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Patrick Byrne

New Member
Hi all..

I am a freelance web designer based in the south-east. I am in business only a short period and was looking for advice on aquiring more work. I have a portfolio of clients that I have done work for and they are all happy with the work I have done and have got me new business from referalls through word of mouth.

I m asking the question what other means have you used that you find a success in gaining more business. I have called into local business's but half barely speak to you and the few that do just fob ye off..

Any suggestions is welcomed.....
 

seanpearse

New Member
Hi Patrick,

I feel your pain mate. Only certain people are cut out for cold-calling and the cocky sales pitch and I'm certainly not one of them. Have you tried maybe contacting previous happy clients and offering them a referral fee (maybe 10% or something) of any business they pass your way. I do this with anyone who's willing to listen to me!! Money talks and if people think they could make a few quid for themselves they'll put a bit more effort into recommending you.

Best of luck
 

link8r

New Member
Hi all..

I am a freelance web designer based in the south-east. I am in business only a short period and was looking for advice on aquiring more work. I have a portfolio of clients that I have done work for and they are all happy with the work I have done and have got me new business from referalls through word of mouth.

I m asking the question what other means have you used that you find a success in gaining more business. I have called into local business's but half barely speak to you and the few that do just fob ye off..

Any suggestions is welcomed.....

Forget the referral fee and cold calling if you want to move sales to the top of the pyramid (Transactional = botton - e.g. PC's, Cans of coke; top = Tier 1 Agency, €300 per hour).

Maintain a relationship with your existing clients. You're at the building stage, not the profit taking stage - so keep adding value. Offer them a free blog add on or organise a networking + Q&A event. Team up with a local IT company. Give value. The reward - they will recommend you out of sheer pride to refer you. The problem with money, value and price of a website is risk : Companies will pay if they know there's no risk.

think of it this way. I own a small business. I need a good website that will represent me well, provide leads etc. If I think there's a more than 50% chance you might let me down or in 5 months I will have to get someone else, then I'm going to preserve my budget so that I can have funds to hire someone else. Its only one way of looking at it.

Network. Don't just network here (amongst your peers) but via your enterprise board, chambers, BNI's, Open Coffee, SMECommunity, twitter, LinkedIn, Conferences, Events. Organise your own.

What's your USP? What do you do well? What problems do you solve? If you're providing great technical support and quick turnaround times? That's the biggest problem facing small business today - they get great websites but the "after sales" is terrible! Do your customers appreciate that? Then why not ask them to invite their friends, vendors, clients with the same problems to attend a half day workshop with you on content writing / usability and html editing ?
 

henryestvir

New Member
well there are many types of entrepreneurs, you have the visionary type which goes big, has a stronger marketing mind set. You have the Lawyer mindset entrepreneur which is good in certain ways when it comes to wording ads, but is not as big of a thinker. You then have the accounting entrepreneur who is really great at finances, won't spend on anything worthless, but doesn't make things bigger. I'm a marketing entrepreneur so I'm all about making things bigger.
 
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