Valerie has made some very effective changes that have enabled her to more than double her web design business in about eight months.

When Valerie and I started working together she already had about eight clients on retainer and was working as their technical/web design resource. The problem was, she was under enormous stress because she didn't feel like she was offering her clients the business solutions that they really needed.

She shifted her mindset, started offering some additional online marketing services in addition to her web design, and less than eight months later she has more than doubled her business.

Join me for this awesome and inspirational conversation with Valerie as she shares her insights into how you can double your business really quickly.

Here are a few excerpts from our conversation.

Realizing What She Needed To Change

“My clients were getting more and more frustrated with me and I wasn't feeling as good about the services I was offering them… I was building them websites when what they really needed were websites plus all these other [marketing tools/solutions] that I didn't offer. For a long time, I would tell them I only do the [tech] stack. I don't do the other stuff. Find somebody else who does because that's what you need to take your business forward and make it grow. I watched my clients crash and burn because I left them to figure it out.”

“If I tell them to figure it out, they're either going to try to do everything on their own or they'll try to hire somebody but they don't really know what they are looking for and what they actually need. I both cases, I wasn't serving my clients. My business model was limited and was getting worse as time went on.”

Reflecting On The Results She's Gotten From DoubleStack

It's been all the difference for me. I was super stressed out because I wasn't meeting my clients' needs or serving them. I love that about what you taught. How to serve them. My business now has helped me so much in my quality of life. I'm happier. I've been able to take the stress out of the client relationships.

Now, fast-forward eight months. Now I am so confident in what I offer them. I feel good about it and know that I'm meeting their business level needs. It's totally changed how I feel about my own business. I feel good knowing that I'm actually serving them.

Talking About Doubling Her Revenue

Yeah, [my revenue] has gone way up. To the point that my husband (who does my taxes) was like, “You're in a whole different tax bracket now.” So I was like I have to charge more because I have to pay so much more in taxes

Valerie has made some very effective changes that have enabled her to more than double her web design business in about eight months.

When Valerie and I started working together she already had about eight clients on retainer and was working as their technical/web design resource. The problem was, she was under enormous stress because she didn't feel like she was offering her clients the business solutions that they really needed.

She shifted her mindset, started offering some additional online marketing services in addition to her web design, and less than eight months later she has more than doubled her business.

Join me for this awesome and inspirational conversation with Valerie as she shares her insights into how you can double your business really quickly.

Here are a few excerpts from our conversation.

Realizing What She Needed To Change

“My clients were getting more and more frustrated with me and I wasn't feeling as good about the services I was offering them… I was building them websites when what they really needed were websites plus all these other [marketing tools/solutions] that I didn't offer. For a long time, I would tell them I only do the [tech] stack. I don't do the other stuff. Find somebody else who does because that's what you need to take your business forward and make it grow. I watched my clients crash and burn because I left them to figure it out.”

“If I tell them to figure it out, they're either going to try to do everything on their own or they'll try to hire somebody but they don't really know what they are looking for and what they actually need. I both cases, I wasn't serving my clients. My business model was limited and was getting worse as time went on.”

Reflecting On The Results She's Gotten From DoubleStack

It's been all the difference for me. I was super stressed out because I wasn't meeting my clients' needs or serving them. I love that about what you taught. How to serve them. My business now has helped me so much in my quality of life. I'm happier. I've been able to take the stress out of the client relationships.

Now, fast-forward eight months. Now I am so confident in what I offer them. I feel good about it and know that I'm meeting their business level needs. It's totally changed how I feel about my own business. I feel good knowing that I'm actually serving them.

Talking About Doubling Her Revenue

Yeah, [my revenue] has gone way up. To the point that my husband (who does my taxes) was like, “You're in a whole different tax bracket now.” So I was like I have to charge more because I have to pay so much more in taxes

Last week we talked about the Top 5 Pricing Models For High-Ticket Web Design. That opened up a great set of conversations about everything from feeling like a jack of all trades to value pricing. What was most interesting to me, however, was that the most common response to thinking about raising your prices was fear.

The primary reason web designers don't charge more is because it's too scary. So, let's take a look at the top 5 fears and how to overcome them.

