363 - Scaling A Web Design Business (from owner and contractor point of view) with Sandy Burns and Alexis Myers

Many web designers don’t want to scale. I get it - because I had that mindset too. I never wanted to be an agency with overhead, payroll, extra stress from managing people, etc.

But the good news is, especially nowadays, you can scale a web design business your way. In a low-stress, low-pressure way that works for you no matter where your business is in revenue and profitability.

Sandy Burns, a founding member of my community Web Designer Pro is a perfect example of this. She was on the podcast recently sharing her story of passing 10 years in business and how she (reluctantly) HAD to scale because she had become so overwhelmed with projects.

We got to hear from her perspective what it was like to scale and how the timing couldn’t have been more crucial because shortly after she began to scale and reduce her workload, she was diagnosed with cancer and immediately began a journey of chemo and cancer treatment.

That’s one angle of Sandy’s story but another one is the other side of her scaling journey. Who did she hire? What was it like for them as she began to send more work their way and when Sandy was diagnosed, what was it like taking over projects and speaking directly to her clients?

Well for that, I’m excited to introduce you to Alexis. Another founding member of Pro who was on the podcast a ‘little’ while ago when we chatted about her first client experience 🙂

This is a very different podcast chat because we have both Sandy AND Alexis on and we get to dig into both sides, both perspectives of their successful scaling story.

From Sandy, we get to hear the ins and outs of her transformation from proud solopreneur to finally scaling and getting to a point where she’s “never going back to being a freelancer.”

And from Alexis, we get to hear how she got connected with Sandy and how, learning from a web designer who’s further along in the journey, helped her build her own business up fast while also doing design and development work, and even improving systems for Sandy.

We dig into:

• How Sandy and Alexis began working together
• How they began trusting each other
• How they arrange payment and percentages for projects
• How 2 minds on a project is often way better than 1
• How to make a win-win for both owners and contractors when scaling 

A big thanks to BOTH Sandy and Alexis for coming on and sharing their experience from both sides. We can all learn a lot from this one. I mean honestly, how often do you get to hear an owner and a contractor’s point of view in a working relationship?

Head to the show notes to get all links and resources we mentioned along with a full transcription of this episode at joshhall.co/363