eBusiness Institute

Amish and Avani SME Digital

How To Start A Web Design Business With No Experience

How This Couple Re-Skilled and Replaced Their Income Within 12 Months

Can a total beginner really replace their income by starting a website business?

Especially with no digital skills and no prior web design or SEO experience?

All while working from home… AND… while raising a newborn baby?

That’s exactly what Amish and Avani achieved.

Amish and Avani went from feeling like there was no way out of their bricks and mortar business to retraining with us…

And doing our web design and SEO training course… which lead to them completely changing their careers… AND… successfully replacing their income within 12 months of getting started with the Champions program.

Similar to Eva’s story last week, Amish and Avani learned how to start a web design business with no experience.

And since then, they’ve gone from building and selling websites for $500 each to charging $11,000 for a new website build, while getting their clients amazing results online.

If you’re looking to change careers and start a business that allows you to work from home while raising a new family, click below to check out Amish and Avani’s inspirational story.

Starting a website business allowed Amish and Avani to replace their existing business income in just one year

Liz Raad: Hello, and welcome again. Today I’m really excited to be talking to the winners of our Ultimate Champions Cup award for last year. A big welcome to you, Amish and Avani.

I’m very excited to be talking to you both. You’ve had such an amazing journey over the last year that you’ve been with us.

Do you want to tell us about what motivated you to make a change in your lives? Where were you at and what brought you onto our Champions program?

Amish: We were cruising along with what we were doing in our telecommunication business. But over the last couple of years, I really stopped enjoying what I was doing. I didn’t like how the industry was going. It was getting to me. But when you are in that rut, you can’t see the way out.

The frustration continued to build up, and this feeling kept on persisting with me. I was searching for some answers, so I asked one of our friends, “Can you guide me? This is what I’ve done in the past. What do you think I can do with my skills? Where can I go with my career?”

He told us about Matt and Liz Raad from eBusiness Institute. That’s where the journey began for us.

Like many of our clients, Amish and Avani started with no web design or SEO experience…

Liz: Because you weren’t technical, were you? Did you start with any digital skills?

Amish: No, I’m not very technical at all! Even three months ago, I was working with a new customer on their local business website. They were asking me a few questions, and I was a little bit nervous because I didn’t want them asking me any technical details!

Avani: Yes, I often get asked by Amish in the other room, “What’s the answer to that!?”

Most people start a web design business because they want to the ability to work from anywhere…

Liz: So, Avani, what was your situation at that time?

Avani: For any kind of work that I do, a big consideration for me is based around flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere. That’s because travel has always been big part of my life.

Also, since I moved to Australia, I want to be able to travel back to India whenever I can. And I want to be able to do that without having to think about how to make my income while I’m there.

If I’m not making any money while I’m travelling, then I couldn’t travel for more than three weeks. And those are just not thoughts that I’ve ever been comfortable with. I need to know that all the plans I make in life suit me and my family. I don’t want to be limited because of external work and money factors.

Building websites for clients allowed Amish and Avani to travel whenever they wanted…

Avani: When Amish started the Digital Investors Program, he took me along to the 3 day Digital Investors Summit. By the end of it, Amish said to me, “Should we do the Champions program?” I looked at him and said, “You know what? It’s actually a really good idea!”

Since moving to Australia, I hadn’t really taken up a job that would have been career-defining for me. I also still had my business in India. So, this was ideal for us – we could work together and travel whenever we wanted. It’s flexible, and it’s going to be our workplace.

Amish learned that getting web design clients came down to setting big goals and taking action to make things happen…

Liz: You both make such an awesome team together, and it’s been amazing to see your journey over the last year.

In the beginning, you set some pretty big goals. And it was amazing to see you hit those goals throughout the year. But what was really interesting to me was your action-taking.

Amish, you hadn’t even joined us yet and you were already out there and making things happen!

Amish: I got excited like a kid in a candy store! It was something that we could actually add value to our existing business. I could see that our existing customers could benefit from us building their local business website and ongoing SEO services.

So, even in the first couple of weeks of Champions, I already had three new customers without even looking at the backend of WordPress. It was pretty full-on!

At that point, Avani was panicking a little bit. Matt also called us and said, “Can you slow down a bit? Just take it one step at time.”

