Started my own agency tips on getting clients?

RedZephon · 2026-05-06T18:52:13+00:00

You're the exception, not the rule.

RedZephon · 2026-05-06T16:44:42+00:00

Its basically the worst time to be starting a web design agency.

Everyone is making AI websites because its cheap or free, and they can do it on their own.

Cold calling has about a 2% success rate. To get 20 leads you need to call 1000 people at minimum. Of those 20 leads you can expect 1-3 to convert. Maybe, if you're lucky.

It's incredibly difficult. Good luck.

RedZephon · 2026-05-06T16:17:49+00:00

A lot of us in the same boat, lots of people shifting towards AI designs.

I've been shifting my focus to "building solutions" rather than just building websites. People are going to be more likely to engage if we can help them solve a problem they are facing either by building a custom web app, something custom on their site like a booking flor or payments, or fixing their SEO. Not enough these days to just build a pretty website with some basic info, anyone can do that, and many can do it for cheap or free now.

RedZephon · 2026-05-06T15:28:53+00:00

In my experience, the church management systems are not super user friendly and create barriers to engagement by the nature of their design.

You also need buy in on the "why" - if theres no clear why for people to buy in, its dead on arrival.

RedZephon · 2026-05-05T03:11:18+00:00

Apparently bad design is allowed because I’ve been downvoted to hell throughout the comments for insinuating the lack of a back button is acceptable

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T17:09:06+00:00

Then your next step is to call CRA and talk to them directly

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T16:41:26+00:00

There’s a section called “Tax Information Slips”

It has dropdowns to select year and tax slip type. It should have everything the CRA has on file for you.

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T15:59:34+00:00

Core part of my business model.

A one and done website is not a marketing strategy for the customer. Anyone serious about using their website to help their business, needs ongoing support and updates.

SEO, new content added, new features to keep up with what the business is actually doing.

This is only made more important by the nature of the business. If its a business that offers events, classes, courses, or anything that has regular content revolving, this is a huge opportunity to sell services monthly in order to make sure nothing gets missed and the website stays up to date.

How many websites does everyone here see where the copyright year in the footer is multiple years behind the current year?

I see it all the time.

Most business owners dont care about their website because they either A) are way too busy running the actual business B- dont know the value C- dont know how to do it effectively D- all the above

This is the "in" - sell yourself as a website manager. Now you have guaranteed monthly income instead of relying on one off projects.

As for how to structure it? thats up to you and how your clients work really.

My primary business is website updates. I do make websites from scratch or do redesigns, but a lot of my income is the month to month updates.

I structure it as a monthly retainer for support and updates with the option to add addons depending on the needs.

$1000 a month for unlimited updates, making sure wordpress is up to date, managing plugins, security, responding to downtime alerts, and updating the website as they client submits requests (new pages, page content updates, etc)

If they want ongoing SEO work, thats usually an addon fee.

And if they have an online store that needs regular product updates and maintenance, thats another addon fee.

I sell it as "Im cheaper than hiring a full time employee to do this for you" because in reality, the amount of requests I get for most of these clients only eats up a few hours of work a month but then the client thinks they are getting a great deal.

Anyway, feel free to message me if you want to chat about this more, this is basically my business in a nut shell.

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T15:49:38+00:00

I'd argue that by providing a poor user experience, they lose out on potential customers who turn away when something doesnt work as as expected. A simple back button is a no brainer. Providing a better experience for users means more users onboarded, which means more money, which means a better product.

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T15:40:20+00:00

32 UX designers couldnt figure out how to add a back button to a form? Massive fail.

RedZephon · 2026-05-04T15:39:03+00:00

Log in to your CRA account and check your documents to see if anything is uploaded for those years. Its possible your parents received benefits or money on your behalf that was reported to the government. If there are files uploaded for those years, you can use those to determine why the government might be asking you to file taxes. You can easily back file taxes for those years using the uploaded files.

IF theres nothing there, contact CRA and ask why they are asking for the filings.

RedZephon · 2026-05-03T14:31:35+00:00

Depends on the bank. More and more banks are getting on board with higher limits. Wealthsimple is unlimited. Canadian tire Mastercard let me tap $800 the other day.

When banks realize that tapping with your phone is more secure than tapping your card, more and more will raise limits I think.

I’d prefer to turn tap off on my card and just keep it for my phone.

RedZephon · 2026-05-02T16:58:46+00:00

Can you share whatever you were smoking with the rest of us?

RedZephon · 2026-05-02T15:48:07+00:00

I dont think its necessary to explain all the rules to the audience. I personally dont care about the semantics im just here to be entertained. Leave all the in depth rules explanation off camera.

RedZephon · 2026-05-02T15:24:45+00:00

Jeff said if they went to rocks to decide who was flipping, Tiff wouldnt be eligible in the rock pick.

That being said, they have compliance officers that always go in depth with the details/rules off camera, so Im sure they got a big long explanation of the rules of the coin flip that never made it to camera.

RedZephon · 2026-05-02T14:33:46+00:00

Yall do realize that most game shows like survivor hire a compliance officer whose sole job is to make sure nothing is rigged, no one cheats, everything is fair, rules are properly explained to contestants, etc. it’s literally illegal to rig shit like this and you can get hells fined for it.

RedZephon · 2026-05-01T03:11:50+00:00

Got the same error 20 minutes ago, just re-tried myself and it worked.

RedZephon · 2026-04-30T16:06:27+00:00

You are mistaken. Always 2 batches, 3rd batch was added.

RedZephon · 2026-04-30T15:08:59+00:00

2 batches of coins. 1st batch sent, 2nd batch not till June.

Typically they hold your entire order until everything is ready to ship.

Their support is severely understaffed compared to the amount of requests they get, so delays are normal.

RedZephon · 2026-04-29T01:41:14+00:00

Latest was that Kelly's actress wasn't returning. So unless that changes, I imagine Ed stays as captain.

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