Please Critique my Ideas!

I plan on buying pretty basic reseller hosting with eleven2 because they seem to have the best deals for bandwidth and disk space to dollar ratio.BTW I am only 16 years old so I don't how seriously I will be taken when it comes to this plan.

-Appoach local businesses (tons in my small town) and look to build websites for them. I am currently looking at restaurants as most just require an about page, contact info, and menu info. I have a couple WYSIWYG softwares on my computer that I can use to create a professional looking site.

-Sell the making of the site for 200$ and charge 25-30$/month to maintain and host it on my 20$/month reseller hosting plan.

- Why I think it will work:

-Most local businesses haven't entered the online age yet, I give them a reason and affordable way to do so.

-Some website creation firms charge from 400-2500$ for a professional website, I can give them something pretty darn close and functional for a fraction of that.

-25$ a month seems like a decent amount to an individual, but that is nothing for a business. The amount of increased exposure or revenue generated through the internet can easily make up for less than 1$ a day to have a website for you business.Plus, having a website SIGNIFICANTLY increases a small business' reputation and general appearance to its customers. (If you don't have a website yet, you seem like you really are stuck in 2000).

-Gonna definitely use your the fact that smartphones have a hard time to view flash sites to entice customers into taking my HTML sites.

-Gonna be aiming big(Give myself an opportunity to grow if I can). I have access to SuNukex so I can raise monthly pricing if I can get onto the top 3 pages of google. This can keep me going further and higher as I expand.

-Give a steep discount to my first couple clients on site building if they act as a reference for my future client and give me possible leads.

-Possible future outsourcing. I could see how much it could cost on odesk or something to build a minisite for a business, therefore I could just focus on clients.

-So, do you think it will work? Any suggestions? Should I just quit now before I get ahead of myself?

Just remember that if you put a little hook and a small bait you are trying to catch smaller fishes. If you put a bigger hook and a bigger bait you are trying to catch a bigger fish.

What do I mean by that? I mean that the market is full of big fishes and that you need to raise your prices and try to catch the big ones.

Bigger companies usually just don't want to look at an offer that has a price range below 500$ because they think that the service is of low quality or that it's some type of a scam.

More power to ya. If you think you can make the sites cost effective and keep them on a monthly retainer then your set. All you need is 30 clients for 1000 each month. Then you can start punting services like google business listings, seo, social media promotion, facebook likes and so on.

Good on you for looking to take action.

That alone will get you places. If you have the balls to go in there and offer your services face to face like that then you are going to go a long way in this business.

O'k then, like one of the above posts says about the fish and the hooks. I totally agree.

Don't rip your self off. Even tho the money mite seem good to you now, the service you are offering is worth more than that and people will start to give you more respect if you hit them with real prices.

It is a good idea to give away a few for discounted sites so that you can build up somewhat of a portfolio to show your prospective clients what you have to offer.

Also an added bonus you could throw in is a mobile ready version of their site. So sell them the main site and just give them the mobile version of their site for free. Customers love freebies.

Good luck,
Zotty

The idea is great, simple, and will work because it always does. However, you may want to look into outsourcing your website maintenance. Or build a PHP administration panel for a one-time fee, but I know you're looking for that recurring income, so I would recommend outsourcing.

I usually only carry 3 clients at a time, plus 1 guy I do full-time maintenance for, because I'm in school. ALL of them always need something changed and updated. They call and e-mail every day. Now if this is your main business and you've got 30 clients, do you really want 30 people calling you every day? You're doing maintenance for them; they're going to take advantage of it.

So maybe raise your prices a bit. Companies really don't mind paying a bill or two for maintenance, unless it's a pretty small company. Just find a good outsourcer. I can recommend some Indian companies, but I know some people here have really good hookups to overseas outsourcees. Or you can find someone here to do it, but that will cost more.

But if you're dead set on doing the work yourself, the more power to you. That's just my two cents from what I've picked up over time.

Edit:
Also, as a side note, age isn't always a bad factor, even in the 25-35 range like mentioned above. People look to younger people because they assume they know things about technology. I know this because I work in an office supply store and I talk with TONS of small business owners. Yesterday I was helping someone with something not even tech related, and he randomly asked if I could help him with his Android phone, because he assumed I knew about that OS since I am young. And a couple days ago I was suggesting some online printers for a lady who does photography and mentioned my web/print design business, and she said, "You young people always know way more than us."

Regardless of your age, business owners know you have a skill they don't have. That's straightforward, cut-and-dry, and they probably aren't ever going to have that skill, so they can't argue that you aren't going to do a good job, because they can't even do it themselves.

If anyone ever straight up told me they didn't trust me or think I could do a good job because of it, I would just say, "That's all right sir, I'm only visiting 5 more of your competitors today who are willing to look past my age and realize how a website can give them a huge advantage over businesses like yours that don't have a website." And then walk out.

Okay maybe not. That may be bad for business. But still.

You will, at the very least, learn from the experience.

My advice: charge more. For a custom website built in a WYSIWYG editor, charge $1,500 - $3,000 depending on features or quantity of content.

If they don't trust you based on your age and tell you so, you don't want them as a client anyway. They'll second-guess everything you do, and they'll be hesitant to recommend you. They're doing you a favor by turning you down.

For a custom website built in a WYSIWYG editor, charge $1,500 - $3,000 depending on features or quantity of content.

Click to expand...

Quantity of content? Do you mean quality? I mean, quantity is important but quantity can be worthless without quality.

battlepope said:

Quantity of content? Do you mean quality? I mean, quantity is important but quantity can be worthless without quality.

Click to expand...

He probably means number of pages in the site. A lot of places actually do charge by page count.

artizhay said:

He probably means number of pages in the site. A lot of places actually do charge by page count.

Click to expand...

Yes, I do mean by number of pages. If we're charging by the hour, the standard fee is 3 hours per static page.

I also checked out some threads here and got another idea. I could pre make domains and try to get them to the top in a really specific niche, like local dentistry(you may know the thread I am talking about). This could give me leverage to make an bigger profit or easier to sell the idea! And about maintenance, I could limit the amount of it I would do to a degree.

I have a relative who runs the smallest business I have ever seen (that wasn't a lemonade stand), and he gets calls every week from people who are offering to make his website. It's likely that these business owners get offers like that all the time, and just don't see the value in having an online presence. You may need to sell them on the idea that they should have a website before selling them on the idea that they should get it from you.

Some of these are good. Really good in fact, you just need to polish out the details and focus on executing as nicely and effectively as you possibly can. Good luck to you, drac313

thank you guys for the advice, but it you have any more, I'd love to hear it!