Date: 10/18/05 (WebDesign)    Keywords: no keywords

I've been doing design for over 11 years since I was a beta tester for Netscape in 1994. In August, 2003 I decided to start my own company up and do it full-time after working for "the man" and taking small jobs here and there.

That was in Madison, WI and did ok... Now I live in Rochester, MN where I moved last week. I've found that there's 2 major design firms here and a handful of small guys that no one knows that well. In the phone book, there's the 2 firms plus 5 others (2 of which have non-working numbers, 2 of which have answering machines without the company name).

Any ideas on what to do to get the ball rolling? I've got little funds for advertising up front, have joined the Chamber and will be meeting with the Dex phone book people in the morning about the new directory that comes out next March. I'm a member of BNI which is a networking referral group that's world-wide in chapter locations and have been a member of that for over 2 years.

Got temp business cards 'til I can get the $150 together for the heavy gloss cardstock cards (wedding is this Saturday and moving costs are killing me). Running the biz out of the house like before and have phone and fax and cell already for this area. Site's been changed with local info.

So... What should I do? I can do the cold-calling thing but don't want to be ambulance chasing 'til i'm blue.

If you want to look at my site, it's www.conxis.com. I'm always open to getting feedback from my peers on the site.

btw - i've shopped the competition. they are charging $90 an hour, and i'm keeping my Madison rate of $75 for here. When I do proposals I figure 3 hours per page on the cost. That works the best in best estimating time on project.

thanks!

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/webdesign/998928.html