@milesgurule-png4Founder, Forge Labs
I'm 15 and sell $2,000 websites to local businesses. Here's what's working.
I just closed my first $2,000 website deal, so here's what I've learned so far selling to local businesses in Franklin, TN:
- Show, don't pitch. I offer a free mockup in 48 hours. Owners can't judge a proposal, but they can judge their own business on a phone.
- Put a price on the site. $2,000 flat, right on the homepage. Small-business owners hate "contact us for pricing".
- Find a real problem first. Before contacting anyone I check their current site: broken buttons, a 2018 copyright, no way to book or order. One specific detail beats any general pitch.
- Walk in. Storefronts are easier in person than by email. Go at 2–4pm, never at lunch.
What's worked for you to land your first few clients?
Comments11
My strategy is that I build them a customized website before pitching my prices to them so they can see what it would look like right off the bat. Thanks for the advice!
Thank you for your insight!
This is awesome, I will give it a try
Let me know how it goes!
excellent feedback. Thank you!
Walking in between 2 and 4pm is the kind of timing detail most people selling websites never figure out. For your next few clients, I'd ask each new customer if you can record a 30-second before-and-after of their old site and new one on a phone, since showing that to the next storefront owner could close them faster than a cold mockup.
Love that. A 30-second before-and-after on a phone is way more convincing than a mockup of someone else's business. Going to start doing that with every client.
Congrats on the first deal. One thing that turns a $2,000 one-off into recurring work: ship every site with the local search basics done. Set up the Google Business Profile, connect Search Console, keep name, address and phone identical everywhere, and give each main service its own page ("emergency plumbing, Franklin TN") instead of one services list. Then after 30 days send the owner a one-page report with how many people found them on Google and for which searches. That report is the easiest upsell to a monthly care plan, because now they can see the site working.
This is gold, thank you. A 30-day "here's who found you on Google" report is exactly the bridge to the $50/mo care plan I offer. Adding Google Business Profile and Search Console setup to every build.
Also 17, founder here! Great job being this young and doing this stuff, you really have to balance software engineering and marketing skills with the B2B :)
Thanks! Agreed, the marketing half is harder than the code for me. What are you building?
11 comments
My strategy is that I build them a customized website before pitching my prices to them so they can see what it would look like right off the bat. Thanks for the advice!
Thank you for your insight!
This is awesome, I will give it a try
Let me know how it goes!
excellent feedback. Thank you!
Walking in between 2 and 4pm is the kind of timing detail most people selling websites never figure out. For your next few clients, I'd ask each new customer if you can record a 30-second before-and-after of their old site and new one on a phone, since showing that to the next storefront owner could close them faster than a cold mockup.
Love that. A 30-second before-and-after on a phone is way more convincing than a mockup of someone else's business. Going to start doing that with every client.
Congrats on the first deal. One thing that turns a $2,000 one-off into recurring work: ship every site with the local search basics done. Set up the Google Business Profile, connect Search Console, keep name, address and phone identical everywhere, and give each main service its own page ("emergency plumbing, Franklin TN") instead of one services list. Then after 30 days send the owner a one-page report with how many people found them on Google and for which searches. That report is the easiest upsell to a monthly care plan, because now they can see the site working.
This is gold, thank you. A 30-day "here's who found you on Google" report is exactly the bridge to the $50/mo care plan I offer. Adding Google Business Profile and Search Console setup to every build.
Also 17, founder here! Great job being this young and doing this stuff, you really have to balance software engineering and marketing skills with the B2B :)
Thanks! Agreed, the marketing half is harder than the code for me. What are you building?