In March of 2018, feeling inspired to go down the rabbit hole of what turns local founders off of websites, I ran an ad offering a One-Page Website for $600 TTDS. What I found out, changed the way I presented my services and instigated a new conversation for my industry and the self-employed community locally. But before I get carried away telling the wrong story, let me take you back 7 months prior to August 2017, when the company I was employed with for 5 years prior, closed the doors to my branch on account of a shrinking economy.
In hindsight, things had been mounting to that place for a while, but at the time, I didn’t see it reaching as far as it did. And to add insult to injury, the decision to close the branch was kept within managerial circles right up until the last minute: So I was facing unemployment with no runway to prepare myself. Or, was I?
Many months prior to finally hearing from my boss and the company's director of the branch's closure, I was already preparing for it. I can’t recall the exact day it happened, but I received a message “my time here was coming to an end” in my spirit. Each step I made thereafter (what I was going to do, how to do it, who to seek out) was ordered. So, when my boss made mention of “how calm I was”, and queried how I “found out about the decision to close the branch”, I understood why it felt peculiar…it was.
Another distinction was my lack of fear. It's important to note because I’m like everyone else when it comes to change: It scares me. I value stability, and this was more like that scene in Acts 27 vs. 22 when Paul told the men their ship would be destroyed ⸺ Fear is logical to experience. Except they were also told no life would be lost. And that was my consolation. So much so that I felt eager to take this leap of faith, owning my own business.
Slaving On Other People’s Pyramids.
I can still recall sitting in church the night of receiving news about the branch, hearing my pastor talk about slaving on other people’s pyramids (context for the small business world). What he actually said was “You give all your youth to pharaoh by going out into the job world to work, and when you come to church, you’re so exhausted you can’t even give God praise because you’re sleeping on yourself.” He was challenging us to take the gift God gave us to build our own pyramid so our youth can be given to God.
My conviction was and still is that anything The Lord gives you shouldn’t be pulling you away from Him. And since the bible teaches us to let everything be established in the mouth of 2 and 3 witnesses: 2 Corinthians 13 vs 1, I took that night as confirmation I was in the will of God.
But, as all things spiritual, The Lord doesn’t tell us what we’ll encounter on the journey. And you buy into the lie that ‘it will be a bed of roses’, and I certainly got a rude awakening as it relates to that. Exactly 1 year into starting my business, a 6.9 earthquake wrecked half my house right around ‘banga season’ (as we put it in Trinidad and Tobago).
From Basic To Je Ne Sais Quoi
In the midst of trying to get out of the local sameness grind enough to make the money I needed to repair the damages to my family home, the stress got to me. So, I decided to talk to The One who started me on this journey. Inspired by a story I heard years prior, I used that as the basis for specific expectations I had. Exactly 1 year later, in a matter of minutes, made $8,000.
Clearly I wasn’t selling something considered basic. Approximately 6 months prior to the earthquake, I was running an ad for One-Page Websites (which I didn’t know was an actual market at the time), and while many people were interested, one person actually became a customer. Discouraging, right? Wrong! Following my gut to test the theory about ‘local business owners not caring for websites’, offering The One-Page Website as an alternative, and then doubling down on it is what made me $8000 4 months later with just 3 customers and 2 clients.
I began to understand why local businesses seemingly didn’t care for websites. The opportunity for one wasn’t palatable. Seeing this, many businesses started selling one pagers after, smh. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had someone come with a decoy issue, innocently believing it’s the problem, and because of my revelation with The One-Page, was able to shed light on their real problem and by extension save the effectiveness of the project.
I raised the cost of the project in 2019, and was back and forth between client work and blogging strategically in search of 2 new customers. By February 2020 I had an extra $6000 TTDS to invest in my business with 2 clients, and by October of that year got a new customer for The One-Page. Discouraging, right? Wrong again! I had 2 clients and 1 customer (who were also getting work), in the middle of a pandemic because I focused on a foundational principle, that what you think might be the problem often isn't. Until then, I had only heard of not needing many clients when you’re a small business to make good money. Now, I am experiencing it. The bank offered my business an interest free credit card, the house got fixed, my family was eating off the fruits of my little business, and out of nowhere I got approached by Regus to do a presentation on standing out online ⸺ When I first started my business, my goal was to simply be able to do all the things I could do at my old job. Translation? I felt blessed.
No longer was I going to bed late, or felt nervous about how I was paying my next bill. I had a peace of mind, and I wanted all my clients to have a piece of that in some shape or form.
The Last Year And A Half
So, 2021 I set out to go all in on my blogs by fueling it with the thinking of only my ideal client. Going back to the lesson learned with local business owners and websites, I applied that principle by having simpler conversations in my group to influence the understanding I wanted to see. You’ll be surprised how the dots fall into place for someone because instead of talking about a brand’s voice, you’re asking about the different ways they communicate with their kids when they do something they don’t approve of. Focusing on connecting those dialogues to the blogs I created finally got me 2 customers that year, and it also led me to create a resource for my clients to create content of their own that connects with like-minded people.
Come 2022 I was booked out until May for a variety of creative projects I now called The One-Page Project because of conversations I had in my group in 2021. One piece of content created from those conversations got me my first client outside of Trinidad and Tobago in May, and that job has me booked out the rest of the year.
So focus works. It helps you to sidestep the noise of your own unbelief and other people's approaches that may not be applicable to you enough to give your attention to the things that (if given the opportunity), can transform your situation and your services.
In closing, I ask, where are your ah-ha moments about your target audience? How can you present a more palatable opportunity for your ideal customers to work with you?
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB
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