Liz: And obviously, you joined us to learn those technical skills. Today, you’re both re-skilled in a totally new industry that you’re really excelling at, which is super exciting to see.

Don’t worry about charging a lot for your first website build — focus instead on delivering a great service

Step #1: Amish’s first step towards How to Replace Your Income was to charge $500 for a local website build…

Liz: You have both focused on the local business strategy because you wanted to replace your income. You wanted fast cashflow, and that’s the easiest way (and fastest way) we’ve seen people do that when we train them.

How did you start your local website design agency? What were your prices that you charged to start with? And then how have you evolved over the last year that have been training with us?

Amish: Our first local business website build was for a local IT company. I think we charged around $500.

Avani: It was just a simple two-page website. He was also new in the business, so he was willing to take the risk with us. And we were willing to take the risk with him. So, it was about $500 at that point in time.

Step #2: As you Grow Your Digital Skills, start building websites for bigger clients

Amish: After our first client, Avani took on a web redesign for a national Telco company who I used to work with.

Avani was a bit skeptical because we were only two months into the Champions program.

Avani: Yes, I remember at the time, we looked at the site and though, “Woah, this is a 20-page website!” But now when I look at it, it was a very simple website because I can break it down really quickly. I think you can’t see it very often.

It takes you seven times to do something when you’re learning. And that’s what happened here. It took me forever because I was also learning on the side. But we did make the client really happy, though!

Liz: And what are the results that you’re getting for those clients?

Avani: For this one, we managed to rank higher than Microsoft for one of Microsoft’s own products!

Liz: It works!

Avani: Yes! And they’re also an ongoing SEO client.

The better results you can deliver, the more you can charge. It’s how Amish and Avani went from charging $500 per website to $11,000 within 12 months…

Amish: And then last month we got a really big client.

Avani: Yes, last month we probably had one of our biggest clients. We’re still a little bit shy sometimes about money. We both notice it, and Amish still undervalues what he provides. So, even now, we’ve charged $11k per website build, which is brilliant.

Liz: Awesome.

Avani: When we were quoting, I was thinking, “Yay! We’re charging $11,000!” But now, when I look back, I’m like, “Oh, I should have charged more.”

Liz: That’s because you guys deliver.

Everything Amish and Avani does for their clients is about getting them results…

Liz: Tell us about some of the results that you’ve got for some of your clients.

Amish: SEO-wise, we’ve done really well. For example, with the Telco client, he’s now ranking in Geelong (Melbourne) for their services in the top page of Google. We also have a lot of tradies who are ranking on the top three search results.

Another example is a client who has a locksmith business. For the term “emergency locksmith”, his business has gone up by close to three times in leads coming in per week. It’s so good to see!

We have lots of other clients who are similar to this (such as a local concreting business). And our aim for these clients is to get them ranking higher than HiPages. They were spending too much time dealing with HiPages leads.

Avani: Yes, and they weren’t making that much money from those leads either.

Amish: That’s right. So, for the concreting business, we recently built his website with a brand-new domain. And now he’s already appearing on page one in Google for the whole of the Northern Beaches Sydney.

So, we’re getting some really great results for our clients. And that’s just a stepping stone for everything that we do. It’s something that we do and it works. It gives us a lot of confidence.

Learning How To Redesign Websites Has Been Life-Changing For Amish and Avani and Their Clients

Liz: Yes, and I remember you saying that this is a big difference between what you previously did for work and what you do now. You’re excited about the results that you can get for people.

Avani: That’s right. Even with a web design (or a website rebuild) we see a difference literally within months of when we start the build and optimize the site. We’re seeing a lot more business coming in for them.

In fact, it’s funny, because one of our clients was saying that since he’s done the web redesign, people land on his website and they actually convert! Versus, they were getting no calls before. Which is really nice to hear.

At least now we know there’s an ease of navigation on the website. When we first looked at it, the navigation was a bit of a mess. We said to him, “Where’s the quote at? Where’s this? Where’s that?”

But we put in all the rules, and now people are converting. They’re sending messages and he’s getting appointment bookings. It’s really nice.

Liz: That’s really exciting. And it’s wonderful to not only be successful in your own lives (and your own business), but also helping other people achieve success in their businesses as well.

