WebsiteByTonight

Introduction

WebsiteByTonight is the easiest way to get a simple + professional website built quickly and cost-effectively. We work both directly with clients and with agencies/organizations in a whitelabel capacity.

why + Thought process

There is a massive need for simple websites, but the usual web design process is inefficient, expensive, time-consuming, and risky — definitely overkill for simple websites.

At the time, I was a one-man Squarespace shop. While that was fine and business was good, scalability of a normal services business is hard for a variety of reasons; from creative bandwidth, to price inconsistency, to lack of a specific process.

I also realized that I was turning down many leads that would have been otherwise excellent clients, but their budgets were too small and needs were too simple.

I came up with the process of creating a simple GoogleDoc intake form, and then building websites with clients in real-time via screenshare. Clients agree to do some legwork up-front and understand that they’re not getting a super white-glove process.

I initially created WebsiteByTonight as an offshoot business with a “productized” model to test on prospects that needed something simpler than a more complex custom Squarespace site.

I realized that the real opportunity was with WebsiteByTonight over my normal custom Squarespace site business, so I focused on it fully.

Results

WebsiteByTonight is now a 6-figure business with >50% margins, and I only spend about 5 hours/week on managing it (I have two great designers right now that do the work).

Client reviews have been fantastic. I have found a way to effectively service a widely-ignored market segment (budgets too small + websites too simple).

The business is designed in an extremely lean way with great cashflow. Websites are paid for in-full up-front and designers are paid a flat rate upon successful project completion. The business’s only fixed costs are around $100/mo in software to run operations.

With WebsiteByTonight, I believe I’ve carved out a unique niche with very little competition and extremely clear + predictable unit economics.

I have had some success in creating a whitelabel partner program for agencies who would build multiple sites per month consistently.

After a single quick onboarding call with me, I send them a link where they can spin up a project on-demand without ever having to talk to me. It works flawlessly, and I do believe that if there was a talented salesperson working diligently on recruiting agencies to the program, WebsiteByTonight could become a significantly bigger business.

Skills learned

• Brand creation and positioning

• Creating and consistently delivering an extremely efficient B2B productized service

• Transactional sales (simpler sales in the $1k - $1.5k budget range)

• Hiring and running a remote team

• Creating a value-added-reseller “Partner” program for agency clients who whitelabel our services

• Partner marketing (e.g. webinars and podcasts with affiliate/preferred pricing deals)

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

I’m overall very proud of what I’ve built with this business and the way it functions. I did make a few critical mistakes early on:

• My pricing was too low starting out (started out at $749 / $999, ended up at $899 / $1299).

• I should have been a bit more selective when choosing my first few designers.

• I very consistently hyper-qualify clients and set expectations, seeing as the nature of the service of WebsiteByTonight is kind of unusual (and to make money, it has to operate extremely efficiently). My mistakes have often come when I liked the prospect and I felt like going a bit out of my way to help him/her. I learned long ago to stop doing favors and deviating from a proven process. The prospect is either a perfect fit or not; there’s basically no in-between.