277 – How has your year gone so far? Let’s do a 6 month review

Josh: 1:09
Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host, josh Hall, helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love. Hey, friends, just me here with you in this one, in this episode. I just wanted to take a few minutes to have a shorty solo episode with you for a couple reasons. Number one I am actually on vacation this week with my family, a much needed and, I feel, well deserved little time away with my family after a whole lot of work here over the past few months with revamping the business course and just got done doing an early bird sale Now the official launch sales, on which you can still find more out about when you go to joshallcobiz B-I-Z.

But in honor of that, I didn’t want to do an interview this week, because usually I connect with my guest after an interview, let them know their episode is live and we go back and forth and I try to stay active on the socials to promote them. But I’m going to be pretty off the grid this week at the time of this coming out. So what I wanted to do in this episode is share something we’re doing in Web Designer Pro right now that I recommend you do if you have not done it already, and that is a six month review. Now we’re in the beginning of August here at the time of this is coming out, so you should have time. You should have have plenty of time over the past month or so to get the books halfway through the year. At least review your numbers overall, and they don’t need to be down to the penny.

But I do recommend getting a feel for what came in this year and look back at what worked, maybe what didn’t work and, more importantly, what to do the rest of this year to make sure that the back half of 2023 is way better than the first half. If you are in the boat where you just did not have the best first half of the year, the good news is I have found that the back half of years are always the bigger months for a Web Design as a whole, because what I’ve found is a lot of clients, when they get done with summer vacations and kids being out of school and everything else, they ramp up big time, usually in September.

So September the way how timely that this is coming out, because you can really ramp up for September, october and November. We all know there’s usually a pretty big dip in December because holidays are coming up new year and everything else. But September, october, november, my friends, it’s go time and I want you to make the most out of the rest of 2023, to make it even better. So that’s my encouragement for you, as I give you some tips on reflecting after the first six months and looking at your numbers, and I’m going to give you some tactile things that we’ve done in pro was, with some of my members, to make sure we come up with a plan to be able to market better, to make sure our services are right and to make sure you enjoy the rest of the year too, because I think it’s super fun.

And the other thing I was going to say when it comes to the back half of the year, one thing to remember is that a lot of customers are going to want to spend their marketing budgets by the end of the year for their taxes Really really big, important point. So let me say that again, if anyone who’s multi task and it didn’t hear that a lot of businesses will spend their marketing budget by the end of the year, especially if they have a surf plus for any of my office fans out there. They will spend that money by the end of the year. I think it’s another reason why the last few months of the year are always the hot ones. So, like I’ve always found, like spring time is good too, but I’ve always found September, October, november to be the big ones, and there’s all those reasons combined make that big.

So let’s start out with the past six months, the first half of the year. My question to you obviously we’re not having a one on one dialogue about this, but my question to you is how is it gone? And I did this with my all of my members and web designer pro. I sent a mass DM to every member in pro. It’s actually one cool new circle. Feature Circle is the platform that I run web designer pro on and it was really cool because now I can, they have it. It’s called a workflow and you can. It’s kind of like Zapier meets email, like it’s kind of an automation through through the whole platform, but I could message every member at once or do it by segments or category or however I wanted to segment it, and I was able to just ask every member hey, how was the year one to 10? Give me a rating and I. The responses that I got were amazing.

So if you’re, if you’re listening to this in your in pro, I just want to say thank you for sharing with me how the year has gone and what’s worked for you, but what maybe hasn’t worked so well that we’ve probably already had a conversation on. And what was really cool about this is it gave a lot of people a chance to have a proactive approach for the rest of the year. So for you, I want you from one to 10, right your year so far, and since we’re past July, maybe you could even look at July’s numbers and say, okay, seven months in, how are we from one to 10? One, you need some help, we need to. We’re going to fix some stuff immediately. 10 you should be coaching me. That’s the spectrum there. So a lot of members in pro were all quite all over, which is really interesting.

