experience to go on to even bigger and better things.

Web design is a great way to get profitable and learn a bunch of skills, but it does have some limitations too. Once your income gets to around $100,000, you will be basically working a fulltime job, either doing the projects yourself or outsourcing to others.

This is a great first goal for someone who is struggling right now, but the better goal is that once you are profitable you start also transitioning from web design to launching an even bigger and better business.

If you think about any successful Fastlane business, you are going to need a certain set of skills. You will need to learn how to find unfulfilled needs in the marketplace, how to create a valuable product or service, how to sell that service, how to market and scale your business, and so on.

Once you have those skills, you’ll probably want to move on to something bigger than web design. It is a natural next stage, and one we have built into the way we teach from the very beginning. We have done our job right when you get to a stage where you are ready to use what you have learned (and your cash flow from projects) to reach for that next level.

A good example of this is @MJ DeMarco himself. Now obviously MJ isn’t a student or has taken any of my training but if you look back at MJ’s story (before his big successes) he first started paying his bills and improving his skills through web design work...

“I aggressively marketed my website. I sent out emails. Cold-called. Mailed letters. I learned search engine optimization (SEO). Because I couldn’t afford books, I visited the Phoenix library daily and persisted to read about Internet programming languages. I improved my website, learned about graphics and copywriting. Anything that could help me, I consumed.

Then one day I had a breakthrough; I received a call from a company in Kansas who raved about my website service and wanted me to design their website. Sure. I obliged with a price of $400. They thought the price was a steal and within 24 hours, I built the company their website.  I was ecstatic. In 24 hours, I had most of the rent payment. Then ironically, not 24 hours later, I received another call from a company in New York asking for the same thing… a new website. I designed theirs for $600 and it took me two days to complete. I had another rent payment!   Now, I know this isn’t a lot of money, but from poverty to $1000 in three days felt like winning the fifty million dollar Powerball.

My first few months in Phoenix, I gained traction and survived on my own for the first time in my life. No flower boy. No bus boy. No pizza delivery. No sponging off mom. I was purely self-employed! I was momentous acceleration, a wind at my back that foreshadowed a directional change into a new universe of wealth generation.’

and...

“I took a contented pause thankful of my recent move and glanced at my bank balance. It was more than $5,000 and it was more money than I ever knew. Now I realize that $5K is not a lot of money, basically it is bankrupt. However at that moment in my life, it meant not having to get a job for at least another year. You see, that $5,000 bought me one year of freedom. Freedom to pursue success. Freedom to do what was necessary. Freedom to pursue my dream. For the next year, I was guaranteed to own every hour of my life.”

Links:
https://www.mjdemarco.com/my-story/
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/one-year-of-flf.56628/#post-417628 (post #17)

This is a great example of starting web design in the best way possible - with a focus on using it to go much further when the time is right. And I fully agree with MJ here and think web design is NOT a great long term option. The best web designers are always people who used web design to go on to do something much bigger! That is how you make it truly Fastlane.

But for someone on here right now without a solid business plan, who doesn’t have a ton of money in the bank to invest, and who might be struggling with core business abilities such as mindset or sales, then web design can be a perfect option to get you to where you want to be long term.

What are the key ingredients to make Web Design work for me?

The mistake I have seen over and over is people who have the best of intentions, but head completely down the wrong road. They focus on developing the wrong skills, working with the wrong type of clients, and having no idea how to increase their sales or results.

What can seem like progress at first, can quickly turn into a dead end. They end up working for free or cheap for months on end, yet things are still not improving. They are no closer to big sales or any real success.

Web design is definitely not an area where hard work is necessarily going to pay off - you have to think strategically.

Where is a good place to start?

Get a good game plan. No matter how low your current skills or experience might seem, with a solid plan to follow you can make way faster progress than the other 90% of people going in circles. With a smart approach, one or two projects done the right way will add up very fast.

Along with that surround yourself with the people who are already getting good results and learn from them. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The people who run successful web design businesses use the same effective tactics over and over again. This is where a coach or mentor is going to be key. You might think I am biased (since I also coach) but I invested a lot in coaching when I first started. I still do.

On top of this it's crucial to have a solid support system to keep you motivated and focused. Working as a web designer can be disastrous if you are alone. By being a part of a group of like minded peers though you can keep yourself accountable while making a ton of personal and business progress. You got to have a strong network.

