
Ask HN: Finding small, local companies who need websites? - lampooned
I want to stop doing overly complicated freelance jobs and just stick to small mostly static websites for local businesses. Instead of doing 1 or two big projects a month, I just want to do 4 small sites for a fixed price.<p>Any idea on where to find small companies in need of a websites locally?
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mooreds
Join your chamber of commerce. Go to the meetings. Offer to do a talk: 'what
you need to know about the web'.

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mingabunga
Have a look at the yellow pages (not online) and visit all the companies who
advertise a website. I think you'll find loads of them who say 'Under
Construction' or who have a very basic website. I recall looking a few years
back in the Yellow Pages Book and I was amazed at the amount of businesses who
advertise a website but don't have one.

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davidrc
Here a small Hack. You can scrape a local list of new incorporations, and set
up a system to check for them on google. If one don't get results, could be
interested in your services, so contact them. I think it's feasible, to scrape
an official list and a small script that searches google from that list, as
the names of the companies normally appear in the legal sections of web pages.
Regards.

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JSeymourATL
In terms of planning your day: start with the sales task first thing, 2-3
hours focused on selling and developing leads. Think of it as investment time.

Here's a good read on why people buy > [http://www.gitomer.com/Jeffrey-
Gitomer-Little-Red-Book-of-Se...](http://www.gitomer.com/Jeffrey-Gitomer-
Little-Red-Book-of-Selling-pluLRB.html)

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danielhonigman
Go to Google. Search for your favorite companies. See if they have Google
Places pages, Facebook pages or websites. Chances are some of the smaller ones
won't have the latter.

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mattmanser
Buy google ads for " _your town name_ web design" and variants. Or get to the
top seo wise.

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Pikki1
Please email me to: antdom2@gmail.com I could be your first customer.

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priorconsent
Here's what I did. Even before getting an order or making a pitch, I pre-
designed five Chinese restaurant websites. I sourced the images, wrote the
copy and made a sample menu -everything. The websites were beautiful.

Where ever the restaurant's name was supposed to be, I put "YOUR NAME HERE".

After I completely finished the websites (it was a lot of work), I SEO'd them
for local search.

Once all five websites ranked in the top 10, I went and visited every Chinese
restaurant in town with a pitch and printed screenshots of each of the
websites.

I told the owners if they wanted a website, they could choose one of the five.
They were already online, ranking high on Google, and phone calls for orders
like sweet and sour pork were already coming in on my personal line!

Their new website was ready for them to take over, right away. No waiting, no
cognitive dissonance, they could have it same-day. Instant gratification!

I priced the websites cheap too, several hundred bucks. A steal.

Surprisingly, I didn't sell one. Not one. I practically gave one away for a
bubble tea (I was so thirsty from pounding the pavement). Maybe Chinese
restaurants weren't the right market. Should have gone with lawyers.

So I tried to rent the websites for only $25 a month. Their company name would
be on the website as long as they kept up with the monthly payment. I thought
it was a novel idea.

Again, not one order.

Moral of the story? There are two. 1) Wait until you get intent to buy and a
deposit before working on a website and 2) don't put your personal phone
number on a fake Chinese restaurant website unless you want phone calls from
drunk people at one in the morning.

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mrfusion
So what are you doing now? It seems like being able to approach small
businesses is such a valuable skill.

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priorconsent
If you believe in what you're selling, and you are convinced it can help small
businesses, talking to them isn't a problem.

I design social games and write ebooks, among other things.