Now, one thing I’ve noticed for the people who are five and under. I’m gonna give you advice for that. And then I wanna give you some advice for the people who are like seven, eights and nines, because I had a lot of pro members who have had amazing years and there was some commonalities between what they did. So let’s start with the like five or under. Let’s say, your year is like you’re at a five and not great, but not terrible. Like you know, you may have to live, but we got some work to do. One thing I noticed is that a lot of people who fit that category I’m just speaking of what I’ve learned here recently talking with members in pro as a lot of those folks were not as focused on marketing as they were in kind of reactionary work or, in some cases, working on their business systems.

Now, that is a very, very important thing and, of course, I just launched my business course, which is all about working on your business. But I do wanna say just remember, if you are working on the business and you’re doing things like refining your systems, your processes, your SOPs and everything else, you cannot stop marketing and you cannot start turning off your sales tool. So just remember, when you’re doing that kind of work, you still have to clear one day out of the week or at some point sometime during the week to be able to sell. In whatever manner you sell, whether it’s on social media or in groups or a networking group, or one of the best hidden tips on selling is to just reach out to your current clients and your past clients, because they will buy again from you and more from you.

So do all those things occasionally Now there are seasons in your business where you’re gonna need to sell and market more. I’m actually in that boat right now. It’s funny because, as I’m saying this, I’m really coaching myself on this, because the first half of this year was largely working on my stuff and my numbers have been down not drastically, but there’s been a big dip in the numbers and honestly, I have no one to blame but myself. I could certainly say like people aren’t buying courses like they used to. But as I look back at this, I realize and I would encourage you to that you’ve got to take ownership of your numbers. And what I realized is like I have not sold enough this year. I have not marketed enough.

A lot of my work so far in this year was revamping and building Web Designer Pro from what was formerly called the Web Design Club. We made it pro out of the courses completely new experience. I did so much work with the onboarding processes and I’m refining it. I’ve really been refining pro and I haven’t been doing many member pushes or member drives. But that’s gonna change and I also, as I mentioned in the beginning, took like three months building my business course from the ground up again. I revamped every lesson, did all new texts, I took a lot of the core that was there but made it completely new and refreshed. And, yeah, it’s a whole different beast of so much better of a course.

But I wasn’t selling much during the past three months, which is why my numbers have been down. But what I’m doing now is what I would encourage you to do if your numbers are down, and that is to switch gears. I, as Mike McAllowitz told me when I interviewed him on the podcast back in episode 250, he said sometimes you get into a point in your business where you got to sell, baby sell, and that’s where I am right now. So you will see me, I’m not gonna be annoying about it, but I am not gonna be shy in saying what I offer and how it’s helping people, because and I would encourage you with this too if you don’t like selling, because I don’t like selling, but the reality is the world needs us. I’m hoping every web designer who mice courses are a good fit for, knows what I offer, sees the result they can get because they are proven and they join in some manner.

They join a course or they come into Web Designer Pro. That’s my goal. So for you, don’t be shy to share with the world. Shout from the digital mountaintop that you have an amazing web design service and you can help businesses grow, because there’s a lot of businesses who are not growing because they’re not working with you. And they may not be working with you because you just haven’t told anybody or you’re just not visible enough. And again, whatever way you prefer to market in the business course, I share all different styles of marketing. Every possible way you can find a lead and it’s up to you to choose. That’s the beauty about nowadays introverts, extroverts, people who like in person stuff, people who like online stuff, whatever it is. You got to get out there and you have to market if you are in a situation where you want to go from a five to like a seven or eight.

So that’s my big challenge for you. When I was talking to people on Pro who fit the five or below range, it was a lot of that and some of it was expected too. Like a lot of people, a lot of members told me yeah, I got, I was a five, but it was because I was going through some courses and building my processes, but now I’m ready to ramp up, which is beautiful. That’s how things will turn around. So that’s my big encouragement If you’re a five or below. Now, if you are a five or above and things have gone pretty well, my big encouragement for you is to double down on what’s working and there may be a time where you do sit back while you have a big old pipeline of clients and you can work on your SOPs and systems.

