Web Design Business with Josh Hall

Having a ton of maintenance plan clients is awesome - especially for the recurring revenue. But with ongoing support clients come with ongoing support requests. Managing this with a dozen or so clients is pretty easy. And as we all know – not all clients ping you every month with requests. But once you get to 30, 40, 50, 100 + maintenance plan clients, you’ve got to have a system for support. That’s why I’m pumped to share this chat I had with Phil Storey, founder and CEO of Glow. This one is interesting because, not only did Phil have some solid advice for handling support requests but it was also a chance for me to learn more about his platform. I’ve been using ManageWP since 2016 and while it’s still my preferred tool for managing multiple WordPress sites, you can’t link in non-WordPress sites and there’s no native support ticketing system. That’s one of the big value-props of Glow as you can add non-WP sites and their big differentiator in the market is the native support ticketing system. We dig into all of that and more! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/378 Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏 17hats (for proposals, invoicing, contracts and automation) SiteGround (for website hosting) Termageddon (for auto-updating privacy po

Subscriber-only episode Do you remember your first year in business as a web designer? Are you there now? One thing is common for all of us in the first year…it’s a rollercoaster of highs and lows, ups and downs, incredible days and perhaps dreadful days. But if you can survive that first year, chances are you’re going to make it. I’m so excited to bring onto the podcast Megan Fletcher who just crossed her first year official year in business and at the same time, had her biggest revenue month to date pulling in over 8k! She’s now got her sights set on a 6-figure business and has an incredible foundation to get there in year 2. In this chat, she shares all her lessons learned (both good and bad) from the first year of her business and most importantly, how she weathered a couple storms and got through the tough times. As a member of my community Web Designer Pro, I have to say these success stories are some of my favorites because I often see all the challenges, hardships and coach members when they’re in the thick of it…but I know there’s always a brighter future right ahead if they just stick with it!! And that’s exactly what Megan has done. Enjoy! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/377 Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏 17hats (for proposals, invoicing, contracts and automation) SiteGround (for website hosting) Termageddon (for auto-updating privacy po

Jump into Web Designer Pro™ for your first month at 50% off with code APRIL50 at webdesignerpro.com. This special offer expires at the end of April 2025, so don't miss your chance to access all courses and join our thriving community! In this Q&A session, we dive deep into what's working right now in the web design industry, answering listener questions on topics from SEO to networking strategies, CRM systems, and leveraging AI effectively in your business. • SEO fundamentals remain largely unchanged despite AI advancements with core principles of good structure and quality content still driving results • Local networking is most effective when you focus on accessing others' networks rather than directly selling to group members • CRM systems like 17hats can dramatically improve workflow efficiency through automation of proposals, contracts and client onboarding • Adding quarterly strategy calls to maintenance plans can generate significant additional revenue while strengthening client relationships • White label services require consistent value demonstration in communities rather than simply asking for work • AI is most effectively used beyond just site building – leverage it for business development, finding networking opportunities, and streamlining operations • The most successful designers focus on helping clients grow their businesses with websites as a tool rather than just delivering websites • Raising your rates regularly is essential for business sustainability, especially as your skills and results improve Watch the full replay here Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏 17hats (for proposals, invoicing, contracts and automation) SiteGround (for website hosting) Termageddon (for auto-updating privacy po

Josh here popping in with a special bonus episode on my thoughts on Ai for web designers. This was taken from a recent panel discussion about Ai on the Small Business Sweet Spot podcast. For the full episode and to hear other opinions on the good and bad of Ai for small businesses in 2025, check it out at: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/7ByyAcRHME1WiPNvrt0dqz?si=7c07b8e44dfe4673 Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-it-or-friend-it-ai-use-for-the-solopreneur-ep57/id1728291369?i=1000704431752 Blog Post https://compassdigitalstrategies.com/podcast/fight-it-or-friend-it-ai-use-for-the-solopreneur-ep57/ Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏 17hats (for proposals, invoicing, contracts and automation) SiteGround (for website hosting) Termageddon (for auto-updating privacy po

Web designers do a lot more than just web design… It’s not uncommon for us to be graphic and brand designers, photographers, strategists, copywriters, etc… So, should we call ourselves more than just a web designer? Award winning branding and design studio founder Jacob Cass, who’s worked with Disney, Nintendo and Jerry Seinfeld, has done it all and has some invaluable experience and perspective to share when it comes to how web designers can position themselves nowadays. One of the many things I learned from talking with Jacob is – if you position yourself in a way that’s right for you, you’ll watch your revenue climb, you’ll attract better clients and enjoy your work more. Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/376 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

