I just want to sell websites, and I haven't been able to find an WSO for it yet. Help Please.

I would like more information too.

What do you mean by selling business owners wordpress themes? Do you mean you are selling them a website built using a theme or that you are selling themes to people that already have wordpress websites?

If I was you I wouldnt get too wrapped up in all the legal and paperwork details. You won't have anything to worry about as long as you don't make any crazy promises on paper or anything like that. Sell the website as-is. Also, focus on getting comfortable with getting the websites setup, than just hit the phones and start selling!

When I first started out I was in the same boat as you; I had a million unanswered questions, which also gave me a million reasons to delay and contemplate. The best thing you can do is jump into it.

Start prospecting businesses, and you'll see what works and what doesn't and get a feel for the industry. There are an infinite amount of ways to operate a website design business; you need to discover and create what is best for you.

One glaring question that I have for you is that if you're good at making custom websites, why are you choosing to do Wordpress? You said yourself that you don't feel comfortable with Wordpress quite yet. I would stick with what you know, and jump into Wordpress down the road.

1. Create a company website.
2. Create a way of obtaining payment and sending invoices (Bank account for local checks, merchant account for online billing).
3. Create a few websites to put in your portfolio.
4. Create a contract and TOS. Take a look at this article, it should be a great help. Freelance Contracts: Do's And Don'ts | Smashing Magazine
5. Establish your prices - what will you charge for a simple 5 page business website, ecommerce site, custom site, etc.
6. Start prospecting and getting sales.

It really is this simple. As long as you have a website online for businesses to reference that displays a portfolio, you should have no problem selling interested prospects. Be sure to have a way of obtaining payment before getting started, no sense in talking to interested businesses that can't send you a payment.

Your not providing any value by basically reselling a wordpress theme and installing it for them. Your just giving them a wordpress theme, no customization, no way of getting traffic no real value.

Your young and just starting. Your entrepreneurial, ambitious and I like that you remind me a lot of myself. Save your money on any WSO's. WSO's are good for learning techniques and methods not entire systems of how to start an offline consulting business. Check your PM inbox.

Hi Jarod,

Interesting questions you have here.

Let me lay down some time-saving realities here, brother.

SBOs are ignorant when it comes to the web. Even using a standard free wordpress theme with their logo and some cheesy copy is gonna WOW them product-wise.

Don't focus on the product or learning the technical ins and outs, you can always pay someone $50 on Odesk or here to throw up a good professional website, focus on sales instead. Focus on how you can differentiate yourself form every other web designer, and that competitive advantage is going to come from YOU.

You want to sell websites, you want to be a developer - but you'll end up learning how to be a salesperson first before you start getting good results.

And trust me, learning how to be a good salesperson is gonna pay you in SPADES compared to the measly income you'll make by flipping themes or teaming up with a hunter.

When you are the sales person YOU are the company, you call the shots, you make things happen.

You learn that your success and failure are completely self-determined, because sales makes you face reality without any comforting delusions of blaming others or making excuses.

You just cowboy up and bootstrap for the first six months of your business. I started mine with less than $2,000 in the bank, set a goal as a standard and destroyed it.

I appreciate your bias for action and it is something that will definitely serve you later on.

Here's my advice:

Study everything to do with selling, go to your library, look online. Become obsessed because SALES is a core tenant of every faculty in business.

Write a marketing plan and stick to it. Who do you want to sell to? How much money do you want to make, how many sales do you want to generate this week, this month and for this quarter?

Move in the market and undercut the bigger guys to start off, sell it at $499 set up, no monthly to get your first clients. Don't worry about funnels, recurring income JUST YET; the process is more important than efficiency at this stage.

Get a list and get off your ass and speak to them. Move, get things done, always be in motion. Don't complain, don't explain yourself to others - just get it done.

Get a list and dial, dial, dial.

I've wrote tons of stuff you can follow along with for free on these forums. Check out my profile.

