Find your “Energy Quotient”

A few years ago I was at mastermind for digital agency owners. One of the speakers ran a 200-person agency. Someone asked him how many hours he put in per week. “No more than 30-hours.” Jaws dropped all around the room. Attendees whispered, “Did he just say thirty hours?” Laughter even broke out. He elaborated.…

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How I helped an agency add $50k in revenue in 10-minutes

Are you having cash flow problems? A few weeks before the year ended, one of my program grads emailed me that she was in a bit of a cash flow crunch. Business was overall really good, just a cash slump due to some project deadlines getting pushed and new clients delaying their kickoffs. It happens…

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How Successful Agencies Attract Clients With Budget

When I first started my digital agency, I found there were two types of clients out there: – Those that had terrible budgets – Those that had great budgets In my early years, I got a lot of the terrible ones…. But after pitching over 1,000 deals I cracked the code on why some clients…

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Hiring a Salesperson for Your Web Design Business

For web design businesses looking to grow, hiring a salesperson is a natural first step. Unfortunately, many businesses make hiring decisions without adequately considering the kind of person they need and what is best for their business. Finding a proper balance between the two is key. Luckily, uGurus can help you avoid some of the…

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How Do You Find Good Freelancers To Help You Take On Work?

Whether you’re a freelancer or an agency owner, you’re going to reach a point in your business when you need to outsource work. When this happens, it’s hard to know who to turn for an extra hand. That’s why we reached out to some $10K Graduates to get their thoughts on outsourcing work: where to…

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Breaking Down 5 Common Pricing Strategies

Over the years, we’ve helped hundreds of web professionals build amazing businesses by teaching them to focus on three key components: strategy, sales, and projects. This boils down to one simple concept: “High value work for high pay.” And while these three components serve as the foundational elements of our program, the issue of pricing…

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How to Avoid the Kiss of Death and Land $10,000+ Web Projects

“My nephew can do this for $800.” I call this The Kiss of Death. It’s not your fault that people say it. But it is your fault if you let it define your business. Don’t let our industry fool you. You are not a commodity. Massively competitive labor marketplaces, free content management systems, and cheap…

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Do clients prefer agencies over freelancers?

Labels are important. It’s how we humans categorize things. It’s how we know when you yell to a friend: “There is a bear outside!” That you aren’t talking about an ice cream truck. Which of course if you did think that, something might very well get eaten… but it’s probably you that’s the ice cream.…

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How to compete with DIY web companies like Wix.com

There you are… Sitting with a potential website customer, you’re connecting, getting on the same page, and then out comes: “You seem a bit overpriced. I can get this same thing on Wix for free… what’s the difference? Why should I hire you?” And it’s happened. The hammer has dropped. You start questioning yourself… “Am…

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5 Major Web Design Trends Shaping Websites in 2015

Alina Senderzon, design principal at ZURB, sat down to talk with me about design trends in 2015, how she finds her creative inspiration, and what web design trends she sees out on the horizon. Responsive web design is still the major trend that has carried over from 2014. As multi-device support becomes even more important,…

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How To Get Website Client Leads In My Local Market

Attracting leads is a frustrating and stressful business activity. It’s also time consuming to get the phone to ring, the email box to fill, and the meetings scheduled. I’ve taught thousands of web professionals how to overcome this. My process for lead generation is always the same. WARNING: There is no magic wand, no silver…

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How to Win Clients and Design for Influence

Bryan Zmijewski of ZURB sat down to talk with me about designing for influence and how important it is to not just design artifacts but think about the use and context before creating anything. In this interview, we use the simplest of artifacts, the button, as our point of discussion. Want to see more? Watch…

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Introduction to Zurb’s Progressive Design Process

Bryan Zmijewski of ZURB sat down to talk with me about progressive design and how their simple feedback loop with clients cuts down on work time and ensures they are providing maximum value to the client and target audience. Want to see more? Watch this 90 minute training presentation hosted by uGurus and ZURB to…

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3 Stats Showing Explosive Demand For WordPress

Most of my $10K students have a preferred CMS platform. The most popular by far is WordPress. Clients even demand it sometimes. Here are 3 data points showing how WordPress is dominant: CMS searches in Google, plugin marketplace size, and number of sites running a CMS. If you are a web designer or developer who…

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The Hierarchy of Web Needs

Clients believe they need websites. And you probably believe you need to build them. But I have a dirty little secret: “No one needs a website.” When I learned this secret… it changed the game. I went from selling $2-3,000 projects to $20-30,000 projects. Almost identical work. But my mindset shifted. I learned a basic…

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Why Having One Big Client as a Freelancer Leaves You at Risk

Ever heard the saying, “too much of a good thing can be bad?” Well, I was just chatting with a close freelance front-end designer friend of mine and she needed some help navigating a tough situation. You see, she started freelancing for a company for her normal hourly rate. She was getting paid well and…

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How Orkin Kills Mice Using the Internet

I had a problem. I opened the door to my chicken coop. I caught a glimpse of a tiny dark object scurrying in the shadows… (Yes, I have 3 chickens in my backyard—explaining this will be left to another post.) For a second, I thought it must be my imagination. You know, like the protagonist…

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I’m trying to make people wealthy – Interview with Matthew Gravatt of Radiant Interactive

Matthew Gravatt, Founder and CTO of Radiant Interactive in Boulder, CO, sits down with me to discuss ventures, re-birth, invoicing, and company culture. “You’re smart enough…” “If you find that piece of what you really love…you can turn it into something amazing” Matt founded Radiant in order to bring “rock solid software and digital marketing…

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A Journey Into Higher Value Website Projects, $10,000 at a Time

About six weeks ago I started facilitating a group coaching program called $10K Bootcamp. The program is designed to help web professionals over a ten week span to land their first $10,000 project (or learn to land them more consistently if they already have a couple under their belts). Why $10K? What’s the significance? In…

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Don’t Be Afraid To Make Changes – Interview with Andrew Beckman and Alex Porter of Location3 Media

Andrew Beckman (CEO) and Alex Porter (President) of Location3 Media in Denver, CO discuss starting their company, overcoming growing pains, direct response marketing, social media, and partnerships. Andrew started Location3 Media in 1999 after his time at Doubleclick selling ads on Altavista and wanting to do his own thing. Alex joined shortly after in 2003 after…

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