YOU are important to business owners. Don't let them think otherwise! [A cool little story]

Through conversation with friends, clients, family, I constantly find myself talking about HOW MUCH MONEY I have made business owners. I have literally paid for people's houses with my services. I AM VALUABLE and the day that I realized that, my outlook on business changed forever.

Here is a quick story that happened all within the last 4 months.

I have the tendency to scan through Google searching for local business websites that suck.

Well...about 4 months ago I came across a website for a Home Inspection Service. I could tell it was a one man show and he probably did it part time. The website was horrible... embarrassing...I could go on...

So I called the guy up and told him who I was, and that I have an offer to make him some dam good money.

He said he's interested...

I said "Bob, I'm a Web Designer here in (location). I'm concerned about your website because it's horrible, no offence. And I KNOW that it's costing you money. I want to help you."

He agreed that it was indeed pretty pathetic and wanted some more information. I gave a quick 30 second run down and threw him a price. I told him that I would buy him lunch if he has time today.

We met for lunch an hour later. Meanwhile I threw together some reports on the search numbers his keywords receive. They were not terribly high (between 60-200 searches/ month) But he was at the top spot in the local listings.

His concern was that he was not seeing much activity from the internet regardless of his rankings. I told him it's because his website sucked (again) and told him that he just proved my point that his current website is LOSING him money.

I walked out of subway (hey, he wanted subway..not me) with a check for $1,200 and a 6 month contract for hosting and maintenance.

Fast forward 4 months. (today) He called me up because he wanted some more pictures uploaded. When he sent me the pictures, I noticed that they were ALL dated within the last 4 months :rolleyes: He had about 25-30 pictures of different houses. I uploaded the pictures and gave him a call back. (I'm nosy and had to know what kind of results he was seeing)

He informed me that his client base has tripled in the past 4 months. He quit his day job, hired 2 more certified inspectors, and was on his way to sign the lease for a new office.

My simple website re-vamp netted him enough money to pursue his dream as a FULL TIME home inspector/business owner. He said he thanks god every night that I called him that day and told him his website sucks. LOL

We live in a pretty high cost area, and his clients are buying houses at 750k+ His average client nets him 2k-8k depending on the services rendered. He offers thermal imaging of the house, energy analyses, well and septic inspections, etc...

The take away...

You are valuable to business owners. ACT LIKE IT. Once you get in the mindset that you are HELPING them and not SELLING to them it's much easier. I never SELL to people, I'm simply a PROBLEM SOLVER with a price tag

Internet consultants make businesses BILLIONS of dollars internationally. And in my case, I changed this fellows life from a simple phone call.