Feel free to PM me as I always have time for my saleman brothers.

Welcome to the fold.

Unless you know the person, never do all or any work up front without any payment. And still if you know them be cautious. This is a business not a friend doing favors. If you require a contract, specify what you will do for them, how long it will take you, and the payment terms. Always at least collect 50% up front. This protects you from someone dropping out at the last minute and not getting something for your work. It also protects the client from losing all the money with you doing no work.

Most people will want to see some examples of your work before they hire you. Be prepared for that. Maybe you can have a page where you have a screenshot or portfolio of your work.

Good luck

Not sure what everyone else has told you, but to make every dollar count and to make life easy for yourself, take out Reseller Hosting with Hostgator. You can host unlimited sites on there and automatically install WP and many other CMSs.

So after "giving" the client their website, you host it and charge them a monthly hosting fee and include minor updates for say, $20 per month. Once you have 100 sites up and running and you're hosting them you have $2000 per month coming in with an outlay to Hostgator of $9.95 per month. Good value!

Most clients will never want much done to their site, so actual updating is usually not much. I charge for anything over 30 mins work at $50 per hour.

I've been developing for 15 years now and it's a great way to earn a living. I've only ever used a contract once and that was with someone I was very unsure of.

Good luck!

That will work.

It's probably better if you set up the hosting yourself.

Really instead of getting bogged down in details you should
just start talking to some business owners and get the ball
rolling.

The real money is made getting new clients anyway...there
are dozens of different ways you can get a website up and
running.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

That's awesome that you're out there learning how to hustle...better yet, it's awesome you're seeking all this information. When I started out, my VERY first client ever was a local church. I wasn't a member of their congregation...I just saw they didn't have a website and hit them up. Kid you not...I walked out of that meeting with a $500USD check deposit. I went over to themeforest, picked out a nice theme, bought them a domain over at godaddy (with a coupon ), had a 'reseller' hosting account so set them up there and uploaded wordpress and the theme. I customized all the colors, logos and made it look aesthetically pleasing...showed them the final result and they loved it - they gave me the remainder balance; $500USD. They offered to pay me for my time to teach them how to 'post' to their blog and navigate the wp-admin panel (I declined and did it for free) but just goes to show that the opportunity doesn't end at the service you're contracted to perform. If I wanted to keep upselling them, it would've been cake walk.

What you're trying to do is absolutely do-able! Everyone starts somewhere...just don't let it hold you back.

Good luck my man!
-Branden

Hi,

Yes making and selling own sites is good idea. I have done this in the past. But I also suggest you get custom works also from the clients. You will learn a lot. They will push you to new boundaries. They will force you to grow and learn more skills.

Just another day when we were bashing a local client for late payment (yet to come), my team said, hey you know what, even non-paying clients are great learning lessons for us. They force us to make great sites, and in case of missing payments, they teach us BUSINESS LESSONS that how important pricing and terms & conditions are... they how important 50% advance deposit is...to have client take his site serious and work with us to complete it on time.

So do not delay the phase of getting custom works, no need of corporate office, just tell them truth, that you are working from your basement the ones you really need will not mind you working from anywhere. I moved my office from corporate building to closed-door apartment recently and loving it. No visitors , no visits... phone and email is everything i need to run the operation.


Yes I have taken checks at my personal name and no issues. So forget about all this business stuff, just start getting clients and make them sites, you will learn all business stuff along the way, step by step.... need not to setup everything at once.

Good luck with your venture online!
Mohsin

Hey I have a question.

Suppose I have a proposal with the normal details on it (client info, company info, project overview, project schedule, etc..), and one section has the terms and conditions, then the last section is the signature section where we sign and print our name and date. Since the proposal would have a a terms and conditions section and a signature section, would the proposal be considered a contract?

You need more experience. Probably need to sell website first, maybe you can sell my service. I'll guide you and let you know what you need.