These core ingredients to web design success is why we have structured Fox Web School the way we have. We saw what was needed and transitioned from video courses and “do it alone” content to building a school that provides you all of what you need to succeed.

What Fox Web School Can Offer

Nobody needs another generic course that gets you average results. There are plenty of these, and they churn out people who will never make more than a few $100 for a website.

What you need is the right coaching and blueprint (along with a proper community) for creating real success. You want a place to develop the right skills in the right order - and stay motivated and enjoy wins in the process.

That is exactly what you get with us at Fox Web School.

We focus on helping you master valuable skills that make a difference.

In fact over the last year we already put this to the test. We worked with a great core group of students from this forum and elsewhere and put all of this into practice.

We called it the “Fox Sales Legends” program and it was built with a specific end goal of first getting profitable with web design and then using web design to go even bigger.

Some of these students are the people mentioned above, but there are many others too. The program has had a lot of success stories over the past year and we now have a very solid core community.

Based off what was proven to work the best from the last year of the program we now have a detailed structure for 2020 to take you through the following stages:

a) Stage one - Get Going

You’ll learn what makes a website high value, how to sell a website, and how to prospect for initial projects.

After that, there will be an example of an actual website project.

The goal of this stage is to get you to land your first paying customer ($1,000 or more).

By the end, students will be able to sell consistently and be ready to increase their profits.

b) Stage two - Getting Profitable

This section of the course will show you how to go from $1,000 projects to $10,000 plus project/monthly income.

You’ll learn more advanced selling, prospecting, proposals, and how to solve even bigger business problems.

You’ll also get better at skills like negotiating, networking, communication, workflow, and proposals.

c) Stage three - Get Growing

In this final section, you’ll figure out how to use your combined web experience, skills, and cashflow to get into creating your own business.

We will look at finding ideas, ways to add value, how to start a new business, and how to get your first customer.

The goal of this stage is to help you create a new “Fastlane” style business that can cover your living and lifestyle costs for now while still continuing to grow further.

(This is a quick overview - below we cover how to get the full details if you wish)

Also at the risk of repeating myself, getting profitable is NOT about technical skills - it is primarily about mindset and approach.
Skills are a part of the solution yes, but they come after you know what needs to be done and why.

Also, you get access to our amazing community...

Weekly live calls

Every week, we have a group call where you can share your progress, ask questions, and speed up your learning pace. These 90 minute video calls are a great place to interact and take advantage of the “hive mind” approach to problem solving. I personally run each one and you’ll also get detailed feedback, advice and coaching on each call.

Directly from taking part in the weekly group calls, a lot of our students have had massive breakthroughs and gotten great results.

Membership to the private Fox Sales Legends Facebook group

You’ll also get full access to our private Facebook group, where you can interact with your fellow students. You all know what a private Facebook group is, but this one is actually active (ha!) with very detailed information and feedback.

I have a deal with the students - tag me in any post and we will get it solved. It is pretty common to see whole sale pitches and proposals get created and then successfully closed in the facebook group each week. If you join and have any issue with web design, your business, motivation, mindset etc - we are always in the FB group ready to help.

Private Accountability Slack Group

A lot of students asked for this and we put together a great system to make it happen. Here’s how it works: each student, if they wish, gets their own private accountability group with around 5/6 other students. We keep it tight so you can form a close bond and keep each other moving forward. If you are on board for this, we have a “no one gets left behind” policy!

These groups are really cool to experience - everyone is super committed and wants to help each other overcome obstacles, keep themselves accountable, and celebrate each other’s wins.

These groups have been proven to be an incredibly supportive environment that keeps you focused and moving forward. Participating in a group also helps you not to stray too far off track and take daily action. While I miss not being involved in some of the big sales, it is cool to hear the stories of when a mastermind managed to tackle a big challenge together!

>>> If you are interested click here and take a quick quiz to see if you would be a good fit to join <<<

What you need to be able to join…

Compared to a lot of other coaching programs, and the fact we work with you for a full year, our cost to join is reasonable. We run a tight operation though, and do require a few things from you to make sure it makes sense to work together:

- willingness to commit and stick with a proven plan
- a few hours of time each week to learn and apply what we teach you
- some savings or cash flow to cover your cost of living as you learn the business
- you want guidance and coaching to help you take the shortcuts and avoid the long detours

But on the other hand here are some things that you don’t need to join:

- advanced or even intermediate coding and programming skills
- prior business experience - we teach you business skills from scratch
- a ton of free time - we get that you have a life and maybe a job to support yourself before the biz takes off
- a personal website, business cards etc. - there are better ways to get started without wasting time
- living in an English-speaking country (we have students from around the world, including Europe, South America and Asia)
- a perfect mindset - it’s ok if you have some fear and doubts with these types of things. That’s what we’re here for!