There’s nothing better than talking to a web designer who’s enjoying their work, loving their clients, making good money and who’s just all around thriving. And that’s why I’m pumped to share this recent convo I had with Kristin Adkins of Crash Design Co who’s found a suite niche by becoming the trusted “web designer for speakers” Kristin was on the podcast (ep 143) when she had just gone full time and I thought it was a good time to catch up because now, 5 years later, she’s grown her business, nailed her niche and continues to love every minute of it. A lot of web designers get burned out, take too much on or have goals that lead to stress and growth pains but Kristin’s done it right by building a business around her lifestyle goals and mid-west pace. This was a hard one to title because we get into everything from: And so much more. But it’s all the things that have led to her having an amazing first 5 years so that’s what we get into in this one. P.S. Wouldn’t it be cool to see her website launch pack examples and process? Kristin will be doing a special guest training inside Web Designer Pro™ this summer so jump on in to connect with her! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/375 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

I'm doing a first for my business in 2025...sharing quarterly recaps and income reports! In this first-ever quarterly income report, we'll get into how we achieved $115,655 in revenue with over $88,000 in profit while building Web Designer Pro to $346,459 in annual recurring revenue. Highlights include: • Moving course sales pages from joshhallco to webdesignerprocom, including transferring all course reviews using Senja • Launching Web Designer HQ, a centralized directory for all SOP templates, email scripts, and resources • Creating audio versions of three courses available as private podcast feeds for Pro members • Introducing Brock, an AI agent for Web Designer Pro that helps members find resources and get coaching • Planning course revamps for DNS and SEO courses plus developing a new model site • Celebrating nearly selling out the first Web Designer Pro conference with 36 out of 40 tickets sold • Breaking down revenue streams: $85,000 from Web Designer Pro memberships, $15,000 from sponsorships, $8,186 from affiliate income • Maintaining a lean business model with just $27,600 in quarterly expenses, including team costs and taxes I definitely challenge you to look at your own business numbers quarterly, even if you don't share them publicly. Take time to celebrate your wins and analyze what's working and what's not! - Josh 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

The social media video and reel game is a hard one to play (and win) when it comes to landing clients. Every platform is beyond saturated, the competition is only growing and unless you’re getting quality leads fairly quick, it can be difficult to stick with. But as Roberto Blake has recently been quoted in saying: ”While there may be saturation in a market, there’s not a saturation of “quality.” This could not be more timely for you if you’re wanting to market your web design business with videos and reels. And there may be no better example of this than my guest in this chat, Blaze Smith Blaze, who at a very young age, started getting clients immediately through Instagram and TikTok reels. Many of them with big brand CEO’s, founders and marketing directors. We get into his process from planning, to recording, to the proven strategies and blueprints he follows for all his videos which have not only brought in quality leads, but have also built up his social media following to tens of thousands in a matter of months. If you’re wondering how to stand out and get clients with reels, here ya go. Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/374 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

Ok web designer – tell me if this sounds familiar… You sign on a new client for a website project! But then, they send you their atrocious logo… Now what? This is a very common challenge for web designers but there is a solution! Repeat guest and branding expert Jamie Starcevich has really dialed in a nifty solution for this situation which is, in short, to offer a “Light Branding Package.” In this chat, we get into all the details of how to offer it, what constraints to put on it, how much to charge for it and more! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/373 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

Broc (named “Broccoli” by my daughter Annie) is our new Ai assistant in Web Designer Pro™ and it's available now as a part of your membership to Pro! It'll help you find lessons, resources, posts, threads, members, past calls, etc. It pulls from strictly from Web Designer Pro™ source material so everything you’re getting is straight from Pro. And apart from using it to help you find resources, you can use it as your own “Josh Ai Coach” to ask it any questions about pricing, offers, scaling, etc! Join at WebDesignerPro.com to get instant access to Broc! Available on the Community and Coaching Tiers. P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, you can upgrade here 🤖 Broc (the WDP™ bot) is live! Our new Ai assistance will help you find anything in Pro and even give you coaching based off Pro courses and source material. Available now on the community and coaching levels of Pro! Join today 👉 webdesignerpro.com and give Broc a go! P.S. If you're on the Courses Tier, upgrade here to get instant access to Broc!

They say business is like a roller coaster…ups and downs and highs and lows…and “they” couldn’t be more right. My guest in this chat, friend of the podcast, king of the Subscription Web Design model and founding member of Web Designer Pro Steve Schramm can also confirm. Recently, he shared a thoughtful, transparent and inspirational post in Pro about how he rebounded from a tough situation when he had over 6k+ in MRR drop within one week. At the same time, he also landed one of his biggest contracts to date…the emotional highs and lows of entrepreneurship truly are comical sometimes. But most importantly, we get into exactly WHAT he did when he had the week of 6k down and HOW he began to rebound quickly. Enjoy. Enjoy this chat and enjoy the ride of being a web design entrepreneur baby! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/372 When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

My wife and I recently celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary 🎉 Here are 10 lessons I've learned in balancing marriage and entreprenership. To get my upcoming newsletter entry diving into these in more detail, sign up for my weekly email here When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

