As a person who has done this countless times I can give you the most appropriate advise from my perspective.
- Be honest: Don’t believe you must lie or give away your entire profits to get the client, be honest in what you sell and know what you sell. The knowing part will allow you to answer any spot questions they might have.
- Don’t bad mouth: In the most part, clients often get their loved ones, friend or even themselves to do their website. The reason they are giving you a call is because they realized their ‘do it for nothing’ approach has failed them. Now they are trying to find a match for their business, the last thing they need is to find a match who is bad mouthing their loved one.
- Recommendations and Word of Mouth: In a world where people don’t trust one another, you can’t expect people to trust your business without knowing you first. You must supply significant examples of your past work, or alternatively be recommended through a friend or existing business. Advertising works, but don’t expect miracles. Some people I know showed off huge successes with cold calling, but from my experience this rarely worked.
- Advertising: If you’re looking to get the world out make some cheap business cards via moo, and give them out to your local businesses. There are some businesses that would allow you to put out cards for their customers to see. There is no harm in trying.
I completely understand what you’re saying. I have to be honest in that this industry is riddled with bad/problematic clients, they almost prey and hunt for youngsters like yourself.
You just have to keep reminding them on the hours you’ve spent and how you can’t just keep working for free. I had a case today whereby a client did not want to pay for 2 days work I did and stated that they thought it was free. I simply told them the hours I’ve spend, the work I carried out and what I achieved for them, therefore I have to charge. I sent them the invoice, which is the main thing to do, and let the client take it from there. In the message to them I noted that the work done was significantly discounted so therefore the client would feel bad to dispute anything further. If the client does not pay I will no doubt need to call him and explain how unfair this approach is. If they still refuse to pay then unfortunately this is where two things will happen, either the support I give them will change significantly (become worse and less responsive), or I would need to ask them to go somewhere else. I will never do anything for them again without quoting them the full price and them agreeing to it. Sometimes though this can be counter-productive, and it’s easier to do the work and tell them how much it cost, but you always take the risk.
There are businesses that need websites more than others. From experience office style jobs with extensive use of emails need you. Barbers, mechanics, joiners, painters aren’t your best choices. They won’t appreciate the work you do for them, and ultimately they are probably better off going to somewhere like Wix for their website.
You can’t! There is no way you can make it if you chase dead weight. Understand that most people out there want to spend the least possible amount of money. Out of 10 businesses only 1 or 2 would be suited for you. Most won’t, and wasting your time chasing them can be a daunting experience.
Even though this is true. If you speak to enough people you’d have enough connections who will need websites. It might take 3 years to build a few up but with connections everything is possible. I have to be honest in that I’ve never showed anybody a website I produced to get them to be my client. All I did is mention I do websites. I feel there is far too much attention on working for free. I will never encourage anybody to do this. We all have to work for money. What I normally did is showed them a few websites on the internet, quote them on the website and functionality and once they agreed completed it for them. A lot of the people I spoke to where more interest in the functionality and the support rather than the design.
On the end of the day, this industry is not all fun. It’s difficult because of difficult people. Just remind yourself that you’re not doing this because you love it, you’re doing this for the money. If you’re not getting paid then you might as well do something for yourself and not for people looking to exploit you.
PS: I used to be in your predicament. I no longer have this issue. Remove the love from your job, and remind yourself that it’s all for the money. Nobody works for free, and neither should you.