We aren’t miracle workers, but if you are willing to apply yourself and have the minimal resource to make this possible this is a realistic option to start learning web design the right way. If you are a good fit we will be doing everything we can to make sure you succeed.

There’s never been a better time to join…

The Fox Sales Legends program of course isn’t the only way to jumpstart your web design business but we do think it is the best way:

You could lose $200k and 4+ years of your life getting a degree in computer science or graphic design—only to be stuck working a job for someone else.

You could go through a coding boot camp ($10-25k) and get a foundational knowledge of how to build websites—only to still be stuck working for someone else at the end of the program.

You could take dozens of cheaper courses and programs that focus on coding and design. You end up skilled in one area but again without any clear consistent way to make money.

You could try “google” your own way. We get a lot of students who join after doing this for months and years. They often get badly stuck and have to spend even more time unlearning bad approaches and “work for cheap” mindsets.

What all of these approaches also miss is a real community who actually cares that you succeed and a system in place to make sure you stay on track.
Plus a coach who actually cares if you succeed or not.

The bottom line is that joining Fox Sales Legends is super reasonable with an easy way to make back your investment:
- You can join for only $1995 as a one-time payment (one year full access)
- Or you can enroll on the payment plan for only $900 upfront, followed by 11 monthly payments of $150

Over a whole year of working together either option is easy to offset with a few smaller projects.
Even just one decent project will cover the full cost of the program and many manage to do this within the first few months.

>>> If you want to know more - just click here to take a quick quiz that lets us know you’re interested <<<

******
The current C0VlD-19 situation and why it is actually a great time to start web design

It’s no secret that the current situation at the moment is a challenge for all businesses. The beauty of web design is that you can do it from home, with no possible issues from supply chains, in person meetings, shipping, staff, etc.

At the same time, a lot of businesses are now desperate for problem solvers just like you to help them secure and grow their online sales and systems while making the whole business more efficient. This is the exact approach that we have always focused on at Fox Web School. So with the trend going more and more in that direction, it means a lot of new opportunities.

While some businesses will cut back in other areas, they are often looking for ways to invest in a clear solution to improve their cash flow and bring in more customers or clients. A lot of our current students have quickly adjusted and are back on track with new sales or never had many problems in the first place.

So while things are changing a lot at the moment, I think right now there are a ton of opportunities to be helping businesses with all of their online systems and with creating new sales.

If all this sounds good to you, here’s how to join

As much as we’d like to accept everyone into the Fox Sales Legends, we are really focused on making sure we only let in people we know we can help in a big way. I haven’t even promoted this program on my Youtube channel yet cause I knew this forum was the best group of people to start with.

Also if you do reach out and we don’t think that we can help you - that is 100% fine. We don’t do any pushy sales stuff or fake scarcity tactics. We will gladly point you to other resources which are a better fit for now and we can keep in touch.

So that’s why there’s no checkout page or “buy now” link. We take the time to get to know each new possible student first before we offer them the chance to join. We work closely with our students for a full year so it matters to us that they want to succeed as much as we want to help them.

>>> To apply for the Fox Sales Legends, please click here to fill a quick quiz <<<

You’ll be taken to a short questionnaire where you’ll put in some basic information. This helps us decide what the next best step is and how we can help you or guide you in the right direction.

If you are a good fit for the Fox Sales Legends, I can’t wait to work with you and see you succeed along with the current students.

>>> Yes, I want in! Click here to apply for the Fox Sales Legends mentorship program <<<

Thanks,

- Rob

P.S. In this time of worldwide economic uncertainty, you need skills that will get you paid. With the Fox Sales Legends program, web design is really just a useful vehicle to help you develop a full range of overall business skills.

No matter what your long term plan, or how big your business or lifestyle goals, you’ll always need to know how to sell, get clients, solve problems, and keep a good business mindset.