But I would also say, try to capitalize on the few months ahead that are really busy typically to be able to give you a nice cushion and nice bankroll for December into the new year, which are typically two of the lowest months in web design In my experience. In my experience makes sense with holidays and Christmas and New Year and I should say I’m sorry, despite going on vacation here, I actually picked up a cold excuse me right before we were leaving. So perfect timing on the cold front. Thank you very much. Probably overworked myself on launching the business course, but again, it’s seasonally. That’s why I plan to get the business course done, launch it. Take a little break with the family, and then I will be hitting it hard when we come back mid August.

So, if things are working well, double down, my friend, double down on what is working. If you had one email campaign to current clients and it worked really well, double down on that. If your packages are going really well and they’re converting, it’s probably time to raise your rates, particularly if you are getting ready to delegate or hire at all or do some subcontracting. Whatever is working, though, don’t stop doing it. So it’s funny I’m in a mastermind group that meets every month with a good buddy of mine, jason Grasia of Swift Sites, and he’s kind of basically like a business coach sounding board for me, and we were talking about just my numbers dipping a little bit, and I told him it wasn’t expected, but I was looking at what I did this year and I have focused a lot the marketing I have done. I didn’t measure the results or the data soon enough. I didn’t. I just kind of let it go for a while and I kind of knew like some of the things I was doing wasn’t working.

For example, reels haven’t really been the best thing for me. I’m still active on socials. But one thing I realized is I’m like I built my this whole brand off of YouTube and this podcast has been the other big key. Social media is just not my like. I am just I’m not great at social media. I don’t even love social media, but I found myself spending way more time on social media the first half of the year than I was doing at all on YouTube. So you probably guess what I’m going to do. I’m going to switch my focus for the back half of this year to getting back to tutorials, reviewing tools, sharing processes, a lot of the business processes and things I’ve learned in the way of conversions on websites on my YouTube channel. And I’m still going to stay strong with the podcast because this is the other big discoverability platform and nurturing platform for me.

Side note, those are the two forms of marketing. I covered this a few episodes back and choosing your marketing channel. You want to have one for discovery, for new people, to find you new leads, and then one for nurturing people who are in your pipeline but maybe aren’t clients yet, but you can continue to communicate with them. Those would be podcast listeners, youtube followers, people in your networking group, people who are involved with the partnerships that you’re a part of could be your social media followers, whatever it looks like, discovery and networking. But before I digress and before I get off topic, if things are working well, don’t abandon them. Double down on them. Also, it’s a good reminder to look at your sales pages and your website. Is it updated? Are you showcasing student results? For about four months I’ve been kind of like half-assed working on a student success page, but I haven’t got it live and I looked at it and I was like you know what? I have to put myself in a new person’s shoes who is just exposed to my brand today.

What are they gonna see? They’re gonna see some really good testimonials, but some of them are outdated now and there’s no success stories page which I teach. Everyone have a success stories page and I’m basically like coaching myself Everything I’m relaying to my students. That’s working well. I’m like circling background and applying it to my business. So I’m working on my student success stories page, which you’ll see live here by the end of August Excuse me, man, terrible timing for this cold. So if it’s working well, double down on it. Tweak your services pages. Make them even better. Refine your website. Make sure everything is up to date, and go harder on what’s working, especially if you’re doing any sort of marketing that you like, like if you have an email list, even if it’s 60 people, but those 60 people are clients who are continuing to buy from you. Serve them better.

