Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello Startup Nation!  I am so glad to have discovered this site - it looks like an awesome resource.

I am actually in the midst of starting up my latest business called Webamorphosis.
The plan is to start up the business from scratch with almost no financial investment and get it to cash-flow positive within 30 days.  I`m on day 22 so I`m getting awfully close to my deadline - but I`m having a blast!

The business is providing website management services to companies who already have a website but who want to get the most out of the Internet (or, if they don`t have a website yet, to create one first and then go from there)
I know that web design is a pretty tight niche, but the angle I am taking is that there are lots of companies who have spent a fair chunk of change on getting there website built and then it just sits there and gets old, stale and outdated and doesn`t do anything for the company. I believe there is an opportunity to come alongside those organizations and help them by creating an online strategy designed to achieve specific goals for them and then working with them each and every month to keep the site fresh and gradually improve and grow it according to the strategy.

Anyhow, my question for the community is what advice you would have for someone who wants to ramp up their business in a hurry?  How would you get a business going in 30 days or less?  Also, any specific advice regarding Webamorphosis would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks!

Condredge

PS - I hope I posted this in the right forum - if not, I apologize.


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give wings to your website with Webamorphosis - bringing new life to neglected websites.

The site looks good and is easy to read.  Nice job.  (However I didn`t understand the pricing page and what one gets for the different price points.)

I imagine that with a little over a week left in your `30-day challenge`, the goal now would be to secure a client or two, right?  What have you done to market yourself?

If your target market is businesses that need a lift in their web presence, you might try searching out weak sites and contacting those business owners.  Your pitch could not only include your general info but you could give an example of a specific thing you could do to make their site/business better.

Hey Steve - thanks so much for checking out my site and giving me some great feedback on it!

You aren`t the first person to mention my unclear pricing so I think I clearly need to revamp that!

I have been doing what you`ve suggested there for marketing - finding businesses who need what I offer and pitching them with varying success - cold calling is so daunting and hard, but it does yield some success. My biggest successes have come from utilizing my existing network.  The problem with both of these methods for me is that they are limited to what I can do - how many calls I can make and meetings I can go to. I think what I really need is a more leveraged approach whereby I can tie into someone else`s existing clientèle or audience or market and have them promote me in a win-win arrangement.  What do you think of this?  Any recommendations for who I should go to for this?

I really like the idea of pointing out a specific thing I can do for the business owner to improve their website and business - I`m going to try to use that more in the future.

PS - took a quick look at Zingerding - looks like it is going to be a super fun website! When do you think you`ll be launching that?




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give wings to your website with Webamorphosis - bringing new life to neglected websites.

I totally like that your Flash! banner fades in fast, then stops. No continuing movement, fading transitions, and other useless distractions.

Only comment I have is that you might want to make the text smaller. The main benefits end up below the fold on my 19" LCD, so they`re probably way down on a typical monitor. That being said, I like the "Learn More" link, right there.

I think what I`d do on the "learn more" page is get a tad more specific. Mention what you said in your post here, about static old, un-tended sites that were thrown together long ago. In other words, I went there to learn more. I don`t need to read that I`m "learning more." Y`know?

"Sustainable, organic growth for your Web site" doesn`t say anything understandable. It`s jargon, and isn`t actually making a point. Try to make it more plain English.

Remember, the people you`re targeting already believe that simply by existing on the web, they`ve completed their entire Web presence strategy. They don`t think in terms of jargon. Turn it into bullet points, with the 100 word explanation below as a  paragraph or maybe two:

• Grow and improve your Web site every month
• Take advantage of the power of the Internet
• We help you develop an initial online strategy for free!

Then, on the price sheet you can get more detailed about monthly costs, content updates, and so forth....the other main bullet points.

I think you need to get more specific about the power of the internet and what an "online strategy" is.  Craig makes a good point about your customers already thinking they have it made just by having a site.

You hint at what I am talking about under `Vibrant Community` on your homepage.  Reaching customers by making them part of a community is a HUGE part of online marketing these days.  But what else?  You mention "countless online marketing techniques" but you say little about what those are.  Give people an idea of what they are missing out on.

And yeah, the text is all a bit large.

wow.  You guys are amazing - thank you so much!  You`re giving me more feedback than my best friends and family - you don`t know what an encouragement that is.  I absolutely agree with all of your advice and I`m going to work to implement it here as soon as I get a chance.

I`m going to have trouble parting with my large text - I love large text as a design feature - people by-and-large don`t want to read anything, but huge letters get read. However then you can only have a few of them!  I`m thinking that I might keep the big text for the top header of the pages and then reduce the size below the fold - however then I run the risk of people not bothering to look below the fold.  Hmmm... catch 22.  Maybe if I make the text smaller but make better use of bullet points, bold and italics that will make the content inviting enough to read and still give me enough room for some good content. Or, I make the statements at the top of the page more intriguing - raise a little curiosity to convince people it is worth scrolling down and reading the smaller text.

I also agree that my site is pretty general and I need more specifics - that`s a very good point.  I do have the `24 Possibilities` page that has some specifics of what we could do, but people may not click on it, I should probably either put some of those details on the main page and the learn more page - or provide more links to that page so that people who want details can check it out.

Thanks again for all your help - I can`t tell you how much I appreciate it!




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give wings to your website with Webamorphosis - bringing new life to neglected websites.

As far as marketing goes - today I`m sending out some lovely postcards that my wife designed - this is a precision marketing tactic that I`ve used in the past to devastating effect. I find companies that desperately need what I`m offering and send them a hand-written postcard. Wait a couple of days (or longer if out-of-town) for the postcard to arrive and call them up asking for an appointment.  Cold-calling is often difficult because people ignore you if they don`t know who you are. Direct mailing is difficult because people don`t open ads. But a hand-written note is *always* read. And then they know who you are, so when you call, they are slightly warmed up to already.  I have found it to work quite well in the past, so I`m going to try it again this time - I just need a few sales to put me at a baseline where I can grow from there.  Have you tried anything like this?


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give wings to your website with Webamorphosis - bringing new life to neglected websites.

Cartess is a master of direct mail, and strong advocate. (Strong enough to have changed my whole concept of the process!). It sounds really great, BUT.... (Isn`t there always one of those?)...unless your own site demonstrates the brilliance of your ideas, skills, and system, you`re going to have a credibility problem.

First thing someone will do: "Hey, Ollie...I got this thing from some guy who says he can make our Web site go better. You`re in IT...waddya think?"

First thing Ollie will do is......visit your Web site. :-D

Larger text makes sense in a lot of situations.  I`ve found in many of the site critiques here on SuN that too small of text is more a common problem.  So at least that`s not your prob.

But there is a question of comfort.  People are used to browsing the web with standards in text size, the same way people expect a certain type size in newspapers, though headlines vary.  The web has taken a similar approach.

I find looking at your site to be uncomfortable because of the font size.  The large, boldness of the headlines and attention-grabbers are great but for the main content, I feel like I`m using one of those large-button phones for the elderly where I don`t need to.

Interesting lesson I learned in CSS. I used to use point sizes. Then I read an article about using percentage sizes, to accommodate someone`s preferences in their browser. Now I`m understanding that "%" size means percent-of-screen.

Best solution to date is to use "small" or "medium." That produces the ordinary and same setting, allowing the browser to choose, based on user preference. So if you set your overall font size to "medium," you`ll likely find that it`s bigger than normal, but not gigantic. AND, that size will be "relative" on each browser opening the page.