You get all that in the Fox Sales Legends program (while also developing the useful skill of web development). So I hope you’ll decide to apply. Here is the link again to book a call…

>>>>> Full link: Apply for the Fox Sales Legends mentorship program <<<<<

Really wish I had the money to take you up on this amazing offer.

flyingdolphin · Oct 11, 2020

Karoline said:
Really wish I had the money to take you up on this amazing offer.

same here. Hey @Fox.. until when is this program up?

flyingdolphin · Oct 11, 2020

flyingdolphin said:
same here. Hey @Fox.. until when is this program up?

Also, I know this may be a stupid question.. but I just want it out of my way.. what niches usually need web designs? Could you give some examples please? I just have this thinking that this skill is becoming saturated and I'm just wondering if there's like a market or specific niche that almost always needs it. Thank you!

Great copy by the way.. I have ZERO interest in website design whatsoever 'til I saw this thread. Wow. The power of copywriting is insane!! Will you also teach that in your course?

Fox · Oct 11, 2020

flyingdolphin said:
same here. Hey @Fox.. until when is this program up?

We will probably adjust things before the end of the year.

I don't want to hype the price but it is most likely going up in 2021. We are growing a decent team to help us run things and soon we will adjust the price to reflect that.

When it happens I will post up in advance and give notice but probably in December.

Fox · Oct 11, 2020

flyingdolphin said:
Also, I know this may be a stupid question.. but I just want it out of my way.. what niches usually need web designs? Could you give some examples please? I just have this thinking that this skill is becoming saturated and I'm just wondering if there's like a market or specific niche that almost always needs it. Thank you!

Great copy by the way.. I have ZERO interest in website design whatsoever 'til I saw this thread. Wow. The power of copywriting is insane!! Will you also teach that in your course?

There are too many niches to list but maybe an easier way to think of it is what problems the website solves. Some common problems are:

- A business that can benefit from preselling/explaining what it does in a better way
(The website operates as a full or first stage salesperson)

- A business that wants to be seen as more trustworthy/experienced/capable
(The website builds trust and authority)

- A business that wants to free up time / reduce work or stress
(The website has systems that automate or eliminate certain tasks)

There are just some common big problems - lots of other problems too.

My advice is to focus on what problems you can solve right now and then use that to guide you towards what niches to reach out to.

DiamondDog · Oct 13, 2020

Hey @Fox thanks for offering this course.

I was on the verge of spending over 6k on a course (QLTS) to become a solicitor in the UK as foreign trained lawyer but quickly realized it was going to be an expensive slowlane trap. Your course has been in the back of my mind for a while but I've got some concerns.

I am Bolivian, currently living in Bolivia but within the next three months I'll be moving to the UK for 6 months for personal reasons, and I am going to have a lot of time to learn a new skill. However, I am aware that the market in Bolivia and the rest of Latin America isn't that attractive. At least in my country very few businesses want a website since the dynamic revolves more around social media because people don't really use electronic payment methods (folks love their cash).

Due to the above mentioned, I would be more interested in approaching English speaking markets despite the fact English isn't my first language although I am prolific (not perfect, you can probably tell).

Are any of your students in a similar position? Would American/UK companies find it hard to trust a foreign web designer and therefore I'd struggle more compared to others?

Fox · Oct 13, 2020

DiamondDog said:
Hey @Fox thanks for offering this course.

I was on the verge of spending over 6k on a course (QLTS) to become a solicitor in the UK as foreign trained lawyer but quickly realized it was going to be an expensive slowlane trap. Your course has been in the back of my mind for a while but I've got some concerns.

I am Bolivian, currently living in Bolivia but within the next three months I'll be moving to the UK for 6 months for personal reasons, and I am going to have a lot of time to learn a new skill. However, I am aware that the market in Bolivia and the rest of Latin America isn't that attractive. At least in my country very few businesses want a website since the dynamic revolves more around social media because people don't really use electronic payment methods (folks love their cash).

Due to the above mentioned, I would be more interested in approaching English speaking markets despite the fact English isn't my first language although I am prolific (not perfect, you can probably tell).

Are any of your students in a similar position? Would American/UK companies find it hard to trust a foreign web designer and therefore I'd struggle more compared to others?

Hey @DiamondDog - ya a lot of the students are "global"...

Most students not in the US are aiming for clients outside of their local area/country.
So no issues with your plan above - it is built into the program and we teach this often.

Black_Dragon43 · Oct 13, 2020

DiamondDog said:
Would American/UK companies find it hard to trust a foreign web designer and therefore I'd struggle more compared to others?