Many customers are paying $1000-$2000 for SEO but getting nothing for it…

Amish: Yes, and there’s so many new customers we have that had been paying $1000 – $2000 for SEO, and there’s hardly anything done for their website. So, it’s nice to know that we are actually doing something good and adding value to them. And you don’t feel that you’re ripping someone off.

That was a big win for me. I can see the value in what I’m charging. My first SEO client was $150 a month, and now I don’t charge anything less than $500 a month for SEO, minimum.

Liz: That’s good. And now you’re charging in the thousands for some clients, aren’t you?

Amish: Yes. So, we’ve got a couple of quotes out there now at $2,500 for monthly SEO.

Starting A Website Business
Amish & Avani won the 2021 Ultimate Champions Cup with Matt & Liz Raad

Starting a web design business has given Avani the life she wants as a new mother…

Liz: What has this meant for your lifestyle? Because there was a new little Champion who came into the world this year, too.

Avani: A new little (very active!) baby Champion who’s come into this world. And yes, it’s been really, really good.

I love the fact that we can both be at home and around her. And that we can both take care of her, because we probably are 50-50 with her. There’s literally nothing that Amish doesn’t do, or I don’t do, for the child.

A big thing for me was if we were going to have a baby, dad’s going to be just as involved as I am. I don’t want to be taking the sole responsibility of raising a child, especially without having a family support system.

With this laptop lifestyle (with the work that we do) it’s very good because we can work after-hours, and we can work early mornings. We can still take her to the playground in the middle of the day. We can go out for a coffee and let her chill or play with other kids.

Amish: Yes, a lot of our work happens in the evening. So, we work between 7pm and 1am, because that’s when she sleeps. From the time she wakes up in the morning, it’s all about her.

Liz: That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Avani: This child’s going to grow up saying, “Oh, mum and dad are never working.”

Liz: Well, we had that experience, actually. When we first started taking our little girl to school, after a couple of weeks she said, “Why do I have to go every day? What’s all this about?”

Avani: Oh, yeah.

Liz: You’ll be showing her there are different ways of doing things in the world. Creating online income, choosing your own work-from-home career, and choosing your own working hours…

Avani: 100%.

Why only 50% of Amish & Avani’s Income will come from building websites for clients…

Liz: So, what’s next guys? You’re growing your leading website design agency in Sydney, and I know you’ve also got some portfolio sites on the go.

Amish: In the last 3 months we bought a portfolio site. We initially just let it settle down, and then did a revamp.

This year we want to focus on our portfolio of websites for passive income. And we’ve put a lot of effort into getting it right.

We’ve also been relistening to the last year’s webinars and going through all the content again. So, that’s our focus. And obviously, at the same time, just keep growing the agency.

Avani: We really do see ourselves working in our digital agency in 10 years. Creating passive income is a huge part of it, but we’ve fallen in love with the actual work of the agency.

Their Key Mindset Shifts To Earning Passive Income…

So, we’re now changing our mindset and going, “No, we have to do a 50-50 split.” 50% is passive income, the other 50% is where we’re actively working for it. We expected to achieve this in the next 10 years. But now we think we can do this in the next 5 years.

Who you choose to mentor you can make all the difference between spinning your wheels or reaching your goals…

Liz: Well, we are super excited for you both, and it is so amazing to see your results. When you step back and think about it – to completely re-skill and replace your income within 12 months, that’s just amazing.

So, congratulations again and all the best for the future. And we’re looking forward to seeing you grow your agency and create everything that you want in your life.

Avani: Thank you.

Amish: I just want to add one thing – it wouldn’t have been possible without you, Matt and Liz. It’s the way you break things down, the way you train people, and your support team. It just feels like a big family. So, I’m really, really grateful, from the bottom of my heart, for what you guys do.

Avani: We’re really big on community. Everything else has obviously been incredible, but the community that you’ve created around you has been an absolute joy to be a part of.

Liz: Oh, thank you so much for being part of it. You’re a valued member of the community and you’re always there supporting the other Champions and the other Digital Investor students as well. So, we really appreciate that, too.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I’m sure you’ve inspired a whole lot of other people to get out there and take action and make this happen for themselves as well. So, thank you so much again.

Want to start a web design business? Watch this video.