How to get your first web design client (Do this today)
You just need one client to start building momentum and feeling less imposter-like about calling yourself a web designer. Follow these three simple steps to get your first web design client.
Getting your first ever web design client can be a super intimidating process. Doing anything significant for the first time is a huge challenge.
So I’m going to make things easier for you and break down a proven method for getting new clients into 3 simple steps.
It involves reaching out to people you already know, and I’m going to share the exact text message that I sent to my friends when I was just starting out, that led to a $4,500 USD client website project.
If you implement what I’m about to share, you might even be able to book a new client within the next few days.
Overview
The method I want to share with you for getting your first client is reaching out to people you already know and asking them if they could introduce you to 2 kinds of people.
Someone who could be a client
Someone might know other people who could be clients
Let’s get into it.
Step 1) Make a list of all the people you could potentially ask for help
Think of this as brainstorming. You know how, during the brainstorming phase of any design project, you focus on getting ideas out of your brain? The point isn’t to analyze, criticize, or defend the ideas.
That is what we are doing here. I prefer using pen and paper, but you could also just open a new Google Doc, Notion page, etc.
We are making a list of all the people you could reach out to.
No one is going to see this list unless you show it to them. So, when you think of a name, try not to hold yourself back from writing it down.
Here are some people categories that might help you get the ball rolling:
Your immediate family
Your extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins)
Friends you see for coffee/drinks/dinner
People from activity groups (e.g. sports, book club, volunteer work)
Classmates from school/college/university
Teachers, professors, or other staff from school/college/university
Co-workers (current and old)
Neighbors (current and old)
Partner’s friends
This might be super easy for you, and you might end up with pages and pages of names. If this is the case for you, awesome. Keep going until you want to stop. Once you hit 40 to 50 names, you can definitely stop.
If this exercise feels uncomfortable or difficult, set a timer for 10 minutes and challenge yourself to just focus on putting down names.
The first time I did this exercise, I was amazed at how long 10 minutes felt — and it pushed me to keep thinking of more and more people in my life.
You might find it helpful to open up Facebook or LinkedIn, wherever you might be able to skim through your existing network. Just try to stay focused on the task instead of getting distracted by the scroll. A friend of mine actually got a new client after just doing this because the client could see that she had viewed their LinkedIn Profile and got in touch with her first, and that conversation led to a paid project. This was obviously a unique situation and unlikely to happen to you, but it is amazing what is possible when you take small action steps.
You’ll know you’ve completed step 1 when you have at least 15 names on your list. I would encourage you to aim for 30 or more.
To put those numbers into context, Dunbar’s number and the associated theory say that each of us can maintain stable, meaningful relationships with about 150 people. I’m not asking for 150, just the first 15 that come to mind. Once you have those names, move on to step 2.
Step 2) Choose 3-5 people in your list to contact
This might be easier if you first eliminate people you know you don’t want to contact:
People you’ve had bad experiences with and don’t want to talk to (even if you’ve had a friendly relationship with them at some point)
People you aren’t particularly interested in or care about
People who you KNOW do not support you or your business
Cross these people out. You do not need them.
Then, circle the names of people you’d rather contact:
People who you’d be happy to hear from, even if it’s been years since you last talked
People you would want to help, and want good things for
People who have been supportive, whether about your web design business or other things you’ve done or wanted to do in the past
And then look at the names that are circled and choose 3-5 people.
If you have lots of circled names, make your life as easy as possible and choose:
People you’ve talked to within the last year or so (even if briefly), and
People you can get in touch with. That means you have a good idea of the best way to reach them, whether over a text, DM, or an old-fashioned phone call, or something else.
You’ll know you’ve completed step 2 when you have 3-5 names of people to contact.
Step 3) Reach out to each of the people you chose
You are going to send a personal message to each person. And that message is going to be different based on your relationship with them, and also the way that you’re going to reach out to them.
So if you are going to text someone, that text message is going to look quite different from an email, for example.
For each message, there are 5 things you need to mention:
You started a web design business and are focused on getting more clients.
You make websites for X (e.g. small businesses)
You’re looking for Y new clients by Z
You want them to introduce you to a potential client or someone who might know potential clients
They can make intros in whatever way is easiest for them
Here’s the DM that I ended up sending to a few of my close friends.