Disclaimer: I am not (and have never been) a member of Fox's course, but I have grown to 6 figures selling marketing services to foreign markets (mainly USA, Canada, UK, Australia).

Well, do you have an accent? If you do, (for example, I have a heavy russian accent), then you may run into issues with people being initially reluctant to trust you. Nothing you can't overcome (as you can see, I've done quite well), but you do have to take it into account. It's best if you can work to eliminate the accent as much as possible, then you can come off as American or whatever. A good practice is to record yourself speaking, and then analyze where the problems are coming from your accent and try to solve them. It's hard to catch your accent while hearing yourself speak, because you're so used to it, but it's much easier when you have it on tape.

The other tip I've found helpful to bypass this issue is to simply lead with your expertise. Once your client starts to understand that you really know what you're talking about, then the accent and where you're from question becomes less relevant... so basically if you can get past the initial cold-call entrance, then it becomes less of a problem.

Anyway, if you have one, don't let your accent hold you back.

DrSeuss8347 · Oct 14, 2020

One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life!!! Finding an online business that works is something I have been interested in for a long time now. My search is over! During the beginning of the pandemic I picked up Unscripted , devoured it, then joined the forum. For some reason Rob's post literally jumped off the screen at me. I took his advice, did the codecademy courses, then the Udemy. Coded my own company site and watched his you tube videos constantly! Watching Rob manipulate code and create amazing sites is extremely fascinating to me, it always fires me up to go out there and build something awsome! He's as relatable as it gets, with such crystal clear instructions that it almost seems to easy. We know it's not and that's why I decided to join the school. Wish I joined earlier to be honest! Within a month of the program I was able to build a portfolio site for my first client then use that as leverage to land a paying deal for 6k! The program works if you commit, listen, and never quit! I will always recommend anything that Rob puts his name on because all he does is deliver! The other great thing about his program is all the other students in the school. The support and encouragement is always there, and anytime I've had an issue I get a response within minutes! Good luck finding that somewhere else. I literally was so computer alliterate that I had to you tube how to set up basic folders prior to codecademy. So to say that I had a lot to learn would be an understatement. So if your looking to get your black belt in web design then stop wasting time and join ASAP!!!! I promise you won't regret it. Thank you Rob!!

Fox · Oct 15, 2020

DrSeuss8347 said:
One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life!!! Finding an online business that works is something I have been interested in for a long time now. My search is over! During the beginning of the pandemic I picked up Unscripted , devoured it, then joined the forum. For some reason Rob's post literally jumped off the screen at me. I took his advice, did the codecademy courses, then the Udemy. Coded my own company site and watched his you tube videos constantly! Watching Rob manipulate code and create amazing sites is extremely fascinating to me, it always fires me up to go out there and build something awsome! He's as relatable as it gets, with such crystal clear instructions that it almost seems to easy. We know it's not and that's why I decided to join the school. Wish I joined earlier to be honest! Within a month of the program I was able to build a portfolio site for my first client then use that as leverage to land a paying deal for 6k! The program works if you commit, listen, and never quit! I will always recommend anything that Rob puts his name on because all he does is deliver! The other great thing about his program is all the other students in the school. The support and encouragement is always there, and anytime I've had an issue I get a response within minutes! Good luck finding that somewhere else. I literally was so computer alliterate that I had to you tube how to set up basic folders prior to codecademy. So to say that I had a lot to learn would be an understatement. So if your looking to get your black belt in web design then stop wasting time and join ASAP!!!! I promise you won't regret it. Thank you Rob!!

Thanks for this review ha! Really cool to have helped.

Full disclosure I asked @DrSeuss8347 to leave this review since it is very nice sale in just a few weeks after joining. To give a bit more context on the sale here for anyone reading...

Thanks again for the review Mikey and really cool to see this progress.

Deleted74338 · Oct 17, 2020

@Fox Hi, I learned to code over the last few months, I am not the best but I am getting there, I would like to start doing jobs in about 1 month or so and I do not know on what to focus. Should I focus on eCommerce websites or just basic sites with a contact, about, homepage and some more easy to make pages? I looked up some of the websites ANerdsWord has on his portfolio and not many of them are eCommerce, lots of them are not very hard to create, could you please clear me up on that? Thanks!

Wout Haksteen · Oct 20, 2020

Great post @Fox, very much appreciated!

How can I reach out to you? I sent you a PM a while back and haven't got a reply back.

