The side Hustle that took You From $15/hr to $100k/Year (Part 3)

You'll then quickly run through a few more questions and land on this page where you'll click on "edit your website." When you do this, it'll take you to the backend of your website, where you can then begin building out your agency site.

Very similar to the last article in this series, where we talked about how to build a portfolio website using pre-built templates, well, we're going to do the same exact thing except this time we're going to use an agency pre-built template. 

You can either go to a website like ThemeForest and then type in "agency WordPress website," and a ton of really great options will pop up. You can quickly and easily download one of these themes, install the demo, and then change the content to match your agency.

There's also a ton of different free agency themes out there, so from the backend of your website, you can install a plugin such as Envato Elements and then download any of the free agency website templates. You can also use something like the Astra starter websites, which again have a ton of really high-quality and professional agency website options.

If you didn't want to use a template and you preferred something that was a little more custom, and assuming that you were already comfortable building websites using a drag and drop page builder like Elementor, well, in this case, you could go to a website like Dribbble, type in "agency websites," and then scroll through the thousands of different agency website ideas, all of which you could copy for your own agency website.

Here's an example of a finished agency website that took me maybe 15 minutes to build. We've got the homepage, the about page, a portfolio page of all the websites that we built, and finally, a contact page. And this entire website was built from one single template, and I just simply went in, changed the words to match my example agency, and maybe changed a few of the images using free websites like Unsplash and Pexels.

Once your agency website is set up, it's time to actually start doing some outreach. The first question you should be asking yourself after you've come up with an agency niche, come up with your name, build the agency website, is where exactly can I find clients? Remember, you're not just an individual freelancer anymore, right? Going to Upwork and finding clients that way isn't going to work. Are there clients on these websites? Yes, a lot of them. But remember, these are the low-paying clients, and we want the high-paying clients.

So, where exactly can we find them? Luckily, we live in the internet age, and in the internet age, we have things like social media, forums, and other places where we can go to find prospective clients.

Let's say, for example, that your client was realtors, and you find out that realtor Facebook groups are where realtor company owners hang out. What you would do is conduct some market research to figure out where realtors are typically hanging out online. Just by doing a couple of minutes of research, you can discover that many realtors are active in Facebook groups related to real estate. Each of these group members represents a potential client.

Create a Google Sheets document to organize this information. You can add the names of the groups, links to the group, the member count, and any other notes. Then, you start DMing the members of these groups one by one. You'll use a template response, so you can copy and paste it without rewriting it entirely for each message. The key is to get yourself in front of as many potential clients as possible.

Now, let's say, for example, your agency niche doesn't have many groups on Facebook. Maybe your niche is HVAC companies, and you can't find HVAC groups on Facebook. In this situation, you need to conduct more research to find where HVAC company owners are hanging out online. You might discover that HVAC companies are active on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Reddit. You have to figure out where your prospective clients are and organize that information in Google Sheets or Excel.

Once you've identified where they hang out, it's time to approach them. If your prospective clients are roofing companies, for instance, set up a professional and branded social media profile that represents you and your agency. Create a clean and professional-looking Facebook or Instagram profile that showcases examples of roofing websites you've built, testimonials, a link to your agency website, and other relevant information.

If you don't have testimonials or website examples yet, you can create some temporary ones. Use demo websites from theme marketplaces and change the content to make them look like examples of roofing websites you've built. Once you start getting real clients with actual feedback, you can replace the temporary elements with real ones.

After setting up a professional profile, you'll begin reaching out to prospective clients. You want to start a conversation without immediately revealing pricing, as the client should understand the value of what they're paying for before seeing the price.

After initial messages, you'll aim to get the client on a call, preferably a Zoom call, where you can pitch your services and reveal the pricing at the end. By this time, the client will have a clear understanding of the value your service will bring to their business.

After 3-6 months of consistent effort, you'll start developing your own scripts and processes. But at the beginning of your journey, following a blueprint like this one can be very helpful. It's the same blueprint I used when I first started my agency.

There's a lot more to discuss, but this article is getting quite long. If you have more questions you'd like me to address in the next article, please leave a comment, and I'll try to answer as many of those questions as possible in the next article in the series.

Remember, you can accomplish anything you want in this life. I believe in you, and I'm here to support you on your journey. Take care and stay amazing!

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