Category: Freelancers & Agencies

Years ago I was coaching a young entrepreneur that was just getting started with her business. As we talked about all the different things that go into running your first business, we landed on the topic of price. Her response to me was something I’ve since heard several more times: “I can always raise my rates later.”

In this 45 minute video, I’ll cover why value based pricing is really hard, how positioning can help clients understand what they’re really paying for, a tip that most of us forget when we’re talking with prospects and much more.

Pricing is an interesting topic that rarely gets discussed so we seized the opportunity. Time and materials pricing is what works for most of my clients, but this doesn’t mean that it is the right fit for every situation. Discuss the different possible structures with your clients and find the best fit for both of you. It is ok to mix structures. Some projects may be a good fit for T&M and others may be better suited for flat rate.

It turns out that a freelancer will almost immediately stand out and distinguish themselves from tons of other developers and agencies if they do one simple thing. It’s so simple that it feels foolish to write an entire post about it. Yet so many people rush past it that it often goes missing. Ready?

You’ve likely heard the story of the four blind men that touched an elephant and guessed wrong about its identity, right? Well, that story isn’t just a fun story to tell, it’s also the imagery for today’s five business tips for freelancers.

Pricing is tough. Sometimes you hear that raising rates until people start saying no is the way to go. While that is a strategy, it may not always work.

Since the early days of BuddyPress plugin, David Bisset has focused his freelance development business around integrating it into his highly customized client projects. Here’s how you can find your niche.

This conversation is made available to help agency owners and clients understand the importance of running a profitable web project. If you’re an agency, this can help start the conversation with your clients. If you’re seeking to hire someone, this is a great primer to work with one another.

In this episode, Megan’s going to teach you how she bought the bar and works from the beach. Megan Gray focuses on WordPress website design and is founder of House of Grays. She teaches us the secrets to her freelancing success in this episode.

Sara talks with Matt about her recent use of YouTube and how she is committed to producing regular content along with creating a niche for her freelance business.

Nobody has to tell you that your website won’t sell itself. For years you’ve explained to clients that the “build it and they will come” philosophy is bogus. Why then, when it comes to your own firm, do you still find yourself questioning how to promote your web design business?

We asked 32 different agencies and freelancers in the dev-design-tech segment to tell us what makes a good client in their book, and what drives them crazy when things don’t work out as planned. Here’s what they said.

Troy talks to Josh Haynam, who is the co-founder of Interact, an online quiz software company. They talk about how online quizzes are the ultimate interactive tool that you can use to increase your conversion rate. They also talk about not only the software behind it but more importantly- the psychology.

How do you get your current clients who are paying you nothing, to start paying you something to maintain and care for their website? Many people think that their clients won’t pay, so they don’t reach out. Through coaching other website consultants, I’ve found that, in fact, it’s your current clients that know you, trust you and value your work. The majority of your existing clients are more willing to pay for a service you provide over a new client you have no track record with.

The website worksheet is a staple for my business; the process is so smooth and the strategy works to qualify the right leads. What I was failing at, however, was properly executing project requests from existing clients who already had their website built by us and were looking for new features or redesign elements. The website worksheet is great – for new clients – but many of the questions were irrelevant to an existing website client.

Life as a WordPress freelancer or agency is highly competitive. There seem to be new entrants every day and anyone can call themselves a “WordPress Expert” and underprice you while promising the same result. To compete, you need to stay at the top of your game with your skills, lead generation, business practices and more.

Here’s a succinct summary on how to succeed as a WordPress consultant (or any type of consultant) in 10 steps. We all start at the bottom, but as you grow your skills, specialties and the value that you deliver to clients you can raise your rates and grow your team.

Living one freelance project to the next. Feeling dependent on trading my time for billable hours. Having to chase down unpaid invoices. Putting out one client fire just to see another flare up. When this happens, it usually means means my subconscious mind is nudging me toward some sort of next chapter. I knew I needed to grow beyond freelancing and build a more scalable business.

“This project will be HUGE for your portfolio. And if this works out, it’ll lead to a bunch more work in the future.” Have you ever had a client who’s tried to lure you into doing some free work for them? Here’s how to handle it.

As a web developer, building your network can seem overwhelming. Regardless of whether you’re selling directly to customers, building a reseller network, or pitching to C-level executives – you need to establish a communication protocol by connecting and bonding with the right people. As Armstrong Williams once said: “Networking is an essential part of building wealth”. Here are our expert tips for growing your professional network, & why it matters.

One of the biggest lessons I learned as an agency owner is that as you grow, eventually you get to a point where you simply can’t do it all. At that point, it’s time to start looking into getting started with outsourcing. I’m going to go over some of the challenges, and how you can avoid common mistakes.

Do you know how to find the best clients for your WordPress business? In this article, we’ll talk about what type of strategy you can use when designing your own WordPress site to attract this kind of high-quality clientele.

Everyone wants to know how they can get better, high-paying clients for their web design business. So we wrote a practical guide to help you to attract those high paying website clients and establish a renowned consultancy that will organically bring in even more of those ideal clients.

A lot of freelancers and agency owners struggle with onboarding new clients and setting expectations. Then we feel taken advantage of by the client and resentful. The reality is that we’re the cause of the problem not our clients. But we don’t have to be – we can set ourselves up for success.

Let’s face it, freelancing isn’t so great when it comes to having control over one’s income. Luckily, through diversifying your income, you can work yourself out of such situations. In this post, we’ll explore five diverse income stream ideas that you can start putting in place right away as a kind of insurance to support your financial goals.

