Create your own web design company
Why should you start your business?
There is no better time than now to get known as a web professional and launch your own business. The Internet has changed the way we communicate, make new friends and increase revenues by helping customers position themselves on the web, thanks to your web development skills.
So, if you want to have the freedom to work from home, travel the world and manage your business even from a beach paradise, or something more complex like creating your own design agency and making it grow, it’s the ideal time to make a name for yourself in the industry.
Having created an agency and taught many people how to do it, I’d like to show you the steps to follow to achieve success with a website creation company without making the mistakes I made in the beginning.
How to generate leads and get new customers
There are many articles written on the Internet about how to generate leads. Convincing a person to pay you in exchange for creating a website seems like a magic trick that we would escape from at first.
I once spent two weeks in a row calling the 50 fastest growing companies in Australia and was only able to get $1,700 in revenue. It was awful, but I realized that I’m not bad at selling.
Most sales and lead capture advice focuses on chasing the customer and making them see that they need you, yes or no. The most common question I get in emails is “how do I find new customers”, as if they are in hiding.
Find your sweet spot
Divide a sheet of paper into two columns, make a list of your skills in one column and another column for what you like to do best. For example, SEO is part of my skills, what I know how to do, but it is not something I am passionate about.
Designing is something I like but I don’t know how to do. Launching a podcast is in both columns, as well as teaching, presenting, making videos or coaching. You don’t know what I invest more time in?
The advantage of investing your time doing what you master most is that the quality of the work is usually higher, the final result for your clients will be better and you will be happier, something vital to avoid burnout.
Once you know what your sweet spot is ask yourself “Who benefits most from working with me when I am working at my best?
In my case, if a customer asks me to quickly improve his search engine ranking, I know he is not an ideal customer. Neither is a client who needs to win a prize for the best design. I do focus more on those customers who have a company with an established audience and need to increase their reputation through online marketing. These clients allow me to do what I do best: marketing strategies, sales funnels, optimizing conversion rates, email marketing, etc. This is my sweet spot.
Publish the right content
You’ve got your sweet spot, but now what? You shouldn’t be surprised if I advise you at this point to publish content on the Internet and share it with your ideal customer. But let me give you more details.
We all learn new things every day based on what we already know and apply to a project or a company. For example, when I learned how to implement a sales funnel with HotJar, I first saw how to do it and then put it into practice. HotJar is a very useful tool for analyzing your conversions and heatmaps, so you can check the behavior of your visitors and end customers.
The process I undertook was a good source of information for creating new content if I wanted to attract more customers looking for exactly the same thing, to improve their conversions. The extra benefit of publishing this content is that I will be able to use it with my colleagues when teaching them how to create sales funnel reports. Imagine this idea as a source of internal documentation.
The idea is to show all the content to as many potential customers as possible with as little effort as a couple of emails and a phone call or two.
Finally, make sure you have a good call to action on your website where new customers can request your services. This way they will see you as a good professional and not a person who wastes their time or just someone to hire for offering a good price.
Prepare well for meetings with potential clients
What happens when one of your ideal clients fills in your contact form and clicks on all the services he needs? Normally you would pick up the phone, set up a meeting with him to talk about his project and start explaining to him how much you know about WordPress, the plugins and frameworks you use.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the most common thing to do. In the end, the client gets the money you ask for in exchange for you creating their website. Don’t worry, even if you’ve made this mistake before, it’s time to change your work routine.
Determines the objective of the project
In order to be successful with your business, you will need to delimit your scope of work before starting a project.
The process starts by asking why the project is needed, why do you need a new website? You’ll probably get an answer like “we need to start selling online.” It’s a reasonable response and it may be enough to get you started.
However, go deeper in your search, ask yourself “What else?” This may be a little uncomfortable, which is perfect. The more comfortable you are in uncomfortable situations, the more your clients will tell you. Hold on as long as you can before you speak and listen to what they have to say.