Are you bad at selling yourself? Me too.
Learn from my story...
I started my own web development company after being in the web industry for many years and simply loving the medium. Live and breathe it, and I assume most people running their own business feel pretty much the same about what they do.
So why do I cringe inside when I think about approaching someone for work?
It is to do with just that attitude ... that I am approaching them for work. That I want something from them. It almost feels like I am asking them for a favour!
Well I have just had a big jolt which will hopefully jar me right out of that attitude.
Recently a new restaurant opened up in my local area, and I went there with a few friends to check it out. We loved the atmosphere, the food, the wine, and had a thoroughly wonderful time. As we were leaving, the business owner was wishing us goodnight, and one of my friends whispered to me "Ask them if they have a website". My usual reaction prevailed.
Quite some time later, in the same restaurant, the same friend decided to ask the proprietor herself - pointing at me and saying 'Ursh is an excellent web developer'. I felt my stomach turn and tried not to glare at my friend. 'Thats a shame' she said - 'we have just employed someone to build one for us'. Ok, so I did kick myself and vow that I had to get better at 'getting out there'.
But today I had the final impetus. I was meeting friends at this restaurant for dinner and looked up their Facebook page in order to get the number. I noticed that their website had just been launched, so of course I had to go in and take a look. And wow, at first glance I was impressed. Beautiful graphics and photos which had captured the ambiance of the place. Good for them I thought, and 'let that be a lesson for me' as a side note to myself. Then, I noticed - it was all flash. Bad, bad, bad. This business obviously is interested in marketing itself, having such a successful Facebook page, but none of the content on its site can be read by Google! Every single page was flash. I also noticed a small mistake in a sentence, and realised that this it cannot be edited easily - only through the web developer.
Then I really got it. I am not selling, but rather helping my clients from my area of expertise to have the best website possible. Of course this is what I do, but somehow it gets lost in that sales phobia which I realize I need to exorcise.
I'm positive the web designer they used was working in the best way they knew, but I know that web design (the visual look of the site) is just one part of successful web development, and it is my silence which has resulted in one of my favourite local restaurants having a beautiful but less than functional website - one which can't be easily edited and completely limited for search engine optimization.
We loved the atmosphere, the food, the wine, and had a thoroughly wonderful time. As we were leaving, the business owner was wishing us goodnight, and one of my friends whispered to me "Ask them if they have a website". My usual reaction prevailed.
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