How to Build a Portfolio and Sell Websites

good evening my name is Chrissy Hughes proud and passionate owner founder of a nerds WorldCom I feel rejuvenated I appreciate everyone that's added me on Instagram my personal account and sent me messages I tried my best to answer them with the DMS quick as possible and if a question is great or a question is something I believe could assist others I'll put a video together something like this so last week I was asked a question how do I start selling websites when I have no portfolio to show potential clients so today's video is going to be a freestyle I haven't prepared anything I'm just gonna talk in front of the camera and hopefully I get my point across what I'm gonna do is bring myself back to when I opened my first door and I only had two people on the team my wife and a gentleman Orlando let's go back to about eight years ago and let me tell you because at that point I was in the similar position where I didn't have a portfolio and it was very difficult to make sales you have to imagine when I opened my first web development brick and mortar store I didn't even have a website so I'm trying to sell websites and I don't even have a website so I mean the store was almost ready we're about to open renovation was almost complete and we're painting the walls and in the background one of my friends mark was helping me build our own website so our website goes up at nerds worldcom what there's zero portfolio like literally we have no websites that we've built in the past to sell our service to other potential clients so let's just go through what I went through first and foremost when somebody would come in and say can I see other work that you've done it's the most difficult answer but it's a it's a long one I would tell people that this is a brand new company and no one's gonna be more passionate and excited to work on your project and because we're new I was always up front that I wanted to give you a crazy killer discount in order for you to give me the opportunity to work on your project so step number one in selling your service with zero portfolio was giving a ridiculous discount knowing that having certain industries on your portfolio is going to equal more money for you now and in the future I was doing five page completely custom websites for $500 which is unheard of a five page custom site right now we would charge anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars so just to give you an idea as to the difference in price and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't work that's the nature of the business when you're in web development so number one is highly discounted number two is to do it free like literally free if you have a potential client in industry like a lawyer or a doctor or a dentist and you truly believe that you're capable of building a high standard quality website that that client deserves offer your service for free it's gonna take you a week two weeks to build the website and then you're gonna have something that's professional on your portfolio any potential clients looking at your portfolio will never know that you did that for free I've done websites for free in the past so free is good number three is for you even as a freelancer to work for somebody else work for a different web development company while you're building up your own portfolio meaning if you want to jump out and start a web development company because you think it's exciting and there's a possibility for money in a career and it's something you're passionate about why not put your here sort of dreams and hopes on hold for six months or a year and work for somebody else that's got somewhat of a portfolio that you can learn from you can gain the experience necessary and you can gain some portfolio worthy pieces to display in the future and the six months in the year like forget overnight success we're talking about trying to build a career and careers take time some of my current developers will say do you get upset that they're showing these pieces as their own and to be honest with you I don't my hope and dream for every that works for me that's passionate loyal to me that they all at some point in the career spread their wings and fly away from a nerds world and start their own web development company I'm quite confident in my ability and my wife's ability and the Nerds world's ability so I know what we bring to the table when it comes to web development for our clients but hey I don't want anyone to stay stagnant too long so my hopes and dreams are that everybody branches off so if they're gonna use websites that came through a nerds world on their portfolio and give me a little credit that they worked on this website while working at a nerds world comm I love it I have of course yes they can yes they can so that's another way to build the portfolio if you're like me and you've decided that you're gonna give this web development thing a shot the hardest part is to sell how are you gonna sell your service without showing people so another idea a fourth idea is just to build fake websites just to show your capability make up a company and make up a restaurant that doesn't exist no problem be completely upfront with your clients if you're showing them this website you could be honest with them to say this is not even a real company I did this to show what my capability is when building a website believe me your clients will not care your potential clients will not care it's a great way for you to practice the craft of website design those are all great ideas and I think they're very important because I think that the video today is more so like how do I sell my service if I'm new and I have no portfolio and the answer is really you don't step1 should be building somewhat of a portfolio now in a perfect world and I understand it's not a perfect world but in a perfect world I would suggest that you had five different industry websites that all look professional and function on a mobile device and the desktop before you really go out there and give it your all like when you're doing these elevator pitches and cold calls and cold emails and meeting with clients now to go to the actual question like how to start selling websites there's not a specific answer I cannot like rub a genie and tell you these are the three steps that you have to do in order to start selling websites come on business does not work like that and to be honest when I get those kind of dm's like Chris tell me how to do this in one sentence there's no one sentence that's gonna give you the answer to this question what I would suggest is you try many different