3 types of business - 3 different websites?

[Dean]

I do the following (besides build money making websites for myself): web design, web marketing and funnel fixing, and computer repair. 2 are somewhat related while the 3rd, computer repair, ain't at all. But I'm not turning my back on repair just yet as I have some really nice clients that need help and it is fairly easy money.

I want to start my business over with a new direction. I had everything lumped into one brand before: BLAH Digital (for example). But I a would really like to start focusing on web business for the future, and I feel like having a website that has both website design and repair on the same page looks suspicious, like jack of all trades, master of none bullshit.

I also read a great article on a redesign of website that mentioned using my personal name to refocus my business, as really, it makes it more personal. So instead of Blah Digital, it would be Phil McCracken Web Design or specifically philmccrackenwebdesign.com. Should the marketing and funnel shit be rolled into that, or another site? Wouldn't it be easier to generate leads and advertise for a specific site (and maybe cheaper with ads being so niche)? Is using my actual name a better idea than some random brand? And yes my clients never ever remembered my brand name, just my smiling, money grubbing, problem solving face.

The web design easily upsells into the marketing and funnel side. The repair never really translates to web design. A domain is a whopping $11 bucks so that isn't an issue.

Anyways, enough for the rambling. This is something that has been eating me alive as I make a transition this year. Thoughts?

 

[Samwise89]

I doubt anyone cares if it's your personal brand or your personal brand with a broader name. I think using your own name is a great way to box yourself in if you want to expand with employees later.

And yes, I'd run a blog, capture emails, capture leads, hard sell on certain pages. All you need to do is look at any agency and they all do the same thing, because it works. Like www.wordagents.com or www.elite-strategies.com for example.

And if you don't care about computer repair beyond the current clients then leave it off. But it's not that far off the mark. For anyone who can't do it themselves, it should seem bundled all under "computer wizard" along with web design.

 

[Dean]

Great advice, Samwise89. I really appreciate your time. And yeah, boxing myself in if I want to expand isn't ideal. Something to chew on for sure. I imagine I will continue to get computer repair work whether I want it or not, so maybe just not advertising it is a good call.

 

[db00]

You could make & brand a name, and add your other business on subdomains

That's what I'm doing atm .
But for Completely different businesses I'm making new domains.

 

[Rosca]

I would suggest hiring a professional designer to get some of your work done. Like content, good design will make or break your site. So make sure you get someone from here, or another great place for design and you'll be fine on the web design aspect!

 

[stackcash]

Thanks for the shoutout @Samwise89.

First off, your service offerings are a little disjointed. There's opportunity to make ungodly amounts of money with any of those services. What you should do is simply double and triple down on what you're best at doing.

If you're making...say... $5,000 a month from web design and $10,000 a month from marketing services...then you should probably only be offering marketing services. The logic here is that you're splitting your time 50/50 between the two services, but if you devoted 100% of your time to marketing services...you'd be making $20,000 a month. So, offering web design, in this example, is actually costing you $5,000 per month.

The way to do this is to go back to the good ol' 80/20 rule and see which specific service is driving the majority of your profits. If it seems that two or more of your services are driving an equal number of profits, then go with the option that will allow you to scale the furthest down the line. There's only so many hours in a day, so you'll need to put yourself in a position to make the most money per hour possible.

Unless your name has a well-known story tied to it - no one is going to care if your site is personally branded or just uses some random brand name that you came up with. The only thing that matters to potential clients is whether or not you do good work and that the value they receive from you is equivalent to the dollar amount you want for those services.

So yeah. Forget about the website design. Focus on a core service you can offer, and then you can go create a website that sells the shit out of that one service.