[Journey] - Building A $5,000/mo Web Design Studio From Scratch

Weekly update

Hello world,

Yes, that’s happened! Last week I finally closed the first client for my studio . Last week I had two follow up calls planned. One prospect did not show up, while with another we agreed on the redesign of his website. It’s quite a small job of redesigning a five page website in the local automotive niche. We agreed on 320€. Yes, the price is quite low, but at this time I just need to keep things rolling.

So, let’s summarize some things: 130 cold calls, 2 follow up calls and 1 client. In general, the closing rate is not high at this moment. But these two follow up calls were placed after I made some tweaks with my cold call script. Before, there were 93 calls and 0 successes. After some corrections I have 37 calls and 1 client. So it’s either me getting better on cold calls or the changes I made are giving some results. Anyway I will continue my cold calls campaign, starting each working day with 5-8 calls.

Studio website:
Worked on studio website SEO a little bit. Added on local business directories and catalogs. The website needs some work on tech. and speed optimization.

Cold calling campaign:
Made 25 cold calls last week. 18 were answered. No interest. Will continue this campaign without any major tweaks and after 100+ calls will summarize the results again.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio websites SEO (tech. and speed optimization)
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign (starting each working day with no less than 5 calls)
  • Finish first project.
  • Start working on my studio business processes. First - client onboarding process.

Hey, I just noticed that my target is “Building A $5,000/mo Web Design Studio”, but now I get paid in € euro. I won't change anything, because later I plan to offer my services on the global market as well. For now I will have to use more math I guess.
 
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Keep going! It's not a easy journey, but you seem determined. Get us update
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

First project:
So, last week I finished my studio’s first project. When I was working on it, I realized that in addition to client onboarding processes, I also need to start thinking about optimizing my workflow. From website content creation to website design templates etc. At this time, project completion time is not a problem, as there are not many orders. However, in order to achieve my goal, I will inevitably have to complete projects faster. Not now, but I need to think about it.

Studio website:
Optimized some technical aspects on my studio website. For the weakest keywords, some of the website pages are already on the second page of Google. So, the website is rising slowly and steadily, basically as it should be.

Cold calling campaign:
Made 30 cold calls last week. 22 were answered. 1 ‘so-so’ interested, but ghosted after we set a follow-up call. Will continue this campaign without any major tweaks.

Business processes:
I have prepared a client onboarding process for my studio that I think will allow me to work more effectively with clients. It includes the initial call process, questions, proposal, payment, corrections and stuff. Of course I will adjust the process from time to time, but this already gives me some clear framework.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO (collect some backlinks).
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign.
  • Increase social network activity (need to find content format that could potentially bring me some clients).

February money:
Revenue: $336
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Second project:
Last week I closed a second client for my studio :) . It's a 5 pager design for a new business in the automotive niche. Yes, at this moment I am focused on the automotive niche. We agreed on 400€. At this moment I am working on this project.

Studio website:
Was not focused on SEO very much. Collected a few free backlinks here and there, that’s all. This week I will pay more attention to website SEO, starting with foundational backlinks. I won't buy anything, will do it myself.

Cold calling campaign:
Made 40 cold calls last week. 28 were answered. 1 closed. Will continue the cold calling campaign without any major tweaks. 40 calls a week is pretty comfortable for me right now because I'm not a salesperson. So if I could close one client a week on average from cold calling, I could work with that.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO.
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign.
  • Finish the second project.
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Studio website:
I started working more actively on the studio website’s SEO. Collecting standart foundational backlinks so far. Published some articles on thematic websites. There are no major changes in positions yet.

Cold calling campaign:
Changed the niche. Made 40 cold calls last week. 32 were answered. 0 closed. I think my script is quite good, people were talking, but the problem was with my selection of prospects. Try to shortcut the selection process. So I will return to my original process. As I see, there are no shortcuts in this thing. Will continue the cold calling campaign.

Second project:
Yeah, just finished my second project and got paid. :)

Need to think about other lead generation channels and change my offer a little bit. Seo and website needs time and for now I have only cold calls. Also need to think about how to fill the gaps between larger projects. I mean, now I have a free space between larger projects that I could fill with smaller ones.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO.
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign.
 
Looking very very good! Good luck!
How do you use Divi? you work on WordPress website and design it using the Divi platform?
 
Good luck. I surely will be following this exciting journey as I have the same business goal.
 
AlbertFibonacci said:
Looking very very good! Good luck!
How do you use Divi? you work on WordPress website and design it using the Divi platform?
Click to expand...

Yes, I am using Divi. I have quite good skills with it, so I can make basically any design and functionality with it. Also I am giving my clients lifetime Divi license key, so they don't need to buy license for updates.
 
Montoya said:
Yes, I am using Divi. I have quite good skills with it, so I can make basically any design and functionality with it. Also I am giving my clients lifetime Divi license key, so they don't need to buy license for updates.
Click to expand...
And for the cold emails/calls, how many emails you send per day~ ?
you get leads from googlemap or external source?
 
AlbertFibonacci said:
And for the cold emails/calls, how many emails you send per day~ ?
you get leads from googlemap or external source?
Click to expand...

Hey. I am sending emails only to prospects that didn't answer my call. So, it's not mutch, about 10 emails pet week. I am getting leads with my web scrapper, I wrote about it earlier. You can find my process in my previous messages.

