Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

My first suggestion is to solve your overwhelm problem. If you can't handle 1 client/week, then you can't scale up. I don't know what you're charging for your website production, but if you can't hire someone to implement your specification for less than you get paid, then you're charging too little for your work.

Do you want to work ON your business or IN your business? If you want to do the hands-on website programming, then you're going to be limited by the number of hours in the week. You can only charge so much for your time.

Hiring others to do the website development makes good sense, especially if your strength is copywriting. Your role would be attracting new clients, writing the proposals, and then passing the development work to another, and reviewing the result. To hire others, you'll want to find people you trust to do the type of work you want. You might find them locally, or on www.rentacoder.com, www.guru.com, or www.elance.com. You'll want to develop a long-term relationship with quality people.

As for your marketing dollars, what type of small business do you want to create websites for? Where are they located? Can you show a ROI for your work? Have you asked for referrals from your satisfied clients? Word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of marketing,

We shouldn't assume what you are charging. You might not be able to hire a full time employee, but you can sub some of the work out. My dauther who is on academic scholarship (smarty) at Alelphi as Finance Major does website design and would love more work. I have suggested to her numerous times to start a "starvilng student" web design. She'd be happier than a clam to be a sub for you. Email me privately, my contact info is on my prodfile.

Carol

If you're unable to do one project a week, I would start there and not spend money marketing.

I'd create a one-page business/marketing plan for your new business.

Go to your states website and learn about getting a business licence, paying taxes, etc. Maybe take some business classes at your local college or SBA.

And figure out if you're pricing your services right and wasting time doing things you can automate.

You ask: where and how do I need to spend my advertising money? The responses above are telling you that this is not the first question you need to answer. Getting one client a week through a website sounds really good, actually. I suggest talking to your customers to find out what their alternatives were (and how much they think they would have cost), how they found you, why they chose you, how they liked what you did for them, and what they anticipate their future needs to be? That way you would start to get a picture of your competition, your strengths, and whether you would ever see them again. Ideally, every time you get a new customer, you build a continuing relationship that will build your business over time. You could also ask your past customers for referrals and testimonial quotes.

If taking business classes isn't an option for you, there's a tremendous wealth of information about how to plan a business and its marketing - in this forum as answers to past questions and elsewhere on the web. It's worth the time to do some reading and thinking about the bigger picture. There are people in this forum whom you could hire to help you, as well.
Good luck.
Marge

There's an old marketing phrase that goes something like: If you live by price, you die by price.

Basically it means if you compete for business with a pricing strategy alone, it will end up biting you in the butt. Something I believe you're already starting to realize.

But yeah, I think the collective here as already hammered that point home.

I agree with the comments before mine. Before spending a dime on Marketing, first think about your business. What is it that is attracting your clients in the first place? What sets you apart from your competitors (USP)? What makes you the better choice? What makes your competition the better choice? And so on.

Best of luck!