Everyone Will Say No

The most common fear is the fear of universal rejection. If you ask for more money then everyone will say no – perhaps looking you in the eye and laughing while pointing at your proposal. This fear is rooted in your mindset. Your business will never outgrow your mindset. So, this is obviously an important fear to overcome if you want to build a business that's sustainable and provides the income you need.

The good news is, this one is a pretty simple (although not necessarily easy) fear to overcome. First, figure out what price you want to charge. Most people I talk to should be charging between $5,000 and $10,000 if not more. So, are you saying that nobody in the world will pay $5,000 to $10,000 for their online presence?

Of course, that's false and we all know it. This fear is a ghost. It's not real even though it feels scary. But that's what a ghost is. Something that's not real but it's still scary. You overcome it by realizing the truth. It's like turning the lights on and seeing that the scary monster blocking the door is really just your coat hanging on the doorknob.

My Clients Can't Afford To Pay More

OK, well maybe some people will pay more, but my clients can't afford to pay more. This is usually the next step people go through in overcoming their fear of raising their prices. This is a different fear from the first one because it might not be a ghost. It could be true.

Having said that, in my experience, the vast majority of people who say they can't pay more are really saying they don't want to pay more. Maybe they are confident enough in being able to get results so they don't want to get in too deep financially. Or, maybe they have a mental budget for what web sites should cost, and that limits their budget. The solution to this is to learn how to justify the value of your high-ticket work.

But, maybe it really is true and the leads you're getting are people who literally don't have the finances to be able to afford higher prices. If that's the case then the problem isn't your skillset or your confidence, it's your marketing. Change the way you post about and talk about yourself and you'll change the types of clients you attract.

If that sounds like your situation, the first and fastest thing you can do is change your website to better reflect who you are and what you deliver. To get started here are 3 Fundamental Shifts To Get Your Website To Attract High-Value Leads.

It's So Hard To Get Leads I Can't Risk Losing Them

This is one of the most dangerous fears. If you don't overcome this one you might as well shut down and go do something else because you'll never break out of the cycle of working yourself to death for unappreciative, cheap clients.

This is also a sneaky fear because it hides beneath the surface pretending to be Mr. Nice Guy. You might think that you're just trying to give people what they want at a price they can afford. But really, you're afraid that if you charge more so that you ...

Last week we talked about the Top 5 Pricing Models For High-Ticket Web Design. That opened up a great set of conversations about everything from feeling like a jack of all trades to value pricing. What was most interesting to me, however, was that the most common response to thinking about raising your prices was fear.

The primary reason web designers don't charge more is because it's too scary. So, let's take a look at the top 5 fears and how to overcome them.

Everyone Will Say No

The most common fear is the fear of universal rejection. If you ask for more money then everyone will say no – perhaps looking you in the eye and laughing while pointing at your proposal. This fear is rooted in your mindset. Your business will never outgrow your mindset. So, this is obviously an important fear to overcome if you want to build a business that's sustainable and provides the income you need.

The good news is, this one is a pretty simple (although not necessarily easy) fear to overcome. First, figure out what price you want to charge. Most people I talk to should be charging between $5,000 and $10,000 if not more. So, are you saying that nobody in the world will pay $5,000 to $10,000 for their online presence?

Of course, that's false and we all know it. This fear is a ghost. It's not real even though it feels scary. But that's what a ghost is. Something that's not real but it's still scary. You overcome it by realizing the truth. It's like turning the lights on and seeing that the scary monster blocking the door is really just your coat hanging on the doorknob.

My Clients Can't Afford To Pay More

OK, well maybe some people will pay more, but my clients can't afford to pay more. This is usually the next step people go through in overcoming their fear of raising their prices. This is a different fear from the first one because it might not be a ghost. It could be true.

Having said that, in my experience, the vast majority of people who say they can't pay more are really saying they don't want to pay more. Maybe they are confident enough in being able to get results so they don't want to get in too deep financially. Or, maybe they have a mental budget for what web sites should cost, and that limits their budget. The solution to this is to learn how to justify the value of your high-ticket work.

But, maybe it really is true and the leads you're getting are people who literally don't have the finances to be able to afford higher prices. If that's the case then the problem isn't your skillset or your confidence, it's your marketing. Change the way you post about and talk about yourself and you'll change the types of clients you attract.

