Frustrations - How hard to get started?

Financial_Savvy

I have a web business concept that I have been working on for 6 months.

I had no idea it would be this hard. I am giving the service away for free, yet I still can't get any customers. It is chicken and egg, because i think once it is established it could be successful.

I can get traffic to the website, but I think people are put off my the lack of business I currently have.

I worked on the concept of 1% of marketing being successful. But I haven't even been this successful.

I enjoy the business development side of things, but I'm not a hard sells person.

Help!

pinkclouds

The chicken and egg thing is true of any job in a new career - whether it's traditional 9-to-5 or freelance/5-to-9. You need the experience to get the job but you can't get the experience without the job. I have no idea how you'll get your first customer but I'm sure you'll be fine once you do. Keep trying and don't get too dispirited! Good luck.

jexygirl

Hi
Without knowing what "service" you are offering, its difficult to come up with ways to help or suggestions of how to get yourself out there.

Again not knowing what it is, could you approach local buisnesses if its that sector, or friends / friends of friends if its more that sector, in order to get a few in your portfolio, or show that you are working on things? People don't need to know its friends... or even potentially made up clients, giving you something to work on, or show how you would do it / what you can do?

People who want / need a specific service tend to look for it and compare prices / value for money, but if its a new concept, they wont be looking, so take it to them, mail shot, show the benefits, perhaps even locally in the form of none web based advertising?

Again this could be totally off the wall, but not knowing the service, as I said, makes it hard to brainstorm it.

GL Jex

Horace

Every business is hard when you first start up - I know someone who has an IT business and he has been in business now for 4 years and I know that for at least the first 12 months he didnt have any customers so he networked and networked and gave the odd thing away for free - he now employs staff and has moved out of his home office into rented office space. With my own business, I will have been in business for 2 years on 28 April and I have only really started getting any paid contracts, I have given time for free and more importantly I have asked people for testimonials (in my own case, I have some new testimonials that I need to add to my website which are more relevant to the business I am doing now and not the business I was doing when I first started out).

I have a website that gets visited and I have added some affiliate links so that the site can make some money for me whilst my computer is switched off, I blog and can honestly say that I don't really sell my services from my website because I do a fair amount of networking and by building relationships with people I am then at the forefront of their minds when they need an event to be organised.

Maybe your problem is that you are 'selling' something for free and therefore people perceive it as having no value.

I have no idea what you are trying to sell so until we have an idea then we can't really advise.