The credibility that you have built up with existing clients is the place to start in taking it to the next level. They can either be your biggest advocates or critics. Get some good recommendations from them that are compelling, then hit the streets with hiring some contracted sales people. Identify specific niche targets based on the majority of your experience and you will find the larger project will come your way. One last point, make sure your website is complete both from a copy and resource perspective. After doing this for 15 years, there is no magic pill or one that will work so be committed to trying many cost effective options. edit

I like George's response. Build a tribe of raving fans among your existing clients. edit

To increase the fan base you can run campaign like, Refer me Lead, I will pay this much. This is more on referral service or affiliate system. my suggestion is to move with Pay per Conversion to save the initial costs. Large clients already has their own service providers or In-house developers. What you can do is that send few samples to the potential clients suggesting you will develop say the Blog template. In this way small take can lead you a long way.

best luck. edit

I used to be in that business. Actually, I grew my existing business directly from solo web-design.

The first few years I struggled with low-budget projects and then gradually worked up to the 10K range like yourself. After three years I realized that the money wasn't in the design or programming but the maintenance of existing projects. So I upsold post-project services such as hosting and content-management. This earned nice monthly residual fees that boosted the base income.

Gradually I grew tired of wasted quotes and very long hours for little pay and focused services to hosting and technical support. I used my established base of clients to grow.

In the end, the answer to your question is very simple. You MUST network with other LARGER firms. Perhaps even send them referrals. This is how you get noticed fast. After a few referrals you can simply ask them for overflow work. They will be happy to help you because you have established a relationship.

Your business holds the old maxim as true - Its not what you know but who you know. Now, before you defeat yourself by saying 'I don't know anyone' I suggest you do a Google search and pick ten of the larger firms you locate. Then call them up and ask if they offer referal fees. BINGO - you are in.

I did it exactly that way myself between 2004-2008. edit

(I'm the original poster.) Thanks for the good advice, Jonathan. I've been thinking about some of those ideas (upselling hosting, support, etc. to get residual income as well as talking to bigger firms about taking their "small potatoes" clients).

As other web designers (at least the good ones) will understand, web design is very time-intensive and not very profitable, at least compared to something like web hosting, where you spend 15 minutes setting it up, then watch money come in every month. But this thought of shifting focus away from the pure design work got me thinking...

An internal battle I fight is "making enough money" vs. "doing something I like to do". I could potentially build a solid client base for web hosting, site maintenance, and other recurring stuff that brings in more regular monthly income. But the actual work there is more mechanical and non-creative. The web design work, although sometimes frustrating, feels creative and lets me excel at something I do well.

I guess the philosophical question is "how do we strike a good balance between doing what we need to do and doing what we want to do?". I'm very interested in hearing others' opinions on this, especially as it relates to your work in the web design/development industry.

Thanks!




edit

@Jonathan - Thanks for sharing your (I'm sure) hard earned experience. Valuable stuff.
@Scott - You are definitely asking the right question! How do I make a living doing something I'm passionate about? edit

im on the same boat, my passion is computer repairs, but i have all of these kids on craigslist that still live in their parents house claiming to be proffesional computer tech gurus, and im losing business because they are selling their services for pocket change, and i need to make a living. So i dont have competition with skills, but with prices, i cant beat their prices because i do have bills to pay, like morgage, and a car.. when they dont.

so my money comes from web designs, but its not something i love doing, i like to work with the computer hardware and software.. but i have to do this web design if i want to get the bills paid.. i still havnt found a solution to this.. im tired of paying advertising companies and they never deliver crap.


edit

To Scott Brenner, if you're trying to get people to choose your small biz over larger companies, one thing that you can offer to them is customer service. In many cases, larger companies cannot offer the same personalized care that smaller businesses can provide.

-James Leung
Associate at BizSaves
BizSaves.com
Twitter:
@BizSaves
@JimKenLeung
@JohnTorresII
Facebook: http://facebook.com/bizsaves edit

Greetings Folks,

I am revisiting this thread because I have information that may give some deeper insight.

My company is small...well it is small with a huge branded name and national exposure, but essentially small.

My company is a national retailer of networking technologies and consumer electronics. As such, we carry the HP Touchad. As you may know, on Sunday the HP Touchpad became the hottest selling item on the internet after BestBuy began retailing them for $99, discounted from $499.

In short, we received no less than 60,000 unique visits per day for the last few days from viewers seeking to purchase the HP TouchPad.

Of course we did not have availability at that amount, but that didn't stop many media outlets from writing articles saying we did. Many of these articles went viral and the response was enormous to say the least.

So here is where you should ask yourself a few VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS is regards to your first question above.

You asked: How To Take A Solo Web Design Business To The Next Level?

The missing questions and answers you should also be asking is:

1. Am I prepared for larger exposure?
2. Am I prepared logistically to handle more business?
3. Am I technologically prepared to manage more customers?
4. How will I convert potential customers into sales if I do not have a specific service or service rate they desire? - Ergo - Do you have varying services to offer?

The simpler analogy to help understand the above is - many people ask themselves 'How will I create wealth' when the real question should be 'How will I understand what to do with the wealth when I obtain it so as not to lose it'.

In this scenario, your wealth is the potential customers you will earn. Without knowing how you will handle it in detail will cause you to fail before you begin.

Best O luck - sincerely edit