If that sounds like your situation, the first and fastest thing you can do is change your website to better reflect who you are and what you deliver. To get started here are 3 Fundamental Shifts To Get Your Website To Attract High-Value Leads.

It's So Hard To Get Leads I Can't Risk Losing Them

This is one of the most dangerous fears. If you don't overcome this one you might as well shut down and go do something else because you'll never break out of the cycle of working yourself to death for unappreciative, cheap clients.

This is also a sneaky fear because it hides beneath the surface pretending to be Mr. Nice Guy. You might think that you're just trying to give people what they want at a price they can afford. But really, you're afraid that if you charge more so that you ...

There has been a lot of creativity lately with how web design consultants charge for their work. Let's look at the top five different pricing strategies that are popular right now and get some clarity on the pros and cons of each so you can figure out what works best for you. Stay to the end though because there's a fundamental mindset component that a lot of people aren't tapping into which makes all the difference – especially if you're charging high-ticket ($5,000 – $15,000+) prices.

Standard 50/50 Split

The most popular pricing strategy is the 50/50 split where you collect 50% upfront as a deposit to get started. Then you build everything out. Just before you launch you collect the final 50%. Depending on the size of the project (and the responsiveness of the client) development usually takes between one and three months.

The Good

This is a super simple pricing structure that everybody understands. Clients sort of intuitively expect this type of pricing structure. It makes sense to give you some money (but not all) to start. Then, pay the final bill when they take ownership of the work.

Clients also seem to (at least subconsciously) appreciate this pricing structure because they feel like they understand what the full cost is and they can compare your rates to other alternatives. Everything seems pretty much apples-to-apples.

The Bad

Clients feel like there's a big upfront cost to getting a website. Clients get scared and don't say yes – at least not until they “think about it.” So, you'll have to deal with objections like:

* That's a bit out of my budget. Can you work with me on (lower) the price?

* I can't afford that not but let me get back with you. (They really just want to shop around for a better price.)

* That's more than I was expecting, why are you so much more than… (pick some low-budget alternative like Upwork, Wix, some other developer, etc.)

These tend to just be one-and-done projects with no recurring revenue. Any sort of recurring revenue for hosting, security or marketing is an upsell which most clients tend to reject. It's a hard upsell because clients aren't really looking for these services, they feel expensive, and often times they already have some other plan (other than working with you) in mind for their marketing.

You're competing with the whole world. It's not at all uncommon for clients to thank you for your time, take your proposal, and say they need to think about it, talk to their business partner, win a new project first, etc. Then they take the proposal you poured yourself into and shop it around to see if they can get “the same thing for less.” In other words, they think of you as a commodity that they can replace. If you're charging high-ticket rates, they'll probably find someone else who they think can offer the same stuff you are offering and they'll save 50% or more on the project – even if they have to give up a little convenience by working with someone who isn't local.

The down-side of this pricing model is pretty steep and the upside isn't all that great. So why do people do it? Because it's pretty much the mainstream approach. It's what people know and what clients have come to expect. But, when you lay it all out in the sunlight you can see it's not a winning strategy – especially if you're prices tend to be higher than everyone else's prices.

Hourly (Time & Materials)

Another common approach is just trying to estimate hours, publish an hourly rate, and tell the client you just charge for time and materials. Sometimes this takes the form of you pre-selling your time in monthly chunks for discounted rates. Sometimes you just track your time, work until you're finished, then invoice the client.

The Good

You get paid for all your time and virtually eliminate the risk associated with a fixed pr...

There has been a lot of creativity lately with how web design consultants charge for their work. Let's look at the top five different pricing strategies that are popular right now and get some clarity on the pros and cons of each so you can figure out what works best for you. Stay to the end though because there's a fundamental mindset component that a lot of people aren't tapping into which makes all the difference – especially if you're charging high-ticket ($5,000 – $15,000+) prices.

Standard 50/50 Split

The most popular pricing strategy is the 50/50 split where you collect 50% upfront as a deposit to get started. Then you build everything out. Just before you launch you collect the final 50%. Depending on the size of the project (and the responsiveness of the client) development usually takes between one and three months.

The Good

This is a super simple pricing structure that everybody understands. Clients sort of intuitively expect this type of pricing structure. It makes sense to give you some money (but not all) to start. Then, pay the final bill when they take ownership of the work.

