Edion ran hard and fast from the beginning, clocking up over $1 million in sales in year one, and around $3 million in year two. However our sales plateaued and I simply couldn’t solve the problem.

After much deep thought and discussion with customers, I came to the conclusion that our customers weren’t purchasing our service; instead they were purchasing our people.

My people had serious reputations and that’s what was being chased by my customers; who would rather wait until a consultant became available (in one case up to six months) rather than use someone else.

I didn’t know how to solve this problem of scalability, it seemed to be inherent in the business. And that was my clue.

On discussing the issue with a psychologist friend of mine, he suggested something that has stayed with me ever since. Maybe Edion wasn’t meant to be expandable; maybe I should just extract maximum cash from it and invest those funds into something else.

I have realized since that I wasn’t an orphan with this problem, in fact I often run into people that are selling a product or service and finding it hard work. They seem to have three main problems:

1. One unit of effort returns one unit of reward, and when they stop selling they stop getting paid.
2. They find it nigh on impossible to get good people to increase the scale of the business.
3. They find that they, as the founder, are responsible for 90% of sales.

If this sounds like you, then this strategy advice could come in handy.

1. Stop fighting it and accept the fact that you have a non-scalable business; it’s not the end of the world though, rather the beginning of an exciting new phase.
2. Stop trying to grow this business because it’s a waste of your intelligence and energy. With the time and energy you just freed up, you can focus on maximizing profit from this non-scalable business. For instance stop investing in systems for growth and in fact pare it back to a bare minimum, and get rid of those ineffective salespeople.
3. Use the free cash flow now generated to invest in building products in a new business. One what’s complementary to the existing business but scalable.

What makes for a scalable business is a different discussion, however it’s not that hard to figure out. Have a look around at any business that has made an idiot wealthy and you will spot most of the attributes of a scalable business (such as mobile phones, fast food, ISPs, petrol).

• A large number of vendors register to participate in a business-to-business marketplace. Vendors indicate what services they are best placed to offer, and pay a fee to register.
• Visitors to SitePoint looking to purchase services such as logo design, web design, web hosting or SEO services can request quotes from participating vendors. This service is free for interested parties looking to get quotes on a job.
• SitePoint receives a small payment for bringing the customer and the vendor together (there’s our disclaimer out the way).

There are a couple of reasons why we think this is a great model, and potentially a terrific fit for SitePoint:

1. We’ve used the service ourself, and had great results. In fact, we were hugely impressed both with the process and the vendor who provided us with the service we were after. If we didn’t stand by the service, we wouldn’t be considering integrating it into our site to this degree.
2. We already have a thriving community of savvy, entrepreneurial folks who are constantly looking for these kinds of services.
3. We also have an even bigger community of individuals who provide services such as these to clients every day, and could be eager to expand their client base through such a network.

At this point, some of you may be thinking, “Isn’t that what the SitePoint Marketplace is for?”

Yes and no. The Marketplace is good for auctions and classified listings, but this services offers the following additional benefits:

• Interested customers can receive no obligation quotes.
• Customers have access to a much larger network of vendors—one that extends beyond those who visit the SitePoint Marketplace.

As I mentioned above, we thought we’d try the service for ourselves, to see whether it was something we wanted to stand by, and we’re convinced it is a Good Thing. We’re interested in hearing your thoughts about this service though.

Is this something you would consider utilizing, as a client? (If you’re looking to get a quote for something, I’d encourage you to trial the service before weighing in. Note this is restricted to clients and vendors in the USA at this stage) And if you offer web development-related services, consider registering with VendorSeek and let us know your experience in the comments. As I mentioned, this is a trial, so its success along with your feedback will help determine whether we continue offering the service.

Check out the SitePoint Services signup page.

These days, project management skills aren’t linked to a job title — they’re essential for anyone who’s responsible for delivering an outcome within a specific budget and time frame.

This might mean that, as a freelancer, you’re delivering a site to a client on time. Or that, as a team leader, ensuring that a design/development team delivers its part of a broader project perfectly to specifications.

In just about any role, your project management skills can make the difference between becoming a superhero or super-villain!

Author Meri Williams has done a fantastic job of explaining concepts that everyone can apply to their projects. She shows you that project management isn’t rocket science, and that you don’t need to do the PMP exam to be a project management superhero!

Download the sample chapter and check it out for yourself.

For more details or to order, visit the book’s sales page.

Since then, we’ve amassed 18 pages of customer reviews, and many more emails, from all corners of the planet. Among these, were many suggestions for a 2nd edition, as well as more than a few questions asking for advice.

With this in mind, early this year we commenced work on updating the kit to answer the most common questions, and provide the most requested documents (contracts!). After many months of work, and more than a few late nights for Brendon Sinclair (the author), we’re happy to announce “The Web Design Business Kit 2.0“.

What’s new in the 2nd edition?

Four New Chapters:

• Outsourcing For Great Profits
• Delight Your Clients
• Dealing With Those Pesky Clients
• Business Legalities

Five new lawyer-written contracts:

• Design Contract
• Hosting Contract
• Support Contract
• Ongoing Marketing Contract
• Confidentiality Contract

… and of course, 509-pages of advice on finding, selling, and keeping clients, 182 pages of time-tested documents, and a CDROM containing all the documents & spreadsheets in editable format.

