Posts by Brent Weaver
Phil Lockwood of Creation Chamber Discusses Referrals, Ongoing Support, and Hiring
Phil Lockwood started Creation Chamber in 2001. At one time he built his business up to a 70-person, brick-and-mortar agency. Creation Chamber, today, consists of two full time staff and about a dozen key contractors. Currently, Phil has over 240 recurring clients and manages them all through his virtual agency made up of senior level…
Read MoreWhat Is The Best CRM and Project Management Software to Run Your Web Business
I am asked this question just about every week: “What CRM and Project Management System should I use to manage my web design business?” It’s a good question. The problem is, there is no definitive answer. “The best” will be different for every person and company. Web design, development, and marketing is a detail and…
Read MoreDon Draper Loves Website Content
Most web professionals narrowly focus on design and development. Content is secondary, and to be dealt with after the client provides it. Too many web professionals assume the client is capable and has content covered. But underestimating content is a lethal mistake. Content is a silent killer. Quietly strangling the life from website projects. It…
Read MoreAdobe Create Now Denver: Jason Lavine on Web Video Tools and Trends
Last month I had the opportunity to catch the Adobe Create Now tour while they were in Denver. My third interview was with Jason Lavine, Principal Worldwide Evangelist for Adobe. Jason travels the globe educating users and promoting Creative Cloud, with a focus on video products. (My other interviews of Paul Trani and Terry White…
Read MoreAdobe Create Now Denver: Terry White Interview on Adobe’s Evolution in Design and Web
Last month I had the opportunity to catch the Adobe Create Now tour while they were in Denver. My second interview was with Terry White, Worldwide Design Evangelist for Adobe. Terry currently leads the charge of getting customers excited about Adobe Creative Cloud Products. (My other interview of Paul Trani from the event). Terry showed…
Read MoreAdobe Create Now Denver: Paul Trani Interview About Creative Cloud, Edge Tools, and Web Standards
Last month I had the opportunity to catch the Adobe Create Now tour while they were in Denver. My first interview was with Paul Trani, Senior Worldwide Creative Cloud Evangelist for Adobe. Paul focuses on workflows that empower designers and developers to create amazing interactive content for the web and mobile devices. At the conference,…
Read MoreWhy Great Support Can Lead to Lucrative Web Design Profits
When I first started building websites, I loved starting new projects. New clients, a new industry, new problems to solve: sweet! I would invest a huge amount of creative energy into an eight to twelve week sprint. I also had zero terms in my proposals or contracts about what would happen when the project was…
Read MoreHow to Handle Request for Proposals (RFPs) Like a Champ
Request for proposals, or more popularly called RFPs, have a bad name in the web business. I have fallen victim, on many occasions, to the roulette odds of chasing a BIG, JUICY, SWEET RFP opportunity down a black hole. It’s tough. On one hand, you get this nicely organized, lengthy document full of needs and…
Read MoreWhich is Better: Selling Websites In Person or Over the Phone?
A lot of my sales courses teach how to sell through meetings with your prospects. Namely, multiple meetings (or interactions) over a period of time. I often get this follow-on question or some rendition thereof: “I don’t live in the same city as many of my prospects, can I use your methods to sell over…
Read MorePresident of EffectiveUI Anthony Franco Talks Service, Acquisition, and Great User Experience
Sitting at my desk, I daily drink from an EffectiveUI water bottle I so graciously got at Adobe MAX in 2009. They were a presenting sponsor and won a bunch of awards. No big deal. When it came time to brainstorm companies to interview for our blog…it occurred to me that they are based in…
Read MoreThe Promise of Future Work is Seductive
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some version of this sentence: “If this goes well, we have a ton of work to bring you, so give us a deal on this project.” It’s a negotiation today for the promise of future work. Better expressed with the gambling term, betting on the come.…
Read More3 Reasons Great Design Isn’t Enough to Get Higher Prices
I love great design. My team, over the years, has often given me a hard time because I can tell if a design is off by a single pixel from across the room. I like design to be clean, balanced, and pixel-perfect. We all should. But the reality is that few business owners are design-centric.…
Read MoreHow to Overcome the Dark Side of Cold Calling
Cold calling sucks. But… It’s the only tactic that you can turn on any second of any day and start having conversations with prospective customers. And in the website sales game—conversations lead to business. So how do we wrangle this idea of cold calling, and make it work for us to sell more websites and…
Read MoreHow I Taught A Web Designer to Sell $10k+ Projects
About a year ago, I offered a friend of mine some consulting in exchange for customer research. Essentially I wanted to work with him one-on-one to help him grow his business to see if my strategies and techniques were transferable. In return, he let me use his story in my content and he also wrote…
Read More3 Things to Think About Before Attacking a Niche
I am a big proponent of businesses focusing a lot of energy on developing their ideal customer and, better yet, identifying a clear target market. If you’ve read much of my teachings, you might already be nodding your head. When a web designer or developer tells me they can’t get customers, I always ask, “Who…