Clients also seem to (at least subconsciously) appreciate this pricing structure because they feel like they understand what the full cost is and they can compare your rates to other alternatives. Everything seems pretty much apples-to-apples.

The Bad

Clients feel like there's a big upfront cost to getting a website. Clients get scared and don't say yes – at least not until they “think about it.” So, you'll have to deal with objections like:

* That's a bit out of my budget. Can you work with me on (lower) the price?

* I can't afford that not but let me get back with you. (They really just want to shop around for a better price.)

* That's more than I was expecting, why are you so much more than… (pick some low-budget alternative like Upwork, Wix, some other developer, etc.)

These tend to just be one-and-done projects with no recurring revenue. Any sort of recurring revenue for hosting, security or marketing is an upsell which most clients tend to reject. It's a hard upsell because clients aren't really looking for these services, they feel expensive, and often times they already have some other plan (other than working with you) in mind for their marketing.

You're competing with the whole world. It's not at all uncommon for clients to thank you for your time, take your proposal, and say they need to think about it, talk to their business partner, win a new project first, etc. Then they take the proposal you poured yourself into and shop it around to see if they can get “the same thing for less.” In other words, they think of you as a commodity that they can replace. If you're charging high-ticket rates, they'll probably find someone else who they think can offer the same stuff you are offering and they'll save 50% or more on the project – even if they have to give up a little convenience by working with someone who isn't local.

The down-side of this pricing model is pretty steep and the upside isn't all that great. So why do people do it? Because it's pretty much the mainstream approach. It's what people know and what clients have come to expect. But, when you lay it all out in the sunlight you can see it's not a winning strategy – especially if you're prices tend to be higher than everyone else's prices.

Hourly (Time & Materials)

Another common approach is just trying to estimate hours, publish an hourly rate, and tell the client you just charge for time and materials. Sometimes this takes the form of you pre-selling your time in monthly chunks for discounted rates. Sometimes you just track your time, work until you're finished, then invoice the client.

The Good

You get paid for all your time and virtually eliminate the risk associated with a fixed pr...

Pricing is one of the most critical components for building your web design business. Set the price too high and you scare off all the clients. Set the price too low and you burn out. But, how do you know what's too high or too low? We're going to go through 10 questions to ask yourself to dial in your ideal prices.

Your Mindset

The first five questions which we'll be stepping through today are in the context of your mindset as a web designer. Next week we'll walk through the second set of five questions that are in the context of your client's mindset.

Who do you feel like you're competing against?

Let me start by saying that I do NOT think you should go figure out what everyone else is charging and then throw your price in there at the same level. This question is designed to give you a sense of what audience you're attracting. Are you attracting cheap clients looking for low-budget websites? Or, are you attracting high-ticket clients ready to spend in the five-figures for your consulting?

If you feel like you're pulling leads from an audience who is shopping for sites on Upwork, Fiverr, and Craigslist but you plan to charge dramatically more than what everyone else is charging then you are most likely going to price yourself out of the market. In other words, the leads you're attracting are not looking to spend anywhere near what you plan to charge.

For example, if someone is looking for a website and they mentally budget about $500 and your pricing starts at $5,000 then you're 10X more expensive than what your leads are expecting. That means everyone is going to bounce. They're not even going to consider you as an option because you're so far outside of what they are expecting to spend.

Figure out who you're competing against and that will give you the boundaries for the ballpark you're playing in.

Are you front-loading the work without front-loading your income?

A great way to burn yourself out is to force yourself to work for less than you need to survive. It's common for people to think that the biggest barrier to entry for a business owner is the initial up-front cost of their website. So, they offer payment plans.

For example, they'll sell a website for $200/month rather than for $2400 up-front. If you're working on your own or with one or two other people (not a huge agency with strong financial backing) I strongly advise against doing this for two reasons. First, you'll burn out and go out of business before you become profitable. If you don't have investors or a bunch of savings you'll run out of runway before those $200/mo accounts add up to enough to sustain you.

Second, you're not setting yourself up to be able to do your best work. You're going to feel like you have to rush, cut corners, and take shortcuts just so you can get to the next project because you're running out of savings. You are not going to be able to do your best work for your clients. That means your clients won't be getting results and you're not profitable either. Everybody loses.

Will your price point allow you to reach your income goals?