Web designers often have similar dreams… Build a sustainable, freedom-based, lifestyle business. Build a healthy, awesome client base. Grow Monthly Recurring Revenue month after month. Do it all while enjoying the journey. My guest in this podcast episode has achieved all of this and more which is why I’m excited to share my conversation with Web Designer Pro™ member Cami MacNamara who’s been a professional WordPress web designer since 2002 and has grown her maintenance plan to over 200 sites! We dive into mainly how she sells her maintenance plan and the automations she has in place to continue to run it at that level still as a happy solopreneur. We also get into how she has built her client base, gets referrals and her views on WordPress and where it is in the market today versus when she started using it over two decades ago. Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/371 When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

If you’re nervous, anxious, jittery or just plain distraught before sales calls or meetings…you’re not alone. I honestly can’t believe this isn’t talked about more. After all – you pour your heart and soul into building awesome websites and refining your craft but in order to get paid for that hard work…you gotta sell! Luckily, there are many things you can do to build confidence and calm before a sales meeting. And that’s what we’re diving into today. I’m pumped to be joined by voiceover professional John Melley who – if you’ve listened to Pat Flynn’s “Smart Passive Income” podcast – you already know…he’s the guy who’s intro’d Pat and done his fun facts for years. Needless to say, I’ve been listening to John in this form for years. Always wondering…”Is that his real voice?” You’ll find that out in this wide-ranging convo about: And a whole lot more. P.S. Be sure to check out his book The Voiceover Athlete (don’t worry, it’s for web designers too!) Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/370 When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

Trusting your gut…it usually pays off, maybe not on the books, but personally. But following your intuition is not always easy. Especially if sales are down, confidence is low, etc. You may have no idea where your intuition is leading you. So to help with this topic, I’m here to share my recent convo with business coach and mentor Alyssa Williamson who has some SOLID advice and principles for leading your business through intuition and following what works for you. As someone who faced burnout and learned the dangers of NOT following her intuition, Alyssa is a real-world example of how to live this first hand. Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/369 When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

Listen to my full interview with Chris Do (ep 368) When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

I teased about this recently on my social media and got a HUGE response which tells me…you’re pumped to see Chris Do on The Web Design Business Podcast and I’m pumped to share our full conversation with you! Chris is known for helping web designers charge their worth, price value over time, get higher-paying clients, how to negotiate during a sales call and how to price for the life you want to live and somehow, we covered all of that and more in our very fast hour together. Enjoy the full convo and head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/368 P.S. Did you know? Web Designer Pro members got early access to this conversation, completely unedited – it’s just another reason to join WDP as you get access to the private Pro Podcast feed no matter what tier you’re on! Become a member today at webdesignerpro.com Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/368

This was a recent live guest expert training held in my community Web Designer Pro™. To get all the resources mentioned, along with the links, slides and access to the extended Q&A session, you can get it as a member of Pro! In this training, Shannon Mattern covers how to offer paid discovery and more specifically, how and when to add it into your sales calls. If you’re interested in getting paid before you get paid, getting paid for your ideas and/or having a clear separation between free consult calls vs paid discovery/strategy sessions…this one is for you. If you’d like more guidance, scripts and a more “handheld” approach to offering paid discovery, Shannon has a full Paid Discovery Mastery Course! Normally $500, only $297 for members of Pro AND for a limited time, you can get this same discount even if you're not yet a member of Pro! Use code coupon code PAIDDISCOVERYPRO at checkout. When you join Web Designer Pro™ (on any tier) you'll get instant access to the new private audio course feeds for: Join Web Designer Pro™ and enjoy instant access to these courses in audio format along with the full courses inside Pro!

As a web designer, you may eventually get to a point (or maybe you’re there now) where you want to connect, support and continue to empower your clients in one place. One way to do that is by offering a customer membership or community. It’s a great way to build MRR, stay top of mind, create powerful customer relationships, partnerships, etc. I get it, as a web designer, you didn’t sign up to be a community builder BUT you might be sitting on a golden opportunity here so to dive into this subject, I’m excited to share a conversation I had with Carol Dunlop – a Web Designer Pro member and entrepreneur of over 30 years, recently on her podcast! While she interviews me in this one about online community building and about how to reignite HER customer marketing membership, everything we discuss can be implemented by you if you’re considering having a customer membership of your own. We dive into: And much more. Big thanks for letting me repurpose this chat with you and to Carol for having me on her show! Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/367

Ever wondered how to have time to market your business while still having time to get design projects done? Well, there’s no magic formula and striking the balance between the two is tricky. But a great example of someone doing this well is my dude from down under, word-class logo designer James Barnard. James follows a simple 50/50 approach. Meaning 50% of his work is dedicated to marketing (social media, videos, speaking, interviews) and 50% is dedicated to service work (proposals, calls, logo designs, admin work, etc) It was awesome catching up with James to dig into this topic more which – speaking of 50% – is actually only 50% of this conversation. This turns into a coaching call about halfway through as we dig into James’ lead funnel and we pinpointed some very interesting challenges that I helped walk him through. I hope everything we covered together helps you and your lead funnel/bad-fit weeding out processes as well. P.S. I recently posted about the website audit I did for James following this call that you can check out here! It’ll be a great next step after hearing our convo. Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/366