$1.2k/day web design side hustle - actor, Nadine's story
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Mentioned in the Video:
Center Stage Design (Nadine’s incredible web design biz!)
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Before w get started - you won’t wanna miss this…
Have you dreamt of having a super profitable side hustle, which would allow you to significantly increase your take home? All while still working your day job?
Well, that is exactly what my past student Nadine, of Center Stage Design did when she started her web design side hustle.
Now, Nadine's Dream career is as an actress, but she needed a side hustle to work with the unpredictable auditions and gigs that come with acting and also her full-time job.
As you're about to hear in my interview with her, there was a little bit of trial and error to best figure out how to manage her website business around her full-time job.
but now she's found a really good flow that she loves - she's doing $1,200 day rates as a web designer on the side, and she has some gems of advice for others who are looking to run a similar side hustle.
But enough for me, I will let Nadine share the rest of her story!
Oh but first… check out her gorgeous site!
All right, Nadine, can you tell me what you were doing before you became a web designer?
Before I was a website site designer. I'm an actor by training and so I've worked a ton of side day jobs. Along with that, most recently though, and for the past five years, I've worked, as an admin for a software company, which has been a dream job.
So I know a lot of actors, serve or have their own side hustles or things like that. But software companies are really flexible, so, at least in my case, and in most cases I've heard of.
So you're a side hustling. What made you want a side hustle as a website designer?
So it was actually kind of an act of desperation, because my husband got laid off during the pandemic and we were down to one income and I didn't have any money to train in acting, and I was getting pretty depressed and unhappy and, you know, we were just scraping by.
Scraping by isn't fun.
And I built websites on the side for years and I'd seen your course around for years.
So I'd been like stealing stuff off your blog for years, in my own personal designs! And then one day I was like, you know what?
I've always, it's kind of always been like in the back of my mind, maybe, maybe I would try this.
And so after enough months of being like, I need to do something, I was like, I'll give this a try. I bought Square Secrets™, and then I think a week after I bought Square Secrets Business™, I was like, should have bought the bundle, but better late than never!
And uh, and yeah, and I hit the ground running and it was, it was better than I could have ever imagined, which was surprising!
You're not the first actor or dancer to do the courses, we’ve had - a figure skater as well. All who have all done the same thing. Like I need a side hustle on the side of my like passion, which is the thing, which is also something I enjoy and pays well!
Can you talk to me about the kind of timeline for me started the courses to getting your first client, and getting the business set up?
So I started deciding to move into web design in like December. And I emailed a personal branding photographer, asking to do a service swap.
So I fixed up her website and she would give me some photos!
And I also put out to my followers on Instagram that I was gonna give away five one-page websites.
So that was my, like my portfolio starter.
Struggling with your portfolio? Make sure to grab this!
I enrolled in Square Secrets™ in January, February of last year.
So it was really December, January, February was just learning and figuring things out.
And then as soon as I had my website up and I had a portfolio and people saw that I was doing web stuff, I started getting inquiries and emails from people who knew people.
So someone who had done brand photos with a photographer saw me on Instagram because the photographer tagged me and then messaged me and booked a project.
So it was all word of mouth and it's been that way ever since!
It probably took me three months to really get started and then it's been a continual revamp process since then.
I feel like sometimes people think like, oh, I don't know anyone who need, would need a website, but clearly you knew a lot of people who needed a website!
Oh yeah. It's, it's surprising!
I thought I'd have to do way more direct marketing and stuff, but even the stuff that I do, it's all word of mouth still. And good people know good people!
So you did do some free and discounted projects, and then can you talk about picking your pricing and have you evolved your pricing at all since you started?
Yeah. So when I started, I was charging way too little.
Like I’d say I'll revamp this page for a hundred bucks, and it would take me hours and hours.
But I was just learning. So I was okay with that.
My first packages were about 700 Canadian dollars for a one-page website.
And a multi-page site was 1800 Canadian dollars. So like, 1500 US maybe. I'm not great at the conversion. I'm Canadian!
And so that was one of the first things I changed is I stopped billing in Canadian dollars and I moved over to US dollars because most web designers in the industry charging us. And so it's easier to compare apples to apples.
So for my clients, it's, better, and also it's a nice pay bump for me. Not gonna lie!
It's just the industry standard.
So I did that and then I would slowly, raise my prices, $200 every time I book someone. For the first kind of six months, and everyone just kept booking.
So if someone booked, I was like, sweet, I guess I can charge more!
So then I did and it just kept increasing!
So I did that for like six months into the summer.
And then come September is when I finally switched over to us from Canadian. And then I kind did a big package revamp, and I started offering VIP days.
