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Thread: Seem to be in a lull, how do you guys handle that?

  1. #1
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    Default Seem to be in a lull, how do you guys handle that?

    In the first part of the year, I was averaging two orders a week. This past month I've only had three orders total. It's making me a little nervous and wondering what I need to crank up in my marketing to bring the sales back up. But I'm new enough that I don't yet know my "normal" business fluctuations so this could just be that all my potential customers are on vacation instead of shopping.

    Do any of you guys have lulls in your business? What do you do to break out of them?

  2. #2
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    Yep, all the time. I'm actually in one now. Changes in the market. More options for people. Cheaper and cheaper overseas freelancers, and so on. This particular lull is not one I can get out of by doing the same thing as I always have. This time I need to stick and move.

    First, I'll tell you how I got out of the last lull.

    I started right after the crash. Around 2009. It was horrible but there was still kind of a gold rush going on and a lot of people were still new to getting online, or what they had was built in the early 2000's and was falling apart. WordPress was just hitting it's stride as the go to CMS and a lot of the standard graphic artist type web designers were not up on how to use it. So I struck.

    The economy was in the toilet, but there were still people out there with money who wanted to get online, and I found them. That worked then. It wouldn't work now.

    Back then there were no site builders that worked well, no Squarespace, Wix sucked, and in the WordPress field there was no One Click install, we did it manually with elbow grease and Notepad (man I sound old), and bread was only a nickle

    If people needed a website they had to come to people like me. As that day quietly, but quickly ended, I hit a lull and realized I was making a critical mistake. Constantly working to get new website builds, but didn't offer much in the way of support services to keep them coming back.

    So a few years ago I started paying attention to my calls, what people were saying, and the amount of people who needed help and restructured to be more of a support based business. Reworked my pricing to make it easier for people to hire me for multiple hours at a time, and started offering services that fit that model. Along with working my old customers, some new marketing, social media and so on, eventually it started to work as there were A LOT of people with WordPress sites who now had no idea what to do with them, and their old webmaster was in the wind.

    I also started getting subcontracted a lot by agencies who needed someone on call to handle their WordPress clients. A direction that I hadn't even considered, but doing one thing led to another and it kind of fell in my lap as an additional revenue stream.

    That's where I am now, and it's 80% of my business.

    However, even that is getting a little old and I can see the writing on the wall again. I'm still paying the bills, but I don't see much growth in it as more and more people who only need the basics opt to services like Wix and Squarespace. And I can't blame them.

    Long story short, the big companies are trying to put the freelancers out of business, and I don't have the will, or the resources to try and fight what I know to be a losing battle. That last Go Daddy commercial offering a website, social media marketing, and SEO for $1 damn near killed me and everyone else in the business. We all know it was BS, and that Go Daddy sucks, but normal people don't. That was THE wake up call of all wake up calls for people like me.

    A crossroads. Do I get deeper into coding and try to attract more complicated work? Makes sense, however, I've already seen how that ends with larger companies sucking up coding talent in house and not needing to hire outside, and web companies offering more and more services for cheap.

    So, before lull #2 gets bad, Ive been pivoting again and am studying for my cyber security certifications. It's something I got interested in after a few years of combing through website files looking for infections. After while I found myself telling hosting co's tech support where the problems were, and how they were happening. That got frustrating and I was like "Screw this. I need to figure out how people are getting into the server and why this company is so bad at this". Next thing you know I'm studying Network Security and Penetration Testing.

    I like it..I actually find it fascinating... there's a huge need in the industry, it pays far better than web design, businesses (and people) need help BIG TIME in this area, and you can't automate it.

    I've also taken on a role in a start up as a side hustle that has some real potential. Base pay plus the option for rev share if it takes off. Gotta have a side hustle. Multiple if possible.

    This is the route I'm taking. Doesn't mean it's the best one for others. Common wisdom says I should strengthen my skills as a designer, get proficient in scripting languages, partner up with other coders and designers to form a larger agency that can cover all bases for any kind of client. However, I just don't see that as the right path for me.

    Moral to the story, you have to stick and move. Go where the market is taking you, or create a new market. Learn new skills. Offer needed services. Listen to your customers. What are they telling you that they need? And of course, get better at marketing.

    Every business is a constant struggle to survive and grow. You have to keep innovating, Keep improving. And above all, keep good customers coming back. They pay the bills.

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