Do the math to see if your prices will allow you to reach your goals. This is one of the first exercises I go through when I'm mentoring the DoubleStackers. Suppose you're marketing is successful and you're generating all the leads you need. Do you have the time and ability to build the number of websites at the price you're charging to hit your income goals?

For example, suppose you want to make $10k/month and you're selling $2500 websites. Can you land, build, and deploy one website per week? In my experience, the answer is no. It usually takes me about a month to build a solid online presence for my clients. They need good design, compelling copy, great photos, email marketing, social media integration, etc. It takes about a month to pull all of that together.

So,

Pricing is one of the most critical components for building your web design business. Set the price too high and you scare off all the clients. Set the price too low and you burn out. But, how do you know what's too high or too low? We're going to go through 10 questions to ask yourself to dial in your ideal prices.

Your Mindset

The first five questions which we'll be stepping through today are in the context of your mindset as a web designer. Next week we'll walk through the second set of five questions that are in the context of your client's mindset.

Who do you feel like you're competing against?

Let me start by saying that I do NOT think you should go figure out what everyone else is charging and then throw your price in there at the same level. This question is designed to give you a sense of what audience you're attracting. Are you attracting cheap clients looking for low-budget websites? Or, are you attracting high-ticket clients ready to spend in the five-figures for your consulting?

If you feel like you're pulling leads from an audience who is shopping for sites on Upwork, Fiverr, and Craigslist but you plan to charge dramatically more than what everyone else is charging then you are most likely going to price yourself out of the market. In other words, the leads you're attracting are not looking to spend anywhere near what you plan to charge.

For example, if someone is looking for a website and they mentally budget about $500 and your pricing starts at $5,000 then you're 10X more expensive than what your leads are expecting. That means everyone is going to bounce. They're not even going to consider you as an option because you're so far outside of what they are expecting to spend.

Figure out who you're competing against and that will give you the boundaries for the ballpark you're playing in.

Are you front-loading the work without front-loading your income?

A great way to burn yourself out is to force yourself to work for less than you need to survive. It's common for people to think that the biggest barrier to entry for a business owner is the initial up-front cost of their website. So, they offer payment plans.

For example, they'll sell a website for $200/month rather than for $2400 up-front. If you're working on your own or with one or two other people (not a huge agency with strong financial backing) I strongly advise against doing this for two reasons. First, you'll burn out and go out of business before you become profitable. If you don't have investors or a bunch of savings you'll run out of runway before those $200/mo accounts add up to enough to sustain you.

Second, you're not setting yourself up to be able to do your best work. You're going to feel like you have to rush, cut corners, and take shortcuts just so you can get to the next project because you're running out of savings. You are not going to be able to do your best work for your clients. That means your clients won't be getting results and you're not profitable either. Everybody loses.

Will your price point allow you to reach your income goals?

Do the math to see if your prices will allow you to reach your goals. This is one of the first exercises I go through when I'm mentoring the DoubleStackers. Suppose you're marketing is successful and you're generating all the leads you need. Do you have the time and ability to build the number of websites at the price you're charging to hit your income goals?

For example, suppose you want to make $10k/month and you're selling $2500 websites. Can you land, build, and deploy one website per week? In my experience, the answer is no. It usually takes me about a month to build a solid online presence for my clients. They need good design, compelling copy, great photos, email marketing, social media integration, etc. It takes about a month to pull all of that together.

So,

Most web designers who try to start their own business burn out and fail because they start with a foundation that will not generate the income they need fast enough. There are five fundamental mistakes I see all the time from web designers who take the “mainstream” approach to building their business.

Discover the fastest way to build your own web design business by avoiding this common, well-intentioned, but misleading advice.

Finding Work On Job Boards

The most common question people have when they're starting their web design business is where to find clients. The mainstream answer is to go on job boards like Upwork and Fiverr or even run an ad on Craigslist. The idea is that these platforms have a built-in audience of people looking for the services you offer. Yeah, maybe you'll have to lower your prices at first while you build up your reputation, but it's the fastest and easiest way to get work.

The truth is, this is the fastest way to burn out and lose your business. Here's why.

* Competition

You're competing against the entire earth including people in other countries who can afford to work for way less because of financial conversion rates and the difference in the cost of living. If you're living in the United States, you can't compete on price in these environments.