Download your free sample chapters here.

First, I think I’ve covered most of what I can say in blog format in past entries. It is time for some “new blood” to provide new ideas for you.

Second, my own professional practice is evolving, and I’m focused on some new product/service ideas and target markets. So I need to invest my time accordingly.

I want to thank all of you and especially the great people at Sitepoint for this wonderful opportunity. It has been a true pleasure, and Sitepoint is a fantastic organization!

Finally, here is the bottom line:

1. Make business development a priority. Less qualified/talented people who market do better financially than more qualified/talented people who don’t.

2. Develop a powerful, compelling marketing message that attracts prospects to come to you.

3. Focus your marketing on a target market.

4. Get visible in low cost, high impact ways, preferably by educating your marketplace about the problems they face and how to solve them.

5. Think big. We have one go-round in life as far as we know, so don’t waste it on small thinking.

6. Do what you love, and if you can find a way to get well-paid for it, you are doubly blessed.

Peace, health, and happiness.

1. Web design for clients doesn’t pay well. The only way to make money in this business is by designing your own sites and making money that way.

2. Most clients want a lot but won’t pay.

If that’s true, then there is no reason for web designers to do anything other than design for themselves.

But I don’t think it is true at all. I have always thought that most people think way too small.

I think one can design great web sites for their own purposes, and also get out there and market your knowledge and wisdom at a high price to firms and clients that will pay big bucks for the results you can get. If you don’t have all of the knowledge, you can partner up with others who do and provide a complete solution.

If I am wrong, and you are trying to market to clients who want a lot and won’t pay, get the heck out of this business! There are plenty of other ways to make an excellent living, and web design can be a hobby for you.

Otherwise, some of you need a major attitude adjustment, and need to start being more creative and seeing possibility and opportunity.

He explained that he had talked to a bunch of web designers — at all price ranges — and refused to work with any of them. None of them could provide a cogent point of view about how to design sites that converted visitors to customers — besides the usual talk about professional-looking designs.

Listen closely, as I’ve repeated this message too many times: You have a wonderful opportunity to dominate your market by providing a full, complete online ecommerce solution to your clients. This includes having a solution, and being able to describe it, in plain English that includes:

- How to attract people to the site in honest, proven ways (SEO that isn’t the usual rip off service at over $900 per month)
- Tested navigation flows that convert visitors to customers
- Proven marketing copy and materials that are compelling
- Tracking tools to test, refine, and expand what works
- Partnerships with top ecommerce companies
- Documented methodology for generating sales on the web — backed up with actual case studies and results.

Not all of you design/develop this kind of site. But for those of you who do, the opportunity remains…even after a decade of online sales for single products.

In my case, I now design web-based programs and sell information via the web. I don’t have an advertising model, but rather sell information to targeted niche audiences. In 8 months of building, I now have 6 cash-flow generating sites (and a few duds, too).

Anyway, just because a product or site is a dud doesn’t mean that you can’t turn lemons into lemonade, and that’s the purpose of this blog.

Here are two examples:

1. I created a site that sold book reviews to parents. It bombed. But I had 22 wonderfully written book reviews/summaries. So I started marketing those on another site I have that caters to parents. They now sell as a bundled group of reviews, not as a subscription. Results are positive. A bomb has turned into at least a marginal success.

2. I’ve done some research on my marketing books, testing a variety of prices. During that time, I found that my profits are higher at the $200 price point for a marketing manual, even if fewer total people buy what I have to sell. I was going to raise the price from the current price of $50 now to $200, but then decided to combine all of my books into a marketing boot camp product that includes one-on-one support and tele-conferences. The price for that will be $495- $895 (tbd). So again — once you have a repeatable product or service, you can repurpose it and perhaps make even more money.

With websites that go for ad revenues, I suppose the same principle is true. You can take an existing website and:

- Change the focus; and

- Develop another website targeted to a new audience but based on similar principles.

Repurposing is an important strategy! What has been your experience with it?

I hope that you save 20-50% of every dollar you earn.

It may seem hard with rent and food — but it only gets harder later on.

If you start saving now and investing wisely, you may be able to retire long before your colleagues.

I won’t bore you with a lecture about how money compounds, and how $1 saved in your twenties can be worth lots more than $1 saved when you are 40 or 50. You know that.

Why do we work? Lots of reasons. But work is about how we use our life energy, and what we do with that energy. If you want to be able to choose whether you work or not someday, please start saving up now — in a big way. It takes discipline and commitment, but is worth doing.

Please read the classic book Your Money or Your Life if you want to learn a new way to think about money. Read also The Automatic Millionaire, so you can see the powerful effects of saving.

I’m lucky in that I saved enough money early on and made some smart investments in real estate and stocks — as well as my own businesses. I hope you are equally “lucky.”

Take a moment and figure out how much you need to save every month to have $2 million by the time you are 55. Then start saving that amount.

So at this point, it is my expectation that if I ask you to answer a business challenge, you should be able to answer it for me. Here goes:

What advice would you give to a web developer/designer who is looking out at his business pipeline over the next six months and sees that business will likely dry up in about 3 months?

What are the top 1 to 5 marketing activities you think would help this person recharge his pipeline?

Looking forward to your answers….