$30/hr VA to $6k projects as a Webdesigner - Kenniqua’s story!
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Currently, a VA feeling frustrated by the cap on your income?
Maybe realizing that you're either going to need to work around the clock or start settling for an income level that you're not fully satisfied with?
Many have been in your shoes and today I want to introduce you to someone who faced the same challenge and came out the other side with an incredible solution that allowed her to switch from hourly VA work to being paid per project.
And those project prices range from $5,000 to $6,000 for each client and each one can be done in just a couple weeks. So enjoy this interview with my lovely past student, Kenniqua, who shares just how she did it.
Oh, and before we get started - make sure to grab this!
Can you share with us what exactly was it that you were doing before you became a website designer and what kind of like sparked the idea to do this?
Before I became, I would say, a full-time website designer, I was doing a lot of virtual assistant work. So I was doing inbox management, calendar management, things of that nature, odds and end things like creating social media graphics.
I always have dabbled into or double dabbled into a website design back in 2008, where I was using Vistaprint.
A lot of people don't even know that Vistaprint did websites. But that's how I built my very first website back in 2008. And so I always, and I did it out of necessity of having to have a website on my own.
And then eventually I stumbled across probably in about 2017, 18 or so, I stumbled across Squarespace, Squarespace 7.0.
And I built our business website using Squarespace. And I liked it.
I always had a design aesthetic. So I like designing. That's one of the things that I really like to do. And I like messing around with different systems and tools and things of that nature. And so when I came across Squarespace. I'm like, okay, this is definitely something I could do.
And then there were some different design elements that I was seeing on others' websites. And I'm like, I don't know how to do that. How did they get this to overlap or how did they get this to move and do these different things?
It probably was around then that I came across a blog post of yours.
And I'm like, okay, I need to figure out how to do some of these things that I'm seeing on other people's websites, because I just can't figure it out.
And that's kind of how I went through and stumbled across your course. And I'm like, okay, I need to get into this because I need to know how to do these other things that I've been looking for.
People always want to know timelines and things. If I take a course and I learn how to build websites or whatever, how long does it take until I actually would get a client? What was that like for you?
Probably within the month I was able to go through and get a client.
Because I'm one of those type of people that when I get a course or something, I kind of just go through it. I just binge it. Just so I'll be like, okay, I know that I already know how to do this part, so I'm going to skip this section and then I'm going to go to the sections that I have no clue.
So the layout section, I felt like in the course that really helped me out a lot to kind of take what I knew up a notch. And mostly the clients that I find, even to today, or mostly people from referrals or from family and friends. So me mentioning that I do website design, people will tend to send other people to me as well as creating content. I do have a YouTube channel, (Check out Kenniqua’s channel here) so I go through and I create content, not specifically about websites, but just about business in general, which me mentioning it a lot of times still brings people into my business.
Check out Kenniqua’s awesome websites here too - yup she has 3 of em #businessempire! All gorgeous right?!
Okay, so I love that you have this YouTube channel. I think it's so good and it's such an amazing marketing strategy. Can you tell me do you think people need to have a YouTube channel? How did you decide that that was a marketing strategy that you want to do? How would you advise someone else to sort of make that kind of decision?
I don't think anyone needs to have a YouTube channel specifically, but I do feel that because content marketing is a great way to go through and market your business, whether you're doing Instagram or you're blogging, I feel like content marketing and educating individuals, educating other people is a great way to bring people into your business because you automatically build up that like, know, and trust factor because you're teaching someone something basically for free.
And so when you're teaching someone something, they're like, Oh man, I like her or yeah, I know she knows what she's talking about because she's creating content around whatever thing.
So always kind of when I'm even on YouTube, when I'm telling people about creating content I advise going through and finding one to two different marketing methods and kind of honing in on that.
I'm on Instagram, but I'm not really on Instagram. Like I probably post maybe once twice if you're lucky a week, but I can be on YouTube consistently posting every single week because I found that that's where my people are.
And that works for my lifestyle, I feel like I can consistently post every single week instead of having to worry about posting every single day on Instagram or on Facebook.
So it's really just about honing in where it fits into your own lifestyle.
Definitely content marketing is an important factor to bring people into your business.
What would you say to people who are often thinking, okay, well, Kenniqua was already there and she does amazing websites and so like, why would anyone hire me or whatever? Like is the market too saturated? Are there too many website designers?
I think website design is one of those things where it's enough for everyone. I don't think it's a oversaturated thing.
And I think that when people sometimes come to you for a website, it's not always because they don't know how to do it themselves. Sometimes it's purely because they don't have time to do it. And so they rather just go through and outsource that work to you. So with them knowing you and again, you being the expert in that field, a lot of times people just kind of come to you because they have crossed paths with you somewhere on the internet.
Or again, someone referred you, maybe a past client of yours or maybe a family or friend. They come to you because they know you or know someone who has gotten services from you. So it's definitely enough for everyone.
