If you are following me for a while now, you might remember me yapping about how I wanted to provide services here in my blog. Well guess what? At the end of the last week, I finally got to launch the Work With Me section and even wound up landing my first client already…Hell Yeah!
I have a very good experience dealing with Mom and Pop businesses. I used to work as a freelance web designer until early 2010. During my endeavor as a freelancer, I used to go around the hood knocking on the door of businesses to see if they already have a web presence or how I can further enhance their online presence to gather more leads and find clients.
However, during that time I did not have this blog. Now with Endeavor Online as a fulcrum, I believe lead generation is going to be a whole new ballgame (O: As you can probably tell, I am very excited.
Ever since I started this blog, I have been laying the foundation to quit my day job, which I plan to do at the end of this year. Well, that is still a long ways away but the first sale I made today certainly is a step towards that goal, desire and dream.
About the sale and how I got the lead?
It just so happens that the word of mouth has served me real well to land clients. During the freelancing days, I accumulated a lot of clients from my satisfied customers. My satisfied clients tell their friends and families about how they got a kick-ass online presence for a fraction of a price. Honestly, I still get calls from people due to the recommendation from clients I had years ago.
Well an ex-client of mine, which I haven’t seen or heard from for almost a year called me up yesterday and said that he’s got a client for me. He mentioned that his sister who owns an insurance company in Houston; Best Texas Insurance might be interested in consultation on how to enhance her web presence so that she can outdo her competition.
Right after I talked to him, I got a call from his sister and we discussed quite a bit of tactics – from domain name, keywords, Google Adwords, indexing on Google, SEO to outranking and outdoing her competition.
And I also directed her to my service section to see if she would be interested in the packages that I offer.
That was it! Next thing I know, this morning I had my first sale!
It is different this time around!
Things went horribly wrong when I collaborated with the wrong people during my freelancing days. All that led to a bad financial situation. I had to quit freelancing and start working full time job as a manager in a local grocery store.
I certainly learned a lot from the freelancing days – Ya know, hustling to find clients and leads helped me find and develop various tactics to convert potential customers to actual clients. Besides, the experience also taught me immensely about marketing online and offline, building relationships, pleasing clients to such an extent that enables you to milk the relationship to generate more leads and so on..
One big lesson I learned from those good old days is that I should never hesitate to outsource or even collaborate with the right people if I want to hit it big. With time being so limited, it is impossible to do everything by myself. As a freelancer, I did outsource some of the minor things but never fully utilized it. I do regret that but it is all good because this time it is going to be different.
My future plan is to provide a good framework for the service offer set up. I also have plans on providing more services that are client oriented. Let’s see how all this is going to work out!
More clients on the way…
Things couldn’t be any better right now as I have half a dozen local business owners interested in having an online presence for their businesses. One of my customers from the place where I work at right now is a marriage counselor and she wants to start a blog of her own…Really looking forward to this one…as this could be the perfect opportunity to showcase a case study here in Endeavor online (O:
As you can tell by now that this is heading in the exact direction I want to take. Besides, I love working with small and medium sized businesses so that they can have their own kick-ass online presence that rivals that of the big dogs…
Lastly here are some of the things for you to takeaway:
- If you are a blogger, don’t wait to offer services in your blog. There are thousands of people that are wanting help for their online presence at any given second…if you wait someone else will grab them.
- Don’t be scared thinking what you offer is not good enough. It just so happens that you are never going to know till you actually put it out there and try it out!
- Don’t hesitate to outsource and collaborate if necessary. This is definitely an important step to take in order to go big.
- Talk to your potential clients like they are your best friends. Show them how passionate you are in what you do and how you can help them solve their biggest problems. Give them some actionable advice for free. Ya know, it is not always about money. It is about building relationships that you can benefit from for years and years to come.
What do you say?
Please feel free to comment down below to add your insights. Plus, if you like this article Tweet it, share it in Facebook or your favorite social media outlets.
Here’s to your successful online endeavor!
-Adam Paudyal.
Photo credit: Hemi-427
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Before you go...
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I created this blog to chronicle the success and failures of my various online endeavors and to share with you the knowledge I gain along the way... 
Hi Adam,
Congratulations for getting your first client. You took all the right steps to first network and then deliver on your promises.
I have a blog on entrepreneurship and I would love to have your experience told on my site. Would you be interested in providing a guest blog to me with your tips and tricks?
No problem if you can’t or don’t want to .
Thanks and regards,
Ashvini
Ashvini recently posted..Structure of mediocrity
Ashvini;
Thank you. It is the step I needed to take. Although, I think that I shouldn’t have waited this long to launch the service, getting my first client through this blog sure does give me a sense of some accomplishment.
This is something I really recommend for bloggers to start doing if they do not offer services yet! You may never know till you put it out there (O:
I really appreciate the offer Ashvini – Thinking about it right now. I will let you know about it (O:
Hi Adam,
I know how you feel when you got your first sale. You get top of the world and you start feeling that everything is possible. Congrats Adam for your first sale and hope you continue to do that in future too.
Riya recently posted..HostGator Coupon Codes- Latest Promo Discount Vouchers Daily Updated
Spot on Riya.
I do believe some sense of accomplishment is there but I can’t forget the fact that this is just a scratch on the surface.
There are more challenges that I need to overcome. But anyway, I believe Success is a head game. Need that ‘everything is possible’ mindset!
Appreciate your input Riya.
Later..
