Earning That First 10k With Your Website

Earning my first 10K online took a looooonng time. And look back I see that there were things I did great, and things that weren’t so great. In this article today we’re going to be talking about how I made first 10K and how you can make your first 10K too!

Let’s first talk about some mistake I learned from:

Crunching the numbers.

I knew I wanted my website to replace my full-time job paycheck. But, for some reason, I never sat down to figure out how I was going to reach that number. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a webinar by Jereshia Hawk that I was able to solidify a solid plan for how much I was going to make, how much I needed to make per month and exactly how much to charge my clients in order to make that monthly goal. This information helped me to strategically determine my income and not waver on my prices. I go into more detail about how to price your services in another article.

Not making it clear what I do, what I offer, and how much it cost.

I literally cringe every time I think about all the money I left on the table because people just didn’t get what I did. I can’t count how many times people asked me for my portfolio (of which I never had) and how many times I kept changing my prices from client to client because I didn’t have a set standard price. Because I wasn’t clear I was leaving the door wide open for my clients to dictate the price, dictate the project schedule and dictate the terms which often times made the entire project miserable to work on. AND I was barely making 50 cents per hour at the rate I was going.

Not encouraging people to sign up for my email list (or having a list in general).

I still struggle with the whole email thing every now and then, so if you’re struggling here too I feel your pain. You see having this list is essential to have a list of potential clients who may be ready to hire you when the timing is right. I know not everyone was going to buy from me right away, but where I made the mistake was thinking that eventually they’d come back and look me up. SMH. Wrong! I learned that to earn that first 10K you have to be proactive or people will straight up forget about you. Or even worse, they’ll stumble upon someone else who has the same service and hire them instead of you. By encouraging people to sign up for my email list I was able to keep in touch with them and let them know when I was open for booking or running a special promotion. Without this list, I was literally at the mercy of referrals. Always have a list of potential people who will need what you offer.

Literally asking for the sale. 

For the last several years I worked for a sales training company developing lessons on everything from negotiation to building rapport, to closing a deal. And yet, I had never actually applied any of these skills to my personal business. I kept telling myself I wasn’t a sales person. Sales people are pushy and only out to get your money, then they leave you. And sometimes you aren’t even happy with what you bought. I didn’t want to be that person. So I never directly asked people to book with me. Merely suggested they reach out to me with more questions.

You see the problem here right? You can’t make money if you don’t ask for it. Asking your audience “would you like to buy?” is the key question I needed to be answered. If the answer was yes, then I was closer to my goal. But if it was no, then I knew it wasn’t the right fit (at least for the time).

Putting it all together

So let’s go through how to make your first 10K based all the lesson I mention above.

Let’s say you’re selling a high ticket item at $3500. (Side note: You may be thinking who the heck is spending that kind of money on a service. Well, everyday time people spend that much on web design service, wedding planning services, one on one coaching, masterminds, retreats and even online courses. So if you fall into one of these categories sometimes it is very possible to sell a product at $3500.) This would mean you only need to book 3 clients to earn your initial 10K. Three! Not 50 or 100 or 300. Just 3 people. When I realized that all I needed to do was focus my attention on booking three clients, it was much more manageable and to attain than having to book several clients at a lower price point (which would also mean a stressful time managing multiple projects at the same time.)  

Here’s a chart of how many clients you’d need based on selling a high ticket item:

What to Charge	Clients Your need
5000	2
4500	2
4000	3
3500	3
3000	4
2500	4

The key thing learned here is the less we charge, the more work we have to put in to get clients.

The next key was displaying this on the website. In most cases, I presented my client with one fee and 3 options to pay for the service. This was a game changer. Because most people cannot afford to drop down thousands of dollars all at once. But they can afford to make payments over time.

Side note: A lot of people talk about clients not paying or skipping out on payments. Here’s the thing, if you’re not properly screening your clients before you start working with them you will run into these problems. I also find that when you provide extraordinary service, go above and beyond what you’ve offered, then on-time payments are never an issue because your client is happy. A happy client is a paying client.

Another option is presenting three different price points with the middle one being that one that you’re looking for most people to purchase. You may have heard of this tactic, called the rule of threes. When people are presented with three option (low-middle-high) they then to go for the choice in the middle because “it’s just right”- not too many bells and whistles, and but they also don’t feel like they’re missing something essential.

Next step is setting up a way for people to sign up for your email list as soon as they hit your pricing page. This is where you include a pop-up with an incentive (like a free checklist, ebook, etc.). This way, if they are not ready to buy now, at least you’ve asked to keep in touch with them and make an offer at a later time when they’re ready.

Finally, that call to action button needs to be clear as day. Ask them for the sale. Ask. Them. For. The. Sale! Closed mouths do not get fed. You have to say something otherwise, that potential client will not bother to think about it. Asking forces them to respond with some type of answer.

Handling those annoying rejections

This is also a good point to stop and talk about those rejections that are bound to happen on the way to 10K. Let’s say you’ve done everything right (calculated your price, you attracted the right audience, presented three options…etc.) and they still say no. I’m one of those people who struggled with the no. And often, I immediately responded with a price drop just to get the work. when I heard no, I believed that maybe my price was too high only to find out another designer was priced much higher than me for less work. I also didn’t believe I would find another client in time to hit my goal or that my business would fail if I couldn’t manage to take on clients regardless of price.

Needless to say I have learned a few things about rejections:

1. No is almost always, “not right now”. I find that for whatever reason, sometimes people just aren’t able to work with you at that specific point in time. But later on, they come to you ready to work. So while they might say no today, always keep in touch because they may be willing to work with you tomorrow
2. Ask for the reasons behind the no. Sometimes it’ll be for something that can be addressed. For example, I often reject high ticket price items because I don’t have the entire amount in my account o pay upfront, but given a payment plan, I would definitely be able to pay. As is the case with most of my clients. Your client may also think that maybe they’re not going to get their money back, in which case, this is the perfect opportunity for you to explain how they will get a return on their investment after they’ve worked with you (i.e more clients, or higher salary).
3. If you’re going to drop your prices, then you need to take some deliverables off the table. For example, when people came to me with low budgets I would offer just logo and brand design but not the full-service website which included social media images too. The point is, don’t give a potential client the same amount of service that you would for a client of would be able to pay full price. If they can’t afford the full service, then they should only receive a part of the service.

So now is the time to make some moves. I want you to make a list of 10 people who may need your service, and then I want you to reach out to each one of them with a link to your service page, with the goal of getting 3 of them to say yes. Let us know in the comments how many if any yeses you got.