things to find out what works best for you so how do you pick up your first sales business cards handing out flyers I handed out before I swear my first website I might have handed out a hundred thousand flyers because somewhat like fishing the more you get your lure in the water the more likely you are to catch a fish and when I close my store I would hit the street instead of driving home or taxiing home or busing home I would walk the ten twelve kilometers home different direction every day and leave postcards I would try putting postcards under the door then I realized postcards don't always fit under the door then I started bringing these little circle there almost like tape and I would peel it off and I'd put it at the door I found that that would work better than putting it on the ground because on the ground I don't know a ground is it's like associated with dirty and nobody wants to bend over to pick up a dirty flier but hey if that flier or postcard is that high level as I open the store as a manager in the morning it's gonna catch my attention I'm more likely to actually look at it and read it if it's catchy and the design is good and the marketing is good that might be something to catch my attention cold-calling you know jumping on the phone to two businesses in your community I would always recommend doing a little research see what's what they have online what's working with it what's not to quick test your speed test do mobile test click around on a few buttons make sure it works properly and then do a cold call pick up the phone and say hey for example let's meet send us a dentist I might have a dentist piece on my portfolio already so I would contact them other dentists say hey I checked out your website I noticed there's a few issues or deficiencies that I believe that can improve upon it when given the opportunity is it okay if I follow up with an email with with a list of my price points and a link to a portfolio another dentists that I've built a website for in the community takes a lot of trial and error this is not easy going to conferences if you're if you're trying to sell to entrepreneurs go to entrepreneur conferences dentists conference like if you're in any major city or even if you're near a major city or you're ready to make the attempt to get to a major city I'm in downtown Toronto there must be three conferences a week there's a conference for the weddings there's conference for entrepreneurs franchisees small business startups motivational talks these are all great ways to meet potential clients and if you can communicate or learn how to communicate and network and give out flyers or business cards that's great way to get your foot in the door and I'll tell you this because in the beginning stages of web development including myself I was like what the hell did I get myself into I'm really gonna do like the first 10 to 20 websites are like pulling teeth it is painful you take on projects you normally wouldn't want to at a price point that you normally wouldn't do but you have to do this in order to build a portfolio but at the end of this tunnel there is light because it gets easier right now after eight years in business it's just people will hire us without even they don't even want to talk to us anymore Oh Chris we've seen your portfolio you have 200 websites we're confident we've read your reviews here's my money it's like that like here's the money let's get started we're in the beginning it was like tedious hours and hours of back-and-forth calls and like meet basically on my knees begging and pleading give me an opportunity to show you what I'm capable of because I'm confident in my ability and I'm passionate and most people would say no I'm not going to give you that opportunity so you have to continue onwards onwards and forward don't give up if this is something that you really want to do realize you're not going to sell any big projects you're not going to sell any good projects and your health you're not gonna make any real money until you have a portfolio so the bottom line is portfolio first then come sales but understanding that everybody has to start somewhere just think about it let your guard down a little bit and realize you're not going to make a big profit in the beginning offer the discount give some free services walk work with somebody else in order to build a portfolio conclusion there's no quick answer to this question and if a thousand people watch this video I'd say that every single person will have a different way or a different road to success and no one's gonna be the exact same road as me and there's many times I wanted to quit in the beginning because I thought there was no chance in hell I'm gonna sell websites but I've proven myself wrong and I believe you can too so if you've come to the end of this video I would appreciate it if you're a web developer let me know are you in the beginning stages how long have you been in business are you freelance do you have a team do you have a physical location do you work from your house tell me a little bit more about it yourself and then maybe tell me where did you find your first five clients I'm curious and maybe the answers below can assist with other developers in you know creating these great ideas on where they or where you can pick up your first business thinking back my first client was a walk-in somebody walked into the store and assumed because I had a store that I was capable of building a website they knew I wasn't gonna go anywhere so they gave me the opportunity once again the price was so cheap they really didn't have much to lose that client we're gonna leave nameless was a pain in the neck they wanted 133 rounds and revisions and they made sure to push it in front of me every time that hey I've given you a chance and I have faith in you some now proof prove that you can do that and I went above and beyond and that portfolio piece thinking back might have made me you know 10 future sales so take your time don't rush things build a portfolio get out there and hustle and hopefully web developments for you that's it hopefully you have a wonderful night from I'm honored to be in front of you I'm back in Toronto I'm motivated I'm excited got a haircut let's create some videos

Channel: A Nerd's World

Views: 7,894

Keywords: how to sell websites, how to sell a website, how to sell website design, how to sell website designs, how to sell web development, how to sell web developers, how to build a portfolio web designers, how to build a portfolio, how to build a website design portfolio

Id: yd6e7_40OIk

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 03 2019