Read MoreHow Presentation Skills are Bringing Sexy Back
I don’t pay for cable, and I certainly wasn’t watching the 2013 Teen Choice awards. But, I ran across this clip of Ashton Kutcher giving his acceptance speech and loved how he delivered a powerful message. You may have heard something like this from your dad or grandfather (minus the sexy part) because these are…
Read MoreGary Vaynerchuk on the Future of Social Media for Web Professionals
Everyone has their heroes. Some people love sports and have a couple players that they just love watching. Some people love music and have that favorite band that they will never miss. And for some other people, it might be a favorite author that they pre-order every new book and opt for the autographed version.…
Read MoreStop Looking for the Perfect Client
On recent blogs, all the rage is to tell you to only work with clients that: Let you have creative freedom Never consider asking for out of scope items Always pay their bills on time Set reasonable expectations for deadlines Always promptly send you feedback Never ask for additional changes after a revision round Are…
Read MoreHow to Overcome Low Self Confidence When Selling Websites
There is a big stereotype out there that links selling and the art of sales to self confidence. If I am confident, then I will sell. Why is that? Is confidence and selling web solutions really linked? Kind of. A key factor in whether someone buys from you or not originates from perceived risk. If…
Read MoreLeveraging the LinkedIn Test to Define Your Ideal Customer
My first question to web professionals subscribing to our site is “what is your greatest pain?” While the answers vary, most are similar. The uGurus audience wants what most businesses want: more and better customers. And we should be able to have that. So what is the secret? It’s simple… Get specific. Ideal Customers Have…
Read MoreHow to Charge for Sales Time
Walking out of a prospective customer meeting, I realized that I had just laid out exactly what their online strategy should be over the next twelve months. And I didn’t make a dime off of it. Whether they hire me or not, they’ll be leveraging my knowledge to shape the future of their business. That’s…
Read MoreMike Gellman of SpireMedia Talks 50 Cent, Building eBags, Hiring, Sales, and Partnerships
If you live in Colorado and are in the web business, you know SpireMedia. Mike Gellman is their CEO and Founder. He has been leading innovation at Spire going on 15 years now and the company continues to push the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to web businesses, mobile, and application development.…
Read MoreIs Publishing Web Design Prices On Your Website Right For You?
To list prices, or not to list prices, that is the question. This question came in over Twitter from @themartin. I hear from a lot of web designers who are uncertain about publishing prices on their websites. So before I get into my personal opinion on the matter, I want to preface a bit by…
Read MoreGetting Clients to Follow Up After Sending a Website Proposal
We’ve all been there… You spend hours with a prospective client. Magic is in the air and they say, “can you send us a proposal?” You invest hours into research and document crafting. You draft the email and attach your masterpiece. You read and re-read every sentence, punctuation mark, and the spacing of your paragraphs.…
Read MoreTracy Schloss on Why Word of Mouth, Networking, and Meetups Grow Her Web Design Business
I always enjoy sitting down with other web design entrepreneurs. My latest interview at the uGurus HQ is with another local virtual agency owner, Tracy Schloss, of Schloss Web Services. Brent: I’m Brent Weaver, and you’re watching uGurus, the must-see show to become a more profitable and in-demand web professional. I’m really excited to welcome…
Read MoreTips for Hiring Sales People for Your Web Design Business
I get asked all the time, “How can I hire a salesperson?” My quick answer: “It’s really hard.” But it’s not impossible. I see a lot of web designers try to hire salespeople too early. Or they try to find someone to do everything they do (which is the hardest type of person to find).…
Read MorePaul Irish Gives His Two Cents About Mobile Web Development at Adobe MAX 2013
I was able to corner front-end developer superstar, Paul Irish, while at Adobe MAX a few weeks ago. Paul gives us his insights on creating fast and responsive user interfaces on mobile devices. He also gets into some new features he is working on, including Chrome’s auto-fill features, to make mobile e-commerce a better experience.…
Read MoreWaiting On Content Can Kill a Web Design Project
I’ve been there more times than I would like to admit: the elusive five-yard line of a web project. The point where the only thing you are waiting on is to get the content files so you can copy/paste them into the CMS and cash your final payment check. But there is just one problem……
Read MoreWebsite Design Client Contract Basics (and Template)
Any significant project you produce will most likely be accompanied by a contract. If you don’t have a boilerplate contract, I suggest you take a look at my most recent sample proposal/contract, which is included in our Web Design Sales Kit. I have been hot and cold with contracts over the years. For a while…
Read MoreAndrew Wilkinson Founder of Metalab Takes a Minute for uGurus
His portfolio of work is flawless. The brands he chooses to work with (Google, TED, Disney, CBS, NBC, Puma, Tumblr, MTV, Jawbone, Discover, and TripAdvisor to name a few) are lucky to have him. But, what strikes me as the most surprising thing about Andrew Wilkinson is how humble and honest he is about what…
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