Revialon said:
I'm doing a similar project. I will be following your journey thread. Good luck with your journey.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot.
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Studio website:
Working actively on the studio website’s SEO. Collecting foundational and web 2.0 backlinks. There are small changes in the website's positions, but nothing big yet. Received first query from studio website, unfortunately nothing serious, just some wanderer looking for cheap prices. But, there is already some small steady traffic on my website, so I will continue my SEO work and try to rise as high as possible in the search results.

Cold calling campaign:
Made 40 cold calls last week. 35 were answered. 1 closed. I feel like at my current rate of cold calling I can get 3-4 clients a month from it. Although this is not enough to achieve my goal, it is a start that I can work with. Also, as I said before, I have to think about how to fill the gaps between these clients with smaller jobs.

Social media is definitely another lead source that I'm not taking advantage of, but since I don't actively use them myself, I can't find a suitable content format. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are flooded with various web design gurus, but in my opinion, they are more content creators and bloggers than web design studio owners. So, I'm not sure if my prospects and clients are really there and do they watch this kind of content.

Is there anyone who attracts their leads and clients on social networks? Could you tell me, what platform and what kind of content works best for you?

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO.
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign.
  • Find a way to consistently fill the gaps between larger clients.
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Last month:
In short, March was better than February. Finally started closing some clients with my cold calling campaign. I closed a total of 2 clients last month.

This month:
This month I will continue my cold calling campaign and work on the studio website’s SEO. The website is already getting some traffic and got one query last month, so I think it is really worth focusing on improving the website's position. SEO is a long game.

Last week was really busy on my other project, so not much happened here. I'm going back to work this week. So, this week I will focus on website SEO, cold calling campaign, and I still haven't figured out a way to fill the gaps between larger orders with smaller orders. So, I'll have to work on that too.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO (this week will focus on Web 2.0 backlinks).
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign.
  • Find a way to consistently fill the gaps between larger orders with smaller orders.

March money:
Revenue: $816
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Studio website:
Worked on the studio website’s SEO. Collected some foundational backlinks and created web 2.0 with backlinks (wix, WP, tumblr, canva, etc.). This week I’ll try to get some backlinks from thematic blogs with guest posting or cash in my pocket. Later, will blast all my backlinks with tier two. This should make a difference in my studio’s serp positions. Basically, I'm on page 2 and 3 for low competitive keywords, but nowhere near top 30 for main juicy keywords. Yeah, SEO it’s a long game.

Cold calling campaign:
My every morning starts the same :) First, I am making 8 cold calls and then start working on other stuff. When you make something a routine it’s a lot easier. So, last week I made 40 cold calls. 33 were answered. 0 was closed. I came up with some idea, how to improve my cold call closing rate and get some extra income. Will test it this and next week.

This Week's Plan:
  • Work on a studio website's SEO (backlinks with guest posting or cash).
  • Continue with the cold calling campaign (8 calls per day).
  • Test new idea for cold calls and extra income.
 
Hello world,

No updates this week, because of my small Easter holidays.
But as you can see I already have my Jr. Vip badge, so will make an update next week. :)
 
Weekly update

Hello world,

Last week was not very work heavy, because of my small Easter holidays, however some important decisions were made and actions were taken. First of all, I was looking for a way to fill the gaps between orders I get now from cold calls. So, I decided to open my service on the BHW marketplace. We'll see how it goes. Who knows, maybe orders from BHW will become the main ones, and the gaps between them will be filled by orders from cold calls

Cold calling campaign:
Some changes here too. My current client closing rate from cold calls is not very high (320 calls, 3 closed), so I decided to change the angle a little bit. From now on, before I start a cold calling campaign, I will first create a website in that niche. Let's say a traditional five-pager. Then I will use this niche website to: a.) showcase my work and services on cold calls b.) for my portfolio and c.) will try to rank&rent it. I think it's called synergy .

Studio website:
The studio website is slowly rising in serp, but unfortunately I'm still not getting any leads from it. I think I'll need to create a few new pages later that target specific keywords.

This Week's Plan:
  • Get approved on the marketplace (priority).
  • Build a new niche website for testing a new cold calling campaign strategy (priority).
  • Continue and test the cold calling campaign (if there is time left).

So, back to the grinding

And yeah, I know that I must be active on social media and do some outreach there. It’s definitely on my list, but a little later.
 
Starting a web design studio has tons of potential. Keep going and you'll get there!
 
Monthly update

Hello world,

Last month:
So, April was not a good month in terms of sales, but in April I was more focused on making some changes that I hope will bring benefits in the long term. Only 1 client was closed from cold calls, so in purely monetary terms, April was a very weak month. However, I believe that the changes I made will begin to yield results in the very near future.

Cold calling campaign:
As I said earlier, before starting a cold calling campaign in a specific niche, now I will first create a website in that particular niche to showcase my work and to rank&rent it later. So, the niche is selected, the website is already created and I will test my new cold calling campaign next week.

Studio website:
I will continue to work on the Studio website's SEO.

BHW marketplace:
I got approved on the bhw marketplace and opened my Website cloning service. Yes, this is not a website building service. I specifically niched down, because I think it's not yet oversaturated here and I can land some clients.

You can check my sales thread here if you are interested: ✨ Divi Website Cloning Service ✨

My Plan for May:
  • Test new call calling campaign strategy.
  • Work on a studio website's SEO (backlink, backlinks, backlinks).
  • Add a few new service pages on the studio website (targeted for small business).
  • I need to start creating content for my target customer (1 step - ideas and content plan).
  • Work my ass of to make my clients happy

Btw, from now on I will probably do only monthly reviews.

April money:
Revenue: $395
 
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