I’m sharing this because I know that it’s so much easier to write your own when you have an example to work with.
I’m happy for you to borrow this exact phrasing, but for this to be effective, you’ll need to tweak and edit it so that it really reflects what you would say, and how you would say it.
You’re leaning on your relationship with this person. That’s unique to the two of you. You know best how to approach this conversation. Depending on your dynamic and preferences, you might actually want to arrange to hop on a phone call or meet them in person.
You’ll know you’ve completed Step 3 once you have sent a personal message to each of the 3-5 people you chose in Step 2.
The ideal outcome
The ideal outcome — the outcome that I was fortunate to have — is that someone replies saying, “That’s so awesome that you’re running your own business! I know someone who is looking for a web designer, I’ll send you both a text.”
Then you can take it from there, and invite the potential client to move on to the next step in your process. For me, that’s a sales call. A sales call is basically a video call where the client and I get to know each other well enough to make a decision about whether to work together. If you want to learn more about how I run my sales calls, check out the link to my Sales Call Script in the description.
Another great outcome is that one your 3-5 people replies saying, “Awesome, I don’t know anyone who’s looking for a website, but my friend so-and-so is really well connected in this space and they might know someone. I’ll send you both a text so you can chat.”
Then you chat with that connector person, and tell them enough about yourself so that they can link you up with potential clients.
If you get stuck on step 3
If you get stuck on Step 3, here are two things that helped me hit send.
First thing:
As a family, my immediate family, we’re not super social. We don’t know a lot of people. And also, any business owner that my parents maybe could have introduced me to would likely have been Korean-speaking, and I knew that I wanted to work in English. So for me, it made more sense to focus on people I knew outside my family.
Which made me think of my friends. But most of my friends are scattered all over the world and we don’t talk very often. I felt this resistance to reaching out because I didn’t want to be that person who gets in touch just because they need something.
What helped me get over this resistance was realizing that if one of them was starting a new business, I’d go out of my way to help my friend out. And I wouldn’t mind if this is what made them reach out after being a little out of touch.
So my question for you is — how would you feel if some of the people on your list reached out to you asking for help? If you would be happy to help them, is it possible that they would be just as happy to help you?
Second thing:
If your upbringing or education was anything like mine, reaching out to people that you know is going to be at least a little bit awkward.
I was trained to get help from people like my professors, employers, senior executives — people in positions of power with very clear and formal roles.
But I never really learned how to get help from people I had close personal relationships with — friends, family members, and people in my community. In implicit and explicit ways, I was taught that the people closest to me could help me achieve professional success.
But one of the biggest lessons I took away from navigating the startup scene, trying to get investments, and from learning to climb the corporate ladder at huge conglomerates is that people at the top, with the most power and the most money — the venture capitalists, angel investors, CEOs and other top executives, and board members — are really good at getting what they want in their work lives through personal connections.
They have people they can rely on to get what they want, whether that’s signing a new client, getting a seat at an important discussion, or getting a new investment opportunity.
In my opinion, getting help from your personal network is a really valuable skill that most of us lack, and this holds us back.
So that was a bit of a tangent, but I hope it gives you a little nudge and some encouragement to practice strengthening your personal relationships and asking for help.
This method may not be for you
Having said all of that, I want to acknowledge that this method might be a good option for everyone.
You might not feel safe reaching out to anyone in your personal network because, as far as you know, they do not support you.
Or, your friends and family might only know people who expect you to work for free because of that personal connection. (I don’t believe in working for free.)
Or, you might have a really clear idea of the kind of businesses that you want to build websites for and know that your network can’t help with that.
If this is you, and you feel comfortable sharing, I’d love it if you could tell me in the comments (under this YouTube video) a little bit about your situation and why this isn’t an option for you. I might be able to help!
Also, I’d like to create more videos to help you get clients as a new web designer using different methods, so let me know if this is something you’d want to watch.
Next steps
I hope that you do try this out. And if after reaching out to your network, you actually get a chance to sign a new client, you might have questions about how much money to charge them.
If this is you, check out this post: How to choose the perfect price (my super simple process)
