The side Hustle that took You From $15/hr to $100k/Year (Part 2)
Plus, the other advantage of niching down is that if you're only building websites in one specific industry, in one niche, then you'll start to get a ton of different referral opportunities. If you build a website for a restaurant, well, the owner of that restaurant is likely going to go and tell all of his restaurant owner friends about your agency. And then when you start building websites for that restaurant owner's friends' friends, they'll begin referring even more restaurant owners to you, and the cycle will just continue on and on.
The side Hustle that took You From $15/hr to $100k/Year
So, niching down is absolutely critical if you want to make the most money. Now you might be wondering, "Well, Kingsley, which niche should I choose? Like, which one is going to make me the most money?" And the answer to that question is all niches make really good money, like all of them. So, don't spend too much time trying to decide which one to start your agency in. Just take one and use it.
And once you've selected a niche for your agency, it's time to come up with an actual name. For this, don't think too hard about a name. Just pick something that resonates with you and then go with that. It could be something like your name and then the word "creative," right? Like perhaps your name is Allen, and so in that case, it would be Allen Creative. Or perhaps your last name and then the word "creative," and so Smith Creative.
Or you can make your name very niche-specific, right? And so, if your agency only builds websites for realtors, then your agency name could be something that reflects that. It could be something like "Web Realtor Pro" or it could be something like "Realtor Websites Agency." Like whatever, don't think too hard about the name. Just carry something to go with it.
Now, if you are having a hard time coming up with a name then you could use something like ChatGPT to help you. You would just ask the AI to give you a list of names for a real estate web development agency, and then pick the one you like the best.
Once you've come up with your agency name, it's time to quickly build an agency website. Don't worry because we're going to use pre-built templates to help us build our agency website in less than 15 minutes.
The first thing you'll need is web hosting, and for this, we're going to use Hostinger. Hostinger is super affordable, and for literally less than the price of one cup of coffee per month, you can start your own web development agency and start attracting high-paying clients. To get started with Hostinger web hosting, all you're going to do is go to HOSTINGER. When you do that, you'll land on a page that looks like this.
The side Hustle that took You From $15/hr to $100k/Year
From here, you're just going to click on this button that says "claim deal." When you do that, it's going to bring you to the pricing table. You're just going to click on the middle option, and then you'll land on the next page .
You'll see this section that says "choose a period," and basically what this is is it allows you to pay in advance 12 months, 24 months, or 48 months. Paying more than one year in advance allows you to save more money. So, if you were to select one of these longer plan periods, you would get the best price per month and can save hundreds of dollars.
But ultimately, it's going to be up to you to decide which period you want to go with. Either way, it doesn't matter because, like I've said before and I'll say it again, with your first web development job alone, you'll be able to pay for the cost of web hosting 50 times over. It's a really small price to pay for a huge upside potential.
Also, if you click right where it says "have a coupon code" and then enter the code if you have any, you'll get an additional 10% off your purchase. Make sure to use that copun code to save yourself some extra money.
On top of that, Hostinger didn't offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, you can get a full refund within 30 days, no questions asked, which means it's literally no risk for you.
Once you're logged into your Hostinger web hosting account, you'll need to set up your first website, which can act as your agency website. If you've already read one and two of the previous articles in this series, then it's possible that you've already set up a portfolio website. But it's going to be up to you to decide if you want to convert that portfolio website into a full-blown agency website.
You know, perhaps you just build websites as an individual freelancer for a little bit so that you can gain some skills and experience, and then after a couple of months, once you're ready, you can start your own agency. But remember, like I said at the very beginning of the article, businesses tend to pay a lot more money to agencies than they do individual freelancers. And so, I personally wouldn't wait too long to take the leap and start your agency.
When I started my agency, I was basically able to 4X my income overnight. I was running the business the same exact way that I was as a freelancer, but the difference, though, is that I had an agency, and something about having an agency just was way more appealing and trustworthy for the businesses that I was working with. For that reason, I would recommend setting up an agency even though it's probably just going to be you as one single person for a while.
So, let's head back into Hostinger now and continue building your agency website. From your Hostinger dashboard, you're just going to click right here on "set up your premium website hosting." Then you'll simply click right here on "start now" and then click here on "create a new website." Once you get to this screen, you'll select the WordPress option.
After that, it's going to bring you to a page asking you to name your website. If you went with the middle pricing option, then you'll see this box that says "claim a free domain." You'll click "select" on that, and this is where you'll enter the name of your agency. After you've entered your name, you'll click on "continue" and then click on "finished setup."
The side Hustle that took You From $15/hr to $100k/Year