* Price

Even if you do land a job it will be for way less than you actually need to keep your business running.

* Timing

Most people don't think about the timing factor, but it's probably the biggest reason why job boards run web designers out of business. By the time a job gets posted, the business owner (client) already thinks they know what they want. There's no room for business development or leadership in your offer. In other words, you're seen as a low-budget, easily replaced commodity.

Bottom line: Job boards are the wrong pool to pull clients from if you want to build a web design business that actually makes money.

Marketing Your Services

This is hard for most web designers who are just starting out to wrap their heads around because it just seems so obvious. If you want people to hire you to do something you know how to do, then – of course – you have to let them know all the things you can do, right? How else will your clients be able to know if they want to hire you or not if they don't know what you can do for them?

Well, here's the truth. Web designers who market their business based on the services they provide attract low-budget clients. 

There are some web designers who may get higher-paying clients by way of a referral or by partnering up with a marketing agency or something. But when it comes to their own marketing efforts, the clients that they attract are low-budget (usually high-stress) clients.

There are a lot of reasons for this:

* Clients have been conditioned to think that websites are cheap

* They are just looking for a quick way to test out a new business online

* They don't have any confidence in the financial viability of the project (or even their business)

* They believe they just need a quick website – nothing too complex for now

* They are only looking for one of the services you offer, not your full suite of services

When you market you business (and define yourself) based on the individual services you offer, then you attract people who are looking for an individual (low cost) service. Makes sense, right? But that's not what you want. You want people to hire you to do everything you can do the best.

If they would do that then you'd be:

* making more money

* you'd be delivering better work

* and your clients would be getting dramatically better results

But, that's not what you get when you market your individual services.

Taking The Long Road

Most web designers who try to start their own business burn out and fail because they start with a foundation that will not generate the income they need fast enough. There are five fundamental mistakes I see all the time from web designers who take the “mainstream” approach to building their business.

Discover the fastest way to build your own web design business by avoiding this common, well-intentioned, but misleading advice.

Finding Work On Job Boards

The most common question people have when they're starting their web design business is where to find clients. The mainstream answer is to go on job boards like Upwork and Fiverr or even run an ad on Craigslist. The idea is that these platforms have a built-in audience of people looking for the services you offer. Yeah, maybe you'll have to lower your prices at first while you build up your reputation, but it's the fastest and easiest way to get work.

The truth is, this is the fastest way to burn out and lose your business. Here's why.

* Competition

You're competing against the entire earth including people in other countries who can afford to work for way less because of financial conversion rates and the difference in the cost of living. If you're living in the United States, you can't compete on price in these environments.

* Price

Even if you do land a job it will be for way less than you actually need to keep your business running.

* Timing

Most people don't think about the timing factor, but it's probably the biggest reason why job boards run web designers out of business. By the time a job gets posted, the business owner (client) already thinks they know what they want. There's no room for business development or leadership in your offer. In other words, you're seen as a low-budget, easily replaced commodity.

Bottom line: Job boards are the wrong pool to pull clients from if you want to build a web design business that actually makes money.

Marketing Your Services

This is hard for most web designers who are just starting out to wrap their heads around because it just seems so obvious. If you want people to hire you to do something you know how to do, then – of course – you have to let them know all the things you can do, right? How else will your clients be able to know if they want to hire you or not if they don't know what you can do for them?

Well, here's the truth. Web designers who market their business based on the services they provide attract low-budget clients. 

There are some web designers who may get higher-paying clients by way of a referral or by partnering up with a marketing agency or something. But when it comes to their own marketing efforts, the clients that they attract are low-budget (usually high-stress) clients.

There are a lot of reasons for this:

* Clients have been conditioned to think that websites are cheap

* They are just looking for a quick way to test out a new business online

* They don't have any confidence in the financial viability of the project (or even their business)

* They believe they just need a quick website – nothing too complex for now

* They are only looking for one of the services you offer, not your full suite of services

When you market you business (and define yourself) based on the individual services you offer, then you attract people who are looking for an individual (low cost) service. Makes sense, right? But that's not what you want. You want people to hire you to do everything you can do the best.

If they would do that then you'd be:

* making more money

* you'd be delivering better work

* and your clients would be getting dramatically better results

But, that's not what you get when you market your individual services.

Taking The Long Road