My VIP days started at $800 and now they're $1200 a day!
Interested in VIP days? Check out this training from expert in the subject Sarah Masci*
So does web design work well with something else like on the side?
I think it really depends on what your main job is like, i.e. what your day job is.
So for me, mine's pretty flexible, but I still wanted to keep my web design work outside of business hours for the most part.
At first, I did try and do a one-page website in two weeks and a multi-page site in a month, and so I would just do a couple hours every night chipping away at them, and that was okay.
But it just didn't really work for me because I've realized that I'm kind of more of, an all out design sprint person.
Like it is kind of easier just to sit down for one day and just get it done.
So I was finding myself really overwhelmed with the two-week process. If I didn't have a day job though, it'd be a totally different story.
So I think it depends on what your day job is.
Over the course of, the first year, I realize that it's easier for me just to take a day.
So I do a VIP design day on a Saturday. It's all day and that's it!
I book two of those a month and I'm happy!
But it took me a while to get there, so I recommend people kind of just consider the kind of designer they are, the kind of projects they're gonna do.
For example multi-page sites are a bit longer and you do need a bit more time.
One page sites you can easily do in a day.
And if you have templates and people pick templates, you can do a multi-page site in a weekend maybe, or something like that!
And you can charge a premium for that because, It's a dedicated service that's really fast and that's a premium thing!
So can you talk to me also about the niche that you've chosen. Did you choose the niche right away, or did it kind of develop over time?
I chose it right away. Yeah, so that was the easiest part!
Because I'm an actor, and a creative person myself. I knew that I wanted to help other people cuz creative people aren't always the best at tech.
That's a sad stereotype, but it's very common!
And so I am the opposite of that, I guess, which is strange. I've always adopted technology, you know, I learned Adobe and Final Cut in high school and was in the video production team and stuff like that.
And I do quite a lot of custom CSS on my projects so tech comes easily to me, but it doesn't to my colleagues.
And so it was really easy because I love these creative people. I wanna help them, my niches myself basically.
Uh, and so it was super, super easy and simple for me.
It was nerve-wracking because you do, you're like, oh, but I could just be a web designer for women and you don't really wanna pigeonhole yourself, but it's a hundred percent true with all the advice people give you, is to niche down as much as possible!
Because when you are really specific, you'd be surprised how many people need that very, very specific thing!
Have you found that actors and creatives have enough budget for your services?
I do really wanna offer templates eventually, but that's a whole other project, and working full-time and doing this and being an actor is a lot! But I do wanna kind of target that lower price point too
When I first started, I did a bunch of research and I did a big spreadsheet comparing what all the other web designers and my niche were charging.
AndI kind of tried to price my myself in the middle, upper end of it.
Yeah, so it seems actors I guess do seem to need websites and they'll save up.
And there are also voice actors, picture editors. directors etc. They all need a website with their portfolios.
Pst… peep one of Nadine’s client projects below!
What inspired you to take the courses? You could have DIYed it and slapped it together yourself?
I absolutely, could have watched hundred YouTube videos!
I could have bought some Udemy courses, I could have whatever, but …
I saw how much I could fast-track things and I was like, if I book two clients, in the next three months, instead of taking three to six months to learn everything and figure it out and fall down and get back up again!
I just knew that investing in the course was worth it in terms of my sanity and time of getting running, and it did it literally
within two months, I had made back all my money.
So it's pretty crazy! I've learned! I buy a lot of courses now. That is something I invest a lot of money in. And it's always worth it. And it's like you can get a course on Udemy, but I'd rather get a course that's really tailored and really custom and really specific to what I'm looking to do.
So you hit a very exciting financial goal last year. $17,000 as a side hustle is incredible side hustle money! So first, congratulations! And second, do you have a financial goal for this coming year?
So my goal for 2023 is $35,000 a little over double last year!
Can you share with me how many hours do you tend to work on this?
So I track my time with a tracking app because I was getting so busy. I was losing my mind!
I was like, okay, I need to actually time block and separate everything out. So I can look this up really quick and see what the average amount of time I spend is!
So last month I spent a total of 20 hours and 53 minutes of that time.
One hour was admin time
Three hours was design time on a page update;
Eight hours was on a VIP design day;
Three hours was on client support and post wrap-up things;
One hour was some tweaks on a project that I'd done back in December that needed some more updates;
Three hours was operations and tweaking because I was doing a big Dubsado push and revamp - I was moving my documents from Google Drive into Dubsado.
So now my content gathering, my images and all that are forms and dosa that send automatic update reminders to clients, which is cool.
I started doing template creation. I did an hour and a half of that, but I find that really hard.
So I'm probably gonna go take a course on template creation!