And the great thing about with website design is that it doesn't take that many clients in order to be able to reach your bottom line, depending on your goal. So you can do a website, three, four or $5,000. If you have two, three clients a month, you know, that is a substantial amount of income for a lot of people that are getting into this, either you're doing a part time or full time.
And not to mention, if you're doing something on top of it, like you're adding in SEO or you're adding in maybe brand design and stuff like that.
So it doesn't take a lot of clients to actually reach your goals.
Do you find our clients mostly booking you for like just website projects or is it like website and like other things, SEO or copywriting or branding or whatever? And what's a typical investment that a client makes with you on average?
So we are actually in a process of doing a rebrand or completely overhauling our website. We're repackaging our pricings and adding in a lot of different things. Because one thing that I've found over the years is that though I do website design, I'm also like a business consultant and system strategist.
And so a lot of times our website clients that come to us, they also want the system strategy behind their business. So they're wanting the CRM system, they're wanting the onboarding of their clients. So they're needing that strategy. So one thing that we're going to be implementing is basically kind of creating this experience where we're doing your front end and your back end.
So I'm hoping that that's going to obviously increase the price. So we are going to be changing our prices over and things of that nature. But I think that is going to create a even greater experience for our clients to kind of make it like a one stop shop.
We don't really do too much of the branding wise. So that would be something that I would definitely outsource as far as branding, like the logos and things of that nature, but definitely the website design and then the process behind the client flow of your business.
Because that's always like the next question that I typically get is like, okay, well, okay, we did the website, but when someone submits a form on my website, I need this to happen or I need that to happen. Then it's like, oh, well, we actually need a whole strategy behind this. So yeah, that's what we're going to be doing.
So I'm hoping to get that price tag to definitely move up from where just doing just a typical websites
You mentioned outsourcing branding. So sometimes people think like, okay, what if I have a client come to me and like, I don't know how to do branding. How do you manage that?
I'll do my best to find someone. I don't have a steady person, like the same person that I use for all branding right now.
Sometimes people will come and they will have their branding altogether, which is one of the things that we do prefer is that people do already have their branding together. Otherwise we will either help them to find someone so we can get the branding assets from them before starting the project.
You've been at this for a while. You've done very, very well. What’s the one bit of advice you’d give yourself for back when you started?
I guess there would probably be between two things. If I were to do it all over again, I would probably try to create more content and really video content.
The second thing would be hiring help. Having someone to be able to help with not just the websites in general, but just the ability to create content. Cause I, like I said before, I really, really think that content marketing is just most of the things that we do in our business, even today, most of our business comes in through content marketing.
And we don't necessarily spend any money on ads or anything. It is all strictly content marketing and of course referrals, but content marketing, I would probably hire help to be able to do that as well.
So have you ever had like a virtual assistant or anything? Or is that something that you're like looking to do or hoping to do in the future to help you with these bits and pieces?
I am. I am looking for, I'm actually looking for two or three people, but kind of in an order. So number one would be a video editor. That would be the first hire. I edit all my videos, and it’s a very time-consuming type of thing. I'm not a video editor. So someone definitely could do a better job than I do.
A social media manager. So I would have a social media manager. Cause then I feel like I could do Instagram a little bit more. Like I have content everywhere. I think on my channel, I have over 200 videos. So I have content places. I just need someone to say, Hey, let's go ahead and chop this up and let's create this carousel. And then we can be a little bit more active on Instagram, which I know that I would get even more business if I were to put out more content.
And then the third person would be the virtual assistant, someone to kind of go in and just do the email management portion of it. Cause that's the part that it's like, okay, I'm not going into inbox again.
My final question for you, do you have any thoughts or advice if someone's on the fence about taking one of the courses, one of my courses, they're thinking about becoming a website designer, are they worth it? Is it useful? Would you do it again? What would you say?
I would definitely do it again. It is very, very, very, very, very useful.
Like I said, I started out knowing a little bit about Squarespace already and found it very useful. So if you're starting from zero, you're definitely going to find it useful because I was already getting some clients with the skills that I already had.
And then just taking Square Secrets™, it elevated because it dotted my I’s and crossed my T's that I, I couldn't figure out watching YouTube videos because some of the things that you share within the course, they're not on YouTube.
And then I feel like if you're going to get into it, you might as well just go the whole way and just get Square Secrets Business™.
That’s what I did. Cause even though I was already booking clients, I'm like, I know there's a better way that I could be doing this and have a clear layout of the marketing, the other marketing techniques I could do having what type of contracts, what type of things should I input?
The process is all of this you actually have laid out. So if you get a Square Secrets™, you might as well get the Bundle with Square Secrets Business™ just to go ahead and put it all all together.
So yeah, I definitely think that it's, it's a hundred percent worth it. It is also a tax write-off!
Such a fabulous story, right?
I know switching from VA to web designer might feel a little bit intimidating, but I do actually have something to help!
