You would think that every business out there would have a website but guess what? There are a lot of businesses that do not and if you're up to it, you can design something for them and rent them their own website.
Most businesses, especially the small one man shops do not have the time or knowledge to setup a website. They rather spend their time running their shop because it earns money. A lot of owners don't realize that a website can draw customers to them when their shop is closed for the night. People who want to do business with them may not know their store hours or how to get to their store. Store hours, directions to their store and a brief explanation to what kind of store it is are just some of the things that their website can have.
Restaurants can have their menus on the websites. And if they offer delivery with DoorDash or SkiptheDishes, they can have that on the websites.
Here's where you come into the picture. Click HERE to create a website on Weebly. If you have your own business and no website, go ahead and create a website for yourself. Otherwise, pretend you are creating a website for someone else. Use this experience as a learning opportunity to get familiar with website construction and design.
Weebly has a free plan that allows you to create websites with a subdomain. This means everything you create has a '.weebly.com' appended to it. For example, lets say you are creating a website for joeslawns. With the free plan, the website will be at 'joeslawns.weebly.com' rather than just 'joeslawns.com'.
Are you still with me? Go with a free plan for now. With the free plan, you can get familiar with building a web page and publishing it. When you publish a website, you are putting it out there on the internet for all to see. It is considered 'live' when you publish.
To get your first customers, I recommend you go to Starbucks or to places where people pin up their business cards or ads advertising their services. Call or contact them by email and ask if they have a website. If not, ask them if they would like you to create one for them for free. You can start off by meeting them and finding out what service they offer. Bring a notebook with you so you can take notes or jot down ideas for their website. When you get home, go to your Weebly account and create a new website with their business' name. Remember to suffix it with '.weebly.com' so that it stays free.
When you're done, publish it and show it off. They will probably want to make changes so make notes and go back and put in the changes. To limit the amount of going back and forth, you might want to give away the first 2 change sessions then charge a nominal charge for subsequent changes. At then end, you want to rent the website to them monthly. By renting it out to them, they simply reap the rewards of having a website but they won't have to maintain it.
I would recommend charging a fee that is proportional to their service fee. For example if they charge $25 for a dog sitting service, I would charge them $25 per month to rent their website. Starting the fees low would encourage them to continue renting from you. It may not sound like much but it is a recurring fee. Over 12 months, you will earn more than $250 per year.
To earn more money, encourage your customers to switch to a paid domain. A registered domain will drop the weebly suffix and look more professional. With Weebly, you can switch them to a registered domain without recreating their website.
There are fees associated with registering for a domain. Also, you will be converting your account into a paid account which will make your business more legitimate and professional. With a monthly plan, you can create more websites and get more customers.
Another source for customers is at shopping malls. There are so many businesses that do not have a website. For example, there is a collectibles store at one of the shopping malls in Calgary that do not have a website. When I was talking with the owner, she said she would love to have a website that showed some of her inventory. You could set up an online store for her that allows people to order things from her store, pay for it and pick it up at her store. A website would give her another avenue to earn money.
Landscapers who mow lawns and maintains yards in the summer have a snow removal business in the winter. Did you know a lot of them do not have a website? You can create them a website to promote their services and to attract customers, you can put the weather on their website. New customers finding their website will be reminded to cut their lawns or shovel their driveway when they see the weather flash in front of their eyes.
If you would like to be a website designer, start here by clicking HERE to create your first website. It's easy and anyone can do it. Weebly's website builder is so easy to use. Just drag and drop and type away.
Update: Be sure to read our next post if your client wants to buy a website from you instead of renting it.
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