“Please Be Advised” should never appear in customer communications
Yeah, that's how the email came from our local mechanic to let us know their business had moved. "Please be advised that we've moved addresses and our name changed." A few things to note: This happened weeks after their previous highly visible location was emptied and...
Builders Blueprint
Building an agency can be overwhelming from the number of things that need to be done in order to have a fully-functioning agency, but I would suggest that the first task necessary is to build a "customer's journey"; the steps a customer will take from being...
9 Ways You’re Wasting Time in Your Web Design Business
While you're running your own web design agency, you have many varying demands on your time. There's the marketing, admin, onboarding, and of course, getting client work done. There's also a host of distractions that eat up time. And we all know, time is money. In...
How To Fire A Client (while protecting your reputation)
(aka it's not you, it's me). "Firing a client" I hate the phrase (like bragging about not being able to manage client relationships well), but the necessity exists. Side note: If you're firing clients often, you're doing it wrong. How To Fire A Web Design Client While...
How to Grow Your Web Agency Faster than the Competition
As a website designer building an agency, you spend most of your time marketing and working on your client projects. It's all too common to miss these basic business building strategies, that could skyrocket your growth faster than 90% of other web designers. In this...
How I Use The Marketing Calendar by CoSchedule To Build A Social Media Strategy
Links in this blog post may contain an affiliate link. I'll earn a commission if you choose to use coschedule from clicking a link at no additional cost to you. TLDR: Coschedule saves me a ton of time, and I'm confident it will do the same for you and your clients....
How Much Should I Charge For Website Design And Maintenance?
How much should a website cost? This is probably the question that most freelance web designers want to ask. Whether you actually say it out loud or not, it's almost definitely on your mind: What should I charge for website design and maintenance costs, and what do...
Make a Molehill Out of a Mountain
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from a recommendation, it doesn't cost you anything extra, and I get a referral fee. Small goals are good for you and good for the client My biggest challenge in tackling large projects is that they overwhelm...
How To Evaluate A Client’s Existing Website For Redesign
TLDR; Buy The 40-Point Checklist. Note: It's fine if you don't buy our checklist. Create your own. It's worth it to have the system for working with new clients (and great for cold calling also! Keep reading to learn why.) A new web design client completes your quote...
7 Ways To Make More Money Designing Websites
How To Make More Money Designing Websites (7 Ways) (note: some of the links in this article are affiliate links. I may make a commission for recommending them at no cost to you). Yes, you can make money building websites - but this article is about making MORE money!...
31-Point WordPress Website Launch Checklist
Isn't it the worst to feel you might be missing something, especially when you're launching a client's website and helping them represent themselves online? What if you missed a step in SEO and they won't show up in search? What if you forget to back up their site and...
How To Get New Web Design Clients: 12 Fast and Sustainable Ways
...aka marketing your web design business. Most web designers starting have no idea how to get new web design clients. (as surprising as it sounds when you look around and see people marketing successful web design businesses.) Launching your web design agency often...
5 Ways to use social media to get more clients
The "Social Media Marketing For Business Mindset" road has ditches on both sides: The "If I had more business social media followers, that would bring in more leads" ditch: Instead of leads, depending on your organization, you might be looking for more donors,...
1001 Social Media Post Ideas for Businesses
Social Media posts are ALWAYS made up of two components. It doesn't matter if we're talking about social media marketing for your business or your personal brand. If you're about to launch your website design business, social media can be a helpful way to build your...
How Do I Start A Website Design Business?
Whether you're a designer seeing a need for websites in your local small business community, or you're in an industry that has a need for a web designer, or you're looking to start a new business from scratch and exploring options (from Multi-level Marketing to...
7 Simple Ways to Improve Your Live Video on Social Media
With many work positions moving online, and recent recognition that online can be much more efficient for so many things that we thought HAD to be in person, a lot of businesses are growing to realize the importance of connecting with their social media followers...
Why Churches Resist Business Principles (and why that needs to change)
Profit: It's often a 'dirty' word that often comes with the connotation of greed, so it's not a surprise that the associations of businesses with profit and the associations of profit with greed lead many churches to be resistant to considering using principles proven...
9 rules for effective creative meetings
Remember when you were little and playing a game with the neighbour kids, then they change the rules and say "oh yeah, I forgot to tell about..." or if you're learning a new game with some friends and they say "I'll start with the basic rules so we can get the game...