141–150 of 209 posts
I am not a web developer by profession (I'm a marketing director and entrepreneur), but I freelance 2-3 sites per year on the side. Most of these sites are fairly simple sites for small businesses and organizations. I make more money doing this (per hour) than most other freelancers I've met, and it's because I offer what my clients can't get with Wix/Squarespace: effective, high end design. I'm a decent web develope…
Can I have a look at your portfolio?
There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
I think what you have done (and are doing) is great first off. However a few questions. 1) Why do you use your name for your site ( jasonpomerleau.com ) rather than something easy to remember? For example I run into cases where people are going to need a wordpress site but no way I am going to remember that when I need it. 2) Why does your site have a big picture of you as the homepage image? And I do mean a big pict…
2) See 1). By the time a prospect reaches me, there’s already been a warm introduction of some kind. The big photo is the human you’re going to end up working with. I’m not super handsome but nevertheless i think it communicates that human component rather well. I do get teased occasionally about my “Steve Jobs” headshot but it doesn’t seem to have impacted sales.
If I was trying to grow and build out a team I would have taken a very different approach.
My growth strategy is oriented around productivity and workflow improvements, not adding heads. I’ve managed to become very fast and quite efficient, such that I usually blow my competitors completely out of the water. I’m only one semi-ugly dude, and thus every component of what I do has to be ruthlessly focused on what matters most.
If the requirement is a simple how-to-find-us page for a street corner sandwich shop, there is no point in bringing in a professional web developer in 2019. You can get a self-service site, with better appearance and automated security updates, for a fraction of what it would cost just to have a hands-on pro get out of bed, using any of the builder tools and an off-the-shelf template.
When the requirements start to get significantly more demanding, then it’s time to call in a pro. This can happen for all sorts of reasons, but there is always something that’s specific to that client’s needs and not available in a cheap, off-the-shelf solution. It could be because a business really does need completely bespoke layout/styling for its site. It could be because there’s more interactive functionality that needs some custom UI work in front of a database or other back-end system. It could be because aspects of the site need to integrate with a client’s existing IT systems in some way. It could be because the client really needs more than just a site and you’re providing additional services as well as the site to support them.
Naturally any larger businesses with more complicated requirements will tend to fall into the latter category, but you can also find smaller businesses there, for example if they need a tailored interface for taking details of orders or have some sort of scheduling element to their system.
There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
How do you find clients? Can your mantra work from someone outside US trying to offer exceptional services? :)
My company targeting this kind of cold outreach can typically pull one or 2 recurring paying client out of 100 cold emails. That's 100 outreach which products approx 15 people who give the affirmative reply (15%) which leads to 3 or 4 calls which leads to 1 or 2 clients.
It's a slog. But the math works and we have a system down for the outreach so it's very repeatable.
TLDR - sell your knowledge and treat the product as a complimentary add-on. If you can help your customers improve their bottom line in a meaningful way, you will always have clients.
There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this invariably end up wanting/needing things that these platforms can’t offer, and have the kind of budgets that can support a solo operator or small team. At this level, you are competin…
Wow! And after doing wordpress for a while, I can't imagine getting even close to that. Are you hiring or looking for someone to throw some projects his way. I can be of help.
What you should do: leave your home, talk to strangers at a networking event, and listen to their technical problems. Maybe 1 in 10 will have a problem you'd like to work on solving, if you've gone to the right event. Ask for a fair rate and overdeliver. Repeat.
I think web-design in the SMB market is completely commoditized between website builders and even CSS toolkits like Bootstrap lowering the barrier to entry. I barely know CSS and will just buy a $20 design from wrapbootstrap and the client doesn't care. Anything related to web-design should be a side-effect of the true product you're selling, which in your case should be web-based software application development (IM…
You would be surprised... also don't rule out middle market companies ($50MM - $500MM in sales) in low-tech industries. Suspect these could be highly profitable clients (yet potentially infuriating, details below). Examples from my day job: - Transaction pricing, trade system setup, and item costing is effectively controlled by Excel VBA (written by one guy who left, and maintained by a third-string developer who moo…
Possibly, but you may just be stuck doing donkey work (almost regardless of rate, that gets boring after some time). You can identify problems and offer to 'fix' them for businesses, but they need to be willing to actually change their processes. If there's political turf wars over "don't touch my pet project", no amount of money thrown at the problem will make it better. And yes, you possibly can siphon some off of those for a while, but I think for many people it's going to end poorly (political types will turn on you, etc).
You already mentioned some issues in that scenario above - never do anything inhouse with the talent you've got there - people need to set themselves up as middlemen. When the answer to the company's inefficiencies involves "remove the middlemen", it's a major battle.
> Was told we couldn't do something on our site because it was "an old WordPress site" and had to be totally rebuilt for over $50,000.
Interestingly tho, I can possibly see that. I might not tell someone $50k, but if I see some old WP site, and someone's asking for moderately complex functionality, I do not want to touch the existing site. It'll be a rebuild, or a separate service, and then integration work between the two. The $50k price may have just been a "we don't want to do this but this is our 'happy' price" sort of deal. If a new piece of functionality may cost, say, $10k of service work, I don't want to have to tie it to whatever legacy stuff came before, as I'm now responsible for supporting everything on it, because I was the last one to touch it ("it never used to do that before - you broke it!")
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what you have done (and are doing) is great first off. However a few questions. 1) Why do you use your name for your site ( jasonpomerleau.com ) rather than something easy to remember? For example I run into cases where people are going to need a wordpress site but no way I am going to remember that when I need it. 2) Why does your site have a big picture of you as the homepage image? And I do mean a big pict…
1) Businesses in my markets like to deal with humans. They’re not hiring a company (well, they are - I have a numbered company that is generally only of concern to the financial and legal departments) - they want to work with me. There’s no need for me to be memorable in any other way. Plus I really suck at naming things. :) 2) See 1). By the time a prospect reaches me, there’s already been a warm introduction of som…
I know a great deal about this topic. It always pays to make it easy for people to find or remember you. Even if you get primarily word of mouth.
> Plus I really suck at naming things. :)
Well then you should do what people who use you are doing. Find someone who does and pay them for the advice (per what I say about 'it always pays to make it easy for people to find or remember you).
Even if you already have more customers than you can service having more potential customers allows you to charge a higher price for what you do. There is no reason to have friction in marketing. It's not the same as HN trying to use a hard to find name to keep people out and have only higher quality comments (reason it's still probably news.ycombinator.com instead of something easier to find for newbies)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what you have done (and are doing) is great first off. However a few questions. 1) Why do you use your name for your site ( jasonpomerleau.com ) rather than something easy to remember? For example I run into cases where people are going to need a wordpress site but no way I am going to remember that when I need it. 2) Why does your site have a big picture of you as the homepage image? And I do mean a big pict…
1) Businesses in my markets like to deal with humans. They’re not hiring a company (well, they are - I have a numbered company that is generally only of concern to the financial and legal departments) - they want to work with me. There’s no need for me to be memorable in any other way. Plus I really suck at naming things. :) 2) See 1). By the time a prospect reaches me, there’s already been a warm introduction of som…