Also looking for a course on template creation?
And then I did an hour of training and learning, and so that would've been doing the Dubsado courses to, to kinda tweak stuff.
So that was how I roughly broke down my 21 hours of work last month!
Eight hours of that was a design day, so, yeah it’s good!
I'll mention though, that I'm not doing much marketing and so ideally I would probably have at least an hour to two hours, maybe even three if I could swing it of marketing, cuz that's something I don't do right now.
And I think that would have a pretty big effect on my booking rate and inquiries, so like Instagram and. Making tutorial videos or something like that. I just haven't had the time. But yeah, so that would be, but still 25 hours in a month. That's really, really doable!
You started very recently - have you found that the market is saturated?
I did start very recently! If you see an opening in a niche that needs to be served, others are seeing that too and need that!
So give it a try!
And as for something being oversaturated, if there’s lots of people that just shows there's a market demand for it!
So your market's already proven! If you find someone else who's doing your niche, that's market validation.
So even if you're stepping in and you're, like, “look at, also look at the designers who are super established, like, look how much they're charging”.
You can have the same niche and just undercut them a little bit and build your skills until you can charge those crazy $3,000 day rates, right?
Like you're not starting on the top of Mount Everest, you're starting just at the beginning!
And if you take a course, then you're starting a base camp.
If you went back to like beginner, Nadine day one, is there anything you're gonna be like, do this differently? What would your advice be?
My advice to myself would be to take a course on whatever CRM you're gonna do.
So like go through, go through Square Secrets™, go through Squarespace Business™, then go and actually sit down for a week, a month, whatever it is with Dubsado or HoneyBook.
Go through all their training and really set yourself up so you’re systems are polished and automated and good to go!
Because I can't tell you how much time I wasted rewriting emails, tweaking forms, going back and trying to find something, trying to track where a project was, at what point, like so much time because half of running a business is the admin side of it and just managing the project, not even just the design or the fun creative part!
So the more that you can automate that, and have that set up and good to go the better.
I personally think it's worth taking a month or two to not pay yourself and not take any clients and just really, really put your time into that. That's something I didn't do at all.
I was booking, but I hadn't fully flushed out my process yet.
And it was something you learn with time as well, you know!
Every designer's process is gonna be different.
So you do kinda have to be a bit kind with yourself and expect to go through some kind of growth periods and make mistakes and just tell them and learn from them and move on.
What advice would you give to someone considering offering web design as a side hustle?
I think it's mainly the time consideration, like thinking about when you can fit it into your schedule reasonably, because it is, you know, it's a bit draining!
Like a VIP day - I can't do those every day. I definitely need a bit of time off cuz there's some prep work, there's all the guidance beforehand, there's a strategy call. I do my strategy calls a day before so that I can kind of ruminate and give them any last-minute feedback if there's something they need to tweak or update before we kind of get going.
So just really consider your schedule.
What's ideal for you and, then give it a shot and then try it and it might not work!
For example I thought a one-page website in two weeks. Awesome. Easy. I'll just do like an hour or two every night!
And it, that can work like that really can if you're dedicated and you're organized and, and you try that and it works, great. Do it! But for me, it, it didn't work.
I tried it a few times and I'm so glad I switched over to VIP days.
What would you say to someone who is on the fence about taking one of the courses right now and they're not quite sure, having been through them yourself, what would you say?
Well, for me, they're totally worth it because I was just ready at that place to get as much as I could outta them and hit the ground running and go!
If someone's on the fence I would say look at your finances and see if it's something that you can afford or that you can reasonably imagine paying off in the next six months once you start your side hustle.
Cause a business is an investment!
There's so many investments like it, it does take money to make money, unfortunately.
You're gonna need a website and a CRM or CMS of some kind, like HoneyBook or Dubsado and training. So if you've never done this. You're gonna either need to learn it on your own by watching endless YouTube videos or invest in some training.
And that can be a hard pill to swallow cuz it's not a small amount of money!
But if you're willing to put in the work. To, to really learn and grow. It's totally worth it, in my opinion!
Have you had any, or have you made any exciting, like purchases or things for yourself since you've been making such great money on the side?
I bought so many acting things I like, I got new headshots.
I coach at a really amazing studio here in town.
I bought a fancy MacBook Pro laptop!
So the financial freedom to do the things I love to do without having to worry about the money has been life changing!
Fabulous. Right?
I am sooo thrilled for Nadine!
But if you're thinking, well, okay, that's great for Nadine, but I don't have a clue about the first step to becoming a website designer, then fear not.
And instead, watch this video
Where I will explain step by step, exactly what I would do if I had to start all over again building a web design business from scratch!