Fox · Oct 22, 2020

beswaax said:
@Fox Hi, I learned to code over the last few months, I am not the best but I am getting there, I would like to start doing jobs in about 1 month or so and I do not know on what to focus. Should I focus on eCommerce websites or just basic sites with a contact, about, homepage and some more easy to make pages? I looked up some of the websites ANerdsWord has on his portfolio and not many of them are eCommerce, lots of them are not very hard to create, could you please clear me up on that? Thanks!

Hey @beswaax

I would say consider your long term goals and what your current skills are.

If you are just starting off I would say do non-ecommece sites first. They are easier to make quick money as a freelancer and require less experience to do well. You won't need to know as many things and can just focus on a few key areas as you gain more experience.

As you get more skills/experience though you could then attempt to help people with their eCommerce websites and eventually maybe do your own.

Hope that helps. Hope on a call if you want to go over it in more detail.

Fox · Oct 22, 2020

Wout Haksteen said:
Great post @Fox, very much appreciated!

How can I reach out to you? I sent you a PM a while back and haven't got a reply back.

Can you send another message and I will check in with you right away.
I got a lot of messages and it seems some stuff got buried.

If anyone else didn't get a reply back either just send another message and I will get back to you too. Thanks.

Ironmantri · Oct 31, 2020

Hello
I joined Fox web school last month sept 26 2020 and in just exactly 1 month i got my first sale of $1000. I dont have a web page portfolio i just created a free website for my running friends and another personal training friend. Also as we speak i got 3 potentials lined up.
The videos videos are really helpful. Everything is greatly explained and has tons of value. If thats not enough the weekly calls are very helpful. I had two calls before the weekly calls and felt that my footing was incorrect. A little tweak from Fox during the call and right after that, jumped on a sales call then made my first sale! The facebook group is as equivalent value as the videos. The members there are very very helpful with their knowledge and experience. You could ask there what day it is today and they would reply with time, weather and traffic updates. Fox is also very attentive in the group and make sure every questions are answered.
I saw this post back in May and regret not jumping on it.
This is my ticket way out of 9 to 5.

Fox · Nov 1, 2020

Ironmantri said:
Hello
I joined Fox web school last month sept 26 2020 and in just exactly 1 month i got my first sale of $1000. I dont have a web page portfolio i just created a free website for my running friends and another personal training friend. Also as we speak i got 3 potentials lined up.
The videos videos are really helpful. Everything is greatly explained and has tons of value. If thats not enough the weekly calls are very helpful. I had two calls before the weekly calls and felt that my footing was incorrect. A little tweak from Fox during the call and right after that, jumped on a sales call then made my first sale! The facebook group is as equivalent value as the videos. The members there are very very helpful with their knowledge and experience. You could ask there what day it is today and they would reply with time, weather and traffic updates. Fox is also very attentive in the group and make sure every questions are answered.
I saw this post back in May and regret not jumping on it.
This is my ticket way out of 9 to 5.

It was cool to see you asking plenty of questions on the call and then see it start to click so fast.

Thanks for the post here and hope this is the first sale of many.

BlackSuperman · Nov 3, 2020

Hey guys,

I wanted to give a quick story about the success the group has provided for me personally. I hope this short story will inspire many who are on the fence to take action as there truly is value to be received from joining Rob's Web School.

NOTE: In No Way Am I Being Influenced or Paid To Make This Post. I Am Doing This On My Own Terms.

So I began this journey about 2 months ago (September 16th). Like many of you, I was sick of my lack of direction and when I found this thread I was inspired to take action. Of course, I knew the price was a bit steep at first without knowing first hand the knowledge and value I could gain.

I went through the school modules concurrently while outreaching to my network about my new services and how I could help them. This is one of the main messages Fox's Web School endorses: Taking Action WHILE Learning What's Needed. Now I didn't see success right away as that would be a rare thing to happen for anyone, but through continuous action and relentless a$$-busting work, something amazing happened and I didn't even see it coming.

After posting about my services on LinkedIn and my re-brand, an old high-school acquaintance reached out to me asking about my services and if I am able to help him. IF it wasn't for the Web School, the documentation provided, the amazing always active community, accountability groups, helpful as hell mentors, and the constant reminder from the community that value is what drives success; I wouldn't have landed my first non-family paying client for $6,000 contract!

Onto my main point:
This post is not meant to be an ego-stroke at all but as a message of validation that if you are thinking of joining and you put in work, I mean real and honest work, you will see success.

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