How to grow your web design practice

How do you land the $100k project? Watch this interview with Jose Caballer.

If you’re a freelancer, startup, or growing agency one thing you will always face is how to charge more for your work.

In today’s startup scene and rapidly growing WordPress ecosystem we hear how many of us are turning to a product business. No more trading time for money. No more client services and what color blue you should pick.

What if you didn’t have to stress when dealing with web design clients?

Nirvana you say?

In the latest episode of the MattReport I interview Jose Caballer founder of The Skool and The Groop to teach us how he started to land $100k+ projects.

Interview with Jose Caballer

Watch on YouTube

Listen to the audio version

[ss_player]

“I thought I had a tumor.” – Jose on client work

There were so many great points about client work that Jose brought up in this interview — but one that struck a chord with me was how it affected his health.

There was a time in his career that he constantly had headaches. Unsure of what was happening, he spent thousands of dollars to get himself checked out. The hospital and doctors couldn’t find anything.

Shortly after a project he was working on was over, the headaches vanished.

Coincidence?

I think this speaks volumes about the amount of stress we put on ourselves when we aren’t adhering to the right kind of client with the right process in place. These experiences drove Jose to start the Skool and deliver a set of process tools for all of us to learn from.

Throughout many of my interviews, when I ask “how do you deal with the $500 client?” the common answer is “find one that will pay more.”

I realize this isn’t easy when you’re just starting out and trying to put food on the table. However, if you want to scale and grow an agency, these are the goals you need to be thinking about.

From $5k to $100k WordPress projects

Jose has seen it all.

Small boutique studios, mid sized agencies, to the largest super agencies in the world.

Do you know what the difference was with one agencie’s web product versus another? Nothing.

These agencies became brands that commanded the type of dollars that would make us dream of sandy beaches, blue water, and palm trees. However, not all clients are created equal.

Higher paying clients are larger corporations, media companies or enterprises. If you’re looking for enterprise grade WordPress services, be prepared to have vast resources for insurance and legal counsel.

Again, set your goal, have your vision and be prepared.

The importance of process

If there’s one thing this interview taught me it was to reevaluate my process.

The process isn’t there just to keep the client in check — but to make sure you don’t divert from the path either. It’s easy to let some things slip especially when you’re juggling a lot of work and business development at the same time.

Creating systems is something a lot of us in the startup space hear a lot. Systems are great for the rinse/repeat work, but a process still allows you to be creative at each new phase.

What kind of process do you use? What do you think about system versus process?

What did you think about this interview? Let me know in the comments below. If you want to be on the VIP list to get notified of my next interview subscribe to my list http:http://mattreport.com//subscribe


Comments

8 responses to “How to grow your web design practice”

  1. Matt great interview!
    Best Regards from Porto (Portugal).

  2. kevinpascal Avatar
    kevinpascal

    Wow! Another wonderful interview again Matt! 
    Great Advice from Jose Caballer. I am a fan now of his.

  3. Great interview, need to run through all of it when i get a spare few minutes. especially useful for my new business, as an emerging agency.

    1. Glad you enjoyed it Matt!

  4. Great interview, I have a question you talked a lot about being and agency and multiple people, do you fell a solo business with a few assistance can still command a higher price point? Or is the perception of more people so hight that you need bodies for client to perceive value?

  5. […] of the interviews he pointed me to was Jose Caballer. Jose talks about choosing the right clients and implementing the right processes to be able to […]

  6. Great interview, I’m looking forward to checking out your others. I have been looking into creating a team, but cant afford to employ people (mainly as I’m not charging enough…Yet!) what do you think about building a network of other ‘freelancers’ and collaborating on projects, I will sub contract them as and when needed. Then give the impression of being a team to my clients? In turn commanding a higher price with the intensional of starting an agency eventually.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *