Playing Solo

Growing a business is hard. And if you are doing it alone, it is doubly so… I am not preaching, I am no guru – this is based on my own experiences that I am talking about.

I am trying to grow a web design, email & direct marketing business from scratch. Didn’t have any clients when I started. It was very difficult to convince my first client to give me his business. It still is… with every new client. People seem to be so guarded and cautious about their money. I feel that they have’nt heard that time is money. They’d wait for many weeks and months before deciding to get themselves a $500 website.

For me, this time and effort seemed like a waste. After all, if you have to visit a client 4-5 times to get their 500 dollar biz, it is really worth it? What about my own time… isn’t it money?

But I guess I still need to feed my family. So hard cash is what matters. Not the time spent day in and day out trying to woo the clients.

All this is what makes it hard… getting a prospect in the first place, and then keep presenting to them the benefits of your solution. They know the benefits most of the time, or else they won’t spend time with me. But they can’t make up their minds to plonk down a deposit to get the work started at the earliest. I don’t know how long it takes to gain their trust.

For me, I haven’t done such kind of sales in my previous job, and it comes as quite hard to get clients in the first place.

I am curious to know how you grow your business. Do you face similar issues? Did you have a rough and tough time getting your first few orders?

Do post your experiences, raves, rants, anything to share with fellow beings, the ordeal of growing your business..