Adam,
Glad to hear that things are working out for you! First client…and quickly…that rocks. Hopefully the floodgates open to even more opportunity for ya!
One important facet of this is that satisfied clients (even ones from a long time ago) bring in more satisfied clients. Nothing works as well as word of mouth, whether you are talking about a home-based business or a brick-and-mortar store.
The hard part if getting those first few in the door.
Steve recently posted..How to Turn your To-Do List into a To-Done List
I believe the sale happened because I was doing the right thing at the right time.
And of course, the word of mouth played a huge role. Just like you mentioned Steve, nothing works better than the word of mouth. This is the exact reason why I believe that I need to go one step further to nurture the relationship with my clients (O:
Thank you Steve.
You Rock brother!
Congrats, here’s hoping this is the first of many!
Thanks! I am hoping the same (O:
Hi Adam:
So congrats, your focus made it happen, now keep doing the right thing and wait till you get few more sales and then you will know it so well, that you will be able to create money on demand. but you have to give it some time and attention.
Keep up with the web
Fran A
Fran Aslam the Onlinewriter recently posted..10 Tips To boost Gross Profits Margin With Mobile Promotion
Thanks Fran. I am definitely going to keep your insights and suggestions at heart (O:
Hi Adam,
Thanks for the invite to yo know where (shhhh, don’t tell anyone, it is a secret…lol).
Congrat for your first sale. Looking forward to hear a lot more!
Hez recently posted..What is your “WHY”
Haha..You are hilarious!
Thanks buddy!
Oh Adam, congratulations my friend! I’m so happy for you and this is just the beginning. So your first client is here in Houston! I love that, my hometown.
I’m really happy that you are putting yourself out there and from what I wrote in my post today, be thankful for “what’s to come” as if it’s already here. You’ll have clients beating the doors down if you don’t watch out. But be specific with what you want in a client though. We can always attract the wrong kinds of people. I know that from past experience too.
Again, congratulations and pretty soon you are going to be so busy you won’t have time to blog. Hope you’ll still be able to sneak in a post or two.
Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Are You Ready To Make Life Give You What You Want
Adrienne,
I didn’t know you were from Houston. So, since I reside in Dallas, we are practically neighbors than huh!
About being busy – I can already see it Adrienne. But I am definitely not going to quit blogging anytime soon (O:
Adrienne Appreciate it!
You have a good one.
You’re in Dallas? I’ll be up that way the last weekend of this month but will be at a conference the entire time. Wish I had time to meet up with you. That would be so cool. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be driving or I would swing by on my way out of town.
I’m trying to fit everything into my schedule now too. Not enough hours in the day but I do love blogging and interacting with others so that I can’t see stopping either. Glad you feel the same.
Enjoy your weekend Adam.
Adrienne recently posted..Are You Ready To Make Life Give You What You Want
Wow! seems to me like you are super busy Adrienne.
So, you are coming to Dallas huh! Yeah, meeting you in person would be nice. Well, maybe we would be able to meet up some other time – since we are neighbors(O:
Have a great time in Dallas and enjoy your weekend!
Adam,
Congrats!
I still remember my own experience of landing my first consulting client (IT consulting) who was my former employer. It was a short-term consulting that paid me flat rate of $1000/month for minimal IT work that I was doing from home. That wasn’t bad because I was only doing that on the side while still having my full time day job (my current job today).
But then came the economy meltdown…it’s now hard to land those mini IT consulting work, plus you have to compete with full-time, more experienced consultants that will take any size of job.
I know how it feels to land your first client.
Marlon recently posted..Top 10 Productivity Tools For Chromebook
Marlon!
The economy meltdown has affected everyone. Ya, know business has gone down by about 60% where I work at. Pretty soon my boss would not be able to employ me…one more reason to be serious about the business side of my blog (O:
Yup you are absolutely right brother. It does feel awesome to land the first client, especially when it is from the blog.
Appreciate you sharing your story here.
Enjoy your weekend.
Talk to you soon!
HI Adam,
Always i am getting a solution in a different dimension for my problem from your blog, Sometime i got freelance works to do on my internet marketing field, i used to neglect them becos i committed with an organization and i used to think, how far it is possible by me? you clearly point out the matter behind the freelancing works and relationship between clients. hereafter gonna try it out and will put my full effort on it.
Thanks buddy.
Thiru recently posted..Graffiti Wall – Marvel Art on Facebook
Hey Thiru!
This is so very awesome. I am glad and blessed to be able to provide solutions to your problems.
Blogging/business success is all about building relationships that is symbiotic – where both you and your clients can benefit to a certain extent. This is the best way to impress your clients so that you can reap the rewards for years and years to come.
Good to hear that you are increasing your blogging efforts.
Later Thiru.
You take care!
[...] launched Blog and Website services here in this blog and I am simply enthralled to be working with my first client already. Just this morning I was talking to another potential customer who might be interested in [...]
I know I’m a little late but congrats! I just read a blog post that says we should put a hire me page up as soon as we can. That’s great for you! Hopefully you’ll build up some momentum and more will be rolling in.
Its been reiterated every now and then that people should be offering services on their blog. This presents an all concise package to their readers, and not only that, you get a better chance to communicate with your readers.
Joshua recently posted..Plumbing Practice Test
Hi Adam,
Congrats for your first sale. I am sorry if it’s too late, but better late than never, right? Your story is a great inspiration for me. I am in the middle of deal talks with a potential customer. I hope I will make it.
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