Do you struggle to find work when it looks as though all the other developers out there are really busy?

Even though I am a particularly busy person – what with maintaining this site and Divi United, managing vendors, helping out with support and getting involved in the Divi Theme Users Facebook Group and, running my own business Somebody’s Hero. Even I, have downtime on client work – so, my best advice if you are suffering from a lack of work is this:

Upsell your current customer base.

Dear Customer, we noticed you are not signed up to our regular maintenance plan. There are many advantages to this and here are just a few:

• Added security – All websites are vulnerable to people that are up to no good – we can add enhanced security, ensure plugins and themes are up to date and make sure that you have a clean back up should the worst happen.
• Getting rid of comment spam – this can slow your website down as comments are stored in your database – everyone loves a fast website so let us do a clean-up of your comment spam.
• Making sure you have a clean back up is essential in this world of hacked websites. 
• Secure Server Certificate – Google and others are now marking sites as insecure if they do not have an SSL certificate, let us put that right for you.

Our service plan includes all this and more and is available to you right now at just $$$ a month. If you would like to sign up now – click here for instant payment and subscription options and we will get the above done in 10 days or less.

Of course, if you do not want to commit to a regular payment plan, I am sure we can quote you a reasonable one off charge to get all this done for you in the most efficient way. 

With all best regards,

YOU!

As you can see, I have put a vague time that the work will be carried out – this is because you may do this work at a time that suits you and not your client and, if you send this out to ten or more customers, the likely hood is that at least 3 will sign up or make further enquiries.

You can use this ‘service’ aspect of your business as a ‘filler’ when you have downtime on regular work, or you can just make it a full-time activity whilst waiting for work to come.

This method of getting service work in allows us as a company to cover ALL our bills – its a great way to make your business sustainable through the slow times and ensures regular communication with your clients. Example: We are now rebuilding two sites for clients we have had for over 4 years – the income on this will pay our rent for the next 6 months! Not bad huh?

Don’t limit yourself to the suggestions I have made, add your own – even offer a redesign at a discounted rate if you really want to.

Good luck in getting regular maintenance work in to your business and enjoy up selling to clients you already know.

Comments as always, are welcome.

Andrew Palmer

Andrew is the founder of Elegant Marketplace.