Have you ever heard yourself saying the following:
“It’s just not worth it for me”
“I charge $150 an hour, there is no way I’m doing that”
“I don’t work for free.”
Well stop it, just stop it right now!
Chances are you are reading this because you are trying to grow your consultancy or agency, much like I’ve been doing for the past 5 years. One of the ways I’ve grown our agency is by taking the jobs no one else wants.
Here are some examples of how this attitude has worked out in our favor (and then some):
Case 1: Middle aged female entrepreneur needs 1 product eCommerce landing page for cheap
In this case a women walked into our office (yes, we get “walk-ins”) looking for a basic website to market a product she created. She had a very small budget (under $1000) but was super nice and we really vibed with her.
So we bought a domain, got some hosting and threw up a Woo Commerce website. She wasn’t picky about the design at all, but had some requests. We were able to knock the site out in a few hours, and she was happy.
Result: for the next year, this woman referred 2-3 businesses to us for website marketing and social media services. 2 of them are still clients to this day. She continues to refer new business to us. Sometimes it is someone looking for some quick edits, other times it is a sizable deal.
Case 2: 2 male bootstrappers looking for a basic web design for barter
2 gentlemen came into our office looking for a super basic website for a company they were starting. They were extremely strapped for cash, but offered to trade services in exchange for a super basic website. They promised not to be picky.
Result: Long story short, their company ended up growing into a nice little business, and now they pay us for monthly local SEO and website edits anytime they need it. On top of all that, they also refer business to us any time they get a chance.
Separating the cheap from the broke
It is one thing to help out someone who is struggling financially, it is another thing to be taken advantage of from someone that is being cheap. Do your diligence and find out what the situation is.
If someone approaches you looking for 1 basic website edit, don’t look at it as a small job, look at it as an opportunity to create a new relationship with someone.
I can’t tell you how many times we started off with a small job only for it to flourish into a full blown marketing campaign.
Count your blessings
Remember there are people out there starving for work, and grateful for even the smallest of jobs. Just because it is raining gold today does not mean it will be tomorrow. Everyone goes through slumps. Treat everyday like you are starving for new business.
Don’t get me wrong, you still need to weed out people that are looking to take advantage of you. There are many companies out there that would love the opportunity to take in small jobs. This attitude of taking on small jobs has also backfired countless times, but that is no reason to abandon it completely.
Doing the stuff no one else wants to is not only about taking the jobs that don’t pay well, it is also about taking the jobs that aren’t that fun. We’ve had people approach us to update their Yelp profile!
I am by no means a millionaire but I have managed to keep our agency open, some say thriving for the better part of 5 years. I still take this advice today and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
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