Don’t worry about getting as many new leads right now. If you wanna take a few months to circle back around with current leads or current clients and just remember you can always do this seasonally you can do a marketing strategy for two to three months and then switch it out, go somewhere else. It’s a little bit different for me with this podcast. This is something that I don’t turn on and off. I keep on going with the podcast, but I can do this with my YouTube channel. I could have a few months where I go ham and do a ton of videos or do enough to where I have a bank role, and even if I did one a month, I’d be way better than posting note tutorials, which I’m doing right now. Shame on me and you’re gonna see less.

Honestly, you’ll just see less reels my social media. I’m gonna take a more nurturing, just casual, just kind of fun approach, but we’re not gonna be investing as much in, like the interview snippets or the reels, just because, as cool as I think they are, they’re just not converting to numbers. They’re not converting to sales as much as I do when I do a podcast or YouTube video or have a different type of resource. So that’s what I’m doing and that’s what I recommend for you as you look back at your numbers. If you are below a five, a five or below, things are just not a great year. Good news you have a whole back half of the year that you can turn things around and often you don’t need to do that much. It can make a huge impact for those of you who are a five and above and things are going really good through the half, halfway through the year. Double down on it. Whatever is working. Double down on it.

Think about your best jobs of the year. How did you get those jobs? Whatever channel it was. If it was a networking group, go to that networking group religiously. If it was a type of social media posts that you did that attracted some people, do that again. If you hosted a webinar and it landed a bunch of clients, host another webinar. Do what works. Six year review I love bi-annual reviews because three months is good. I love doing a quarterly review, but you could try something out for three months and then maybe it’ll take three months to really get going. That’s kind of the approach I have with my social media stuff. I was like, let’s try it out for a few months, few months in, like it was a little bit of growth, a little bit of sales, but it wasn’t the night and day, but I was like, let’s keep it going. And then, six months in, I realized, okay, we’re doing some stuff that is just it’s not paying off literally.

So we got to change it up and that’s what I would encourage you to do as well. Either way, double down. Let’s, my friends, finish off 2023 either way with an incredible end of the year. The world needs you. I’ve said this a lot to members and pros, specifically those who are maybe branching out of their comfort zone and don’t like selling and marketing, just like me, join the club. The beauty is, we don’t need to be that used, sweaty car salesman. The world needs you. You have an amazing service, you are amazing and the world needs you. Again, I had to keep on saying it, but somebody needs you and they’re not paying you because you haven’t offered it or you’re not in front of them. So get in front of them.

All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed this shorty episode. I was gonna say I’m gonna get back to the beach. I’m not recording this on the beach. I’m recording this couple of days before we leave for the beach. I’m excited, though, to get back and to make the most of the rest of the summer and into the fall here in 2023. I really feel, for anyone who’s had a not so great year, now is an amazing time to turn things around, but you have got to take a proactive approach. If you stay in reactionary mode, guess what’s gonna happen? Nothing’s gonna change, but if you’re proactive, a lot can change very quickly, very, very quickly and I’m saying this from my experience and some pros who have done things that I recommend, and immediately, with their pricing, with their packages, with their marketing efforts, and within a couple of weeks, they’ve landed three, four $5,000 jobs. Same can happen for you Proactive approach.

Right now, my business course version 2.0, the launch sale is still on. I did have an early bird special with some additional bonuses, but if you happen to miss that good news, the launch sale excuse me is still going on through August. So go to joshallcobizbiz. You can still claim a discount and some goodies for the launch sale to the business course. You can also get that inside of Web Designer Pro when you join us in Pro. For that, just go to joshallcobizbizbiz. Well, I will coach you directly amazing community and you get access to all my courses. I told you I’m gonna be, you know, a little more visible with my marketing and telling you what I offer. So that’s what I have for you. All my courses stand alone. You can just choose one and go through it DIY approach or you can join us on Web Designer Pro. Get it all community and a personal coaching line with me. I would love to help you make sure we have a five and above for the end of the year, in 2023. So hope to see you in my courses or Pro. And until next time, friends, keep on going. The world needs you. See you in the next episode.