When it comes to platforms for finding clients and trying to grow your WordPress business, Fiverr probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind. However, despite its low base price point, if used correctly it can be a very powerful tool and can be a very helpful addition as part of your overall strategy.

Blogs are a powerful, and often under-rated, tool for businesses of nearly any type. This, in turn, makes them a useful tool for web developers. If you deliver a well-designed blog to your client as part of their site, it will likely increase their traffic, revenue, and the overall effectiveness of their website: earning better testimonials and a better reputation for you.

Clients are the lifeblood of many a business model. You need them to drive your work, pay your bills, and to really have a business running at all. So it might seem like the best thing to do is go out and call up as many potential clients as you can reach. But bad clients can ruin work you enjoy, and reaching out to clients that aren’t really suited for the exact services and approach of your business can both waste a lot of your time and hurt your growth.

Freelancing is a great way to make money online, and the best place to begin if you’re just starting out with your own online business. It doesn’t take much to get started, but passing that hurdle of getting your first client can be a real challenge.

Understanding your client is the biggest part of winning their business and exceeding their expectations to gain more business in the future. This starts with the client proposal. A great client proposal positions you as a reliable professionals and sets the tone for the project. Here are the 15 must-ask questions to deliver winning client proposals.

Are you having trouble closing leads? Changing how you follow-up with prospective clients could help. Many freelancers follow up in a way that seems desperate, which could be a turn-off to prospective clients. Instead, try following up in a way that builds authority, positions you as an expert and builds a relationship.

The average small business has a poor experience having their business website built on WordPress. As WordPress professionals, this is a failure on our part. If, as a community of WordPress professionals, we can align on the kind of consistent, quality experience we want to give out clients (the one they deserve), we’ll raise the bar in the WordPress ecosystem and our rates will raise accordingly.

If you’ve been a WordPress freelancer for a while then you probably already know that how a client project begins is a pretty good indicator of how it will end up. A questionnaire is your secret weapon to ensure you ask the right question every time and your client gives you everything you need to exceed their expectations. Here’s how to create the ultimate WordPress client project questionnaire.

As the WordPress freelance market continues to grow it also continues to get more competitive, so we’re always looking for new ways to consistently generate quality leads. From coworking spaces to Upwork and online classifieds, this post gives you 5 new ways to generate leads for your freelance WordPress web design business.

The hardest part about life as a WordPress freelancers is consistently generating quality leads. If you’re new to freelancing how do you first get that leads flywheel going over the first few years? Here are 25 ways to generate qualified leads that you can start doing today.

This guide focuses on getting more leads, growing referrals and streamlining how you get new clients–which will be one of the most important parts of sustaining and growing your business. There’s plenty of WordPress work to go around, but the best jobs are competitive–this guide will give you the edge you need to make it rain!

Freelancing is great because you’re in control, work your own hours and can work from wherever you want. But to be financially successful as a WordPress freelancer you have to charge rates that support your financial goals.Here are 10 tops for increasing your rates as a WordPress freelancer.

Life as a freelancer has ups and downs with income. You may be used to it, but it poses risks to the long-term health of your WordPress business. Level out your income by diversifying the ways you generate revenue–it’s easier than you think.

Sometimes life as a WordPress freelancer can be feast or famine. Adding different revenue streams to diversify your income not only helps level out your cashflow, but it also give you more options to reduce burnout. Here are 24 ways to do it.

Looking to start an web design agency? It helps to learn from the experiences of those who have found success doing it. Here are 8 tips for starting your own agency to get you started right.

Freelancing is great, but it’s a lot of work. Using the right tools will simplify your workflow and automate redundant processes to help scale your business. This list of tools for WordPress freelancers includes everything from scheduling to storage tools to help your WordPress business scale.

Why should prospective clients hire your WordPress agency? That question seems to be getting harder these days, but there are some things you can do to stand out and land more clients.

Searching for new clients is a big part of business, but retaining clients can often drive higher long-term revenue which is what makes businesses last. Learn how to make your WordPress business more profitable and increase referrals by retaining clients.

I’ve been coaching startups and entrepreneurs for over a decade. But recently (over the last couple years), I’ve started working with freelancers. And in case you were wondering – it’s a different thing. So today I want to highlight two skills that I think every consultant – but especially freelancers – needs to develop.

Read this and you’re going to go and email your list and customers immediately afterwards. You’ll see the benefits of emailing customers clearly and you’ll know how to get started.

WordPress Architect Mario Peshev shares his wisdom on starting a web development business. We cover everything from advice for those who want to start a web development company, to the tools, education, and experience needed to become a developer.

I think we can all agree that one of the most stressful things about having your own business is bringing in new clients. Have you ever wondered how others are doing it and seem to be doing so well at it? We did too! So, we took a poll within our WP Elevation Facebook community to find out how our members are bringing in new business.

Marketing is a tough sell especially when some businesses don’t understand how important it actually is. So what happens when you sell marketing as a product?

Being a WordPress consultant can be very rewarding and have some major benefits. But there are a few traps you can easily fall into when you first start out. Here are some of the lessons I learned in the first 8 years of my WordPress business.

Small businesses often struggle to find new people who are interested in their product or service. Other than paying to be seen by potential clients, such as with pay-per-click ads, how else can a small business compete? That’s exactly where organic lead generation comes into play.