Trying to get my first web design client as a young fastlaner.

[Jasper_]

I’ve always been skeptical of getting a regular 9-5 job like everyone around me. I think that when I’m young, I should use this time to build up evergreen skills which will help me create a fastlane business later, and give me a head-start on everyone flipping burgers and stacking shelves. I think that the best way to learn is from experience and failure.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across someone in the web design niche and made my decision that web design was the business for me. I have been wanting to start a business for a while but things like dropshipping and social media marketing just weren’t really my cup of tea, and building websites ticked all my boxes.

And I think that something like this would be able to teach me more valuable skills for entrepreneurship than just getting a regular 9-5.

I intend to use this as a pathway to generate money and sales skills which I can take to build a fastlane business in the future. (Luckily I have a lot of time too) For now I want to just get 1 or 2 sales so I can reinvest that money into the business (or a course/ coaching) to fast track the growth.

After making the decision to commit to web design, I’ve reached the point now where I have all the general knowledge and have gathered a list of clients to start my outreach. But this phase has been met with some setbacks. (and decisions)

I think I have a really strong USP (Unique selling proposition) because I am the only one in my area who is niched down to my target audience - Crash repairs -, so I can provide the best value to them and ‘claim’ to be the specialist.

I’ve seen a lot of information online and great sales scripts for things like cold emails - but they all require some kind of past results as the main way of building trust with the client.

I don’t have any past results to my name, nor do I know anyone in my niche who I can reach out to easily and offer them something for free or for cheap.

I was considering two options for reaching out to people by email and might combine them together.

Those were cold emailing & loom videos.

I was either going to start with a cold email to just get intrigue from the potential client and then promise them more information (loom video) if they replied. Then if I get a positive response, I would send them the video to gain trust and try to get them on a call.

After watching many of @Fox 's videos, I learnt that you shouldn’t immediately try to jump into the sale on the first email because you haven’t built any trust and sound a bit pushy.
(Also business owners get a million of these emails a day so I need to stand out somehow)

I was unsure whether starting with a cold email would lose lots of clients because people usually ignore that kind of stuff so I was also considering sending the loom video first.

Sending them a loom video has its upsides such as being able to connect with the business owner personally, and being able to provide them with value before you ask for something in return, but I’m not sure if it’s the best option for me.
My main concern is that the video will seem too ‘sales-like’ which can be a problem if people don’t know you at all, and you don’t have any evidence to back up.

It’s especially hard if the main thing which you should try to sell the business owner is results, when you don’t have any, which is why people suggest working for free.
The problem is people associate free work with poor quality.

I think that my dilemma results from me getting information from a lot of different sources. It’s kind of natural for me to just try to learn from everyone, everywhere in order to get a broad idea of what to do and choose the right option for me - which has its positives and negatives.

An option which you might suggest could be to try versions of both and see which one has the highest conversion rate, which could work but I have quite a small sample space of leads so I don’t think I could really gather any solid evidence to support each option.

Any advice from people with or without experience would be really awesome.

I’m willing to jump into the deep end and try everything, because while I hate doing things like cold calls, I know that the most progress comes from doing things which make you uncomfortable. (Speaking of discomfort, this is my first post on the forum after lurking for a couple months)

I’ll probably update this thread with progress along my web design journey and I encourage anyone at a similar point to where I am to follow along and learn something.

Thanks for your time,

• Jasper

 

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[Johannf]

I’ve always been skeptical of getting a regular 9-5 job like everyone around me. I think that when I’m young, I should use this time to build up evergreen skills which will help me create a fastlane business later, and give me a head-start on everyone flipping burgers and stacking shelves. I think that the best way to learn is from experience and failure.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across someone in the web design niche and made my decision that web design was the business for me. I have been wanting to start a business for a while but things like dropshipping and social media marketing just weren’t really my cup of tea, and building websites ticked all my boxes.

And I think that something like this would be able to teach me more valuable skills for entrepreneurship than just getting a regular 9-5.

I intend to use this as a pathway to generate money and sales skills which I can take to build a fastlane business in the future. (Luckily I have a lot of time too) For now I want to just get 1 or 2 sales so I can reinvest that money into the business (or a course/ coaching) to fast track the growth.

After making the decision to commit to web design, I’ve reached the point now where I have all the general knowledge and have gathered a list of clients to start my outreach. But this phase has been met with some setbacks. (and decisions)

I think I have a really strong USP (Unique selling proposition) because I am the only one in my area who is niched down to my target audience - Crash repairs -, so I can provide the best value to them and ‘claim’ to be the specialist.

I’ve seen a lot of information online and great sales scripts for things like cold emails - but they all require some kind of past results as the main way of building trust with the client.

I don’t have any past results to my name, nor do I know anyone in my niche who I can reach out to easily and offer them something for free or for cheap.

I was considering two options for reaching out to people by email and might combine them together.

Those were cold emailing & loom videos.

I was either going to start with a cold email to just get intrigue from the potential client and then promise them more information (loom video) if they replied. Then if I get a positive response, I would send them the video to gain trust and try to get them on a call.

After watching many of @Fox 's videos, I learnt that you shouldn’t immediately try to jump into the sale on the first email because you haven’t built any trust and sound a bit pushy.
(Also business owners get a million of these emails a day so I need to stand out somehow)

I was unsure whether starting with a cold email would lose lots of clients because people usually ignore that kind of stuff so I was also considering sending the loom video first.

Sending them a loom video has its upsides such as being able to connect with the business owner personally, and being able to provide them with value before you ask for something in return, but I’m not sure if it’s the best option for me.
My main concern is that the video will seem too ‘sales-like’ which can be a problem if people don’t know you at all, and you don’t have any evidence to back up.

It’s especially hard if the main thing which you should try to sell the business owner is results, when you don’t have any, which is why people suggest working for free.
The problem is people associate free work with poor quality.

I think that my dilemma results from me getting information from a lot of different sources. It’s kind of natural for me to just try to learn from everyone, everywhere in order to get a broad idea of what to do and choose the right option for me - which has its positives and negatives.

An option which you might suggest could be to try versions of both and see which one has the highest conversion rate, which could work but I have quite a small sample space of leads so I don’t think I could really gather any solid evidence to support each option.

Any advice from people with or without experience would be really awesome.

I’m willing to jump into the deep end and try everything, because while I hate doing things like cold calls, I know that the most progress comes from doing things which make you uncomfortable. (Speaking of discomfort, this is my first post on the forum after lurking for a couple months)

I’ll probably update this thread with progress along my web design journey and I encourage anyone at a similar point to where I am to follow along and learn something.

Thanks for your time,

• Jasper

It might be a good idea to get experience in web design first, either as an employee or on Upwork. Then just selling your services is a really bad business model. It is like owning a job, selling your time for money. Rather look for opportunities to develop a SASS after getting the experience.

 

[Isaac Odongo]

Great intentions

Now if you are serious. DM me but I won't offer to pay you as I can't contract anyone as yet.

I have something I want to experiment. If you and I agree on terms, I will or you will post the results and so forth here. For a sort of transparency and motivation to others.