Approaching smaller businesses offering a website?

[CitizenSmif]

Does anyone have any experience with meeting/calling/emailing small businesses offering them a website?

I see huge amounts of smaller/local businesses with terribly designed websites which can be easily outmatched by throwing up just a modified WP install and a nice looking template. My mate showed me a website today that was literally just a Joomla install, a premade template this guy downloaded and a few pages of (provided by the business) text and images. He charged the company £3500 for this and they paid the guy with no issues... That's $5750 :eek7:

Okay, so I'm not aiming to charge that much as I fear people would just burst out laughing at me if I asked for that price but it shows how easy it would be to create better looking sites than alot of the ones I normally see for these types of company's (and requires much less effort..), its also an example how its more about giving the service your own value rather than having to charge a.. fair price.

• What is the best way to approach? email/phone/post/in person
• What would be a decent price to charge for a simple 5 page website? (with optional addons/pages for an added fee)
• Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, how did it go/any advice you can offer?

Thanks

 

[sleepylee]

I provide websites for people that contact me directly. Usually these are small businesses starting up that have heard from a friend of a friend that I helped them out. I don't particularly enjoy building this kind of site, so I usually go with the "WP/Download And Modify Theme/Add Their Content and Images" route.

These sites look fairly average, but they probably work better -- more dynamic content, (almost) WYSIWYG CMS, modules, etc. etc. -- than the business' competitors' sites, so everyone's happy.

I say I don't enjoy doing it, but professionalism means I always make sure the customer is happy (if that's feasible...).

I charge low £XXXX for these sites, and can usually get them done in a day total. Hosting is extra and that goes for mid £XXX per year. These prices will be, and are regularly, undercut by other 'local guys' but since I don't really need the work it's no skin off my nose.

While these prices seem offensively high to us -- and to anyone that knows about these things -- but that's because we know what we're doing. They're paying for your skills; if they had any idea about doing it (or any curiosity about how it's done) then they wouldn't be asking us for help.

This didn't really address your questions. Sorry about that. Just my experience in this area.

 

[papajohn56]

I have experience with this, hit me up on AIM sometime