We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Esh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started off working the nonprofit industry for about five years. I was very idealistic coming out of college and wanting to change the world but after quite a few jobs, found myself a little bit disillusioned and feeling like despite my high ideals, I didn’t really have practical, marketable skills that could tangibly help organizations.

Around that time I had a kid and started to feel like the 9-to-5 office job thing wasn’t such a good fit anymore. I hated having to commute downtown and not get home until 6pm, and hardly have time with my son before he went to bed.

I wanted something that would be more flexible and work remotely. I had some friends at the time who were self-taught coders and who encouraged me to start dabbling in some online courses. I started learning code during my lunch breaks and evenings after the kid was in bed, and eventually started building a few free sites for friends.

I was hoping to line up enough clients to feel confident quitting my job, but I couldn’t tap into my professional network while still employed (i.e. my employer didn’t know I was plodding a career switch).

Eventually I decided to take the plunge and opened my business. I put in my resignation and a week later found out that my wife who was a full-time grad student was pregnant with our second child. It definitely raised the stakes. Little by little projects came in and by the end of the year I matched my last (very low nonprofit) salary.

I ended up working with a lot of the same sort of nonprofits and mission-driven small businesses that I was interested in working for previously, but this new venture allowed me to provide a valuable service, get paid well (eventually), and set my own schedule.

My significant experience with nonprofits allowed me to really understand nonprofits and provide a high-quality service. While I was still building my technical skills, this nontraditional background differentiated me enough to make me compelling to clients. I also found so much more energy for my work when working with organizations and business I legitimately cared about.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a web designer and WordPress developer that works primarily with nonprofits and mission-driven small businesses. I spent the first five years of my career in the nonprofit industry before learning web design and opening my business seven years ago.

I currently have a team of three. We provide web design, web development, support, and copywriting to our clients.

Our tag line is “We help outstanding organizations stand out.” In other words, we help people who are already doing important work to better tell their stories online and more effectively connect with their audiences.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Many clients have commented that I’m a good listener. My sales process is focused on listening to the client and learning about their big-picture goals and understanding what makes them uniquely valuable in the market.

Too many web developers want to jump straight into the technical details. They don’t take the time to really dig into the “why” behind a client’s seemingly straightforward request, nor do they leave the client feeling understood.

The most effective sales pitch I’ve learned isn’t a sales pitch. I just ask a handful of open-ended questions about their goals, audience, and industry, then simply repeat back what I hear them saying.

Then my proposals are simply an attempt to rephrase the client’s needs in my own words. I avoid talking about software, servers, templates, etc. unless they specifically ask. I primarily focus on understanding where a client want to go, then see it as my job to make a plan to get there.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

“Be professional.”

When I started out, I had a lot of imposter syndrome. I was self-taught in web development in my mid/late-20s and spent my first couple years in business with this nagging worry that at some point I’d be outed as “not a real web developer.”

I compensated by trying to be as professional as possible. I tried to emulate what I saw my peers in the industry doing. I was working from home (back before it was the norm) and juggling childcare throughout the workday. I tried to keep my personal life out of view and act how I assumed web professionals are supposed to act.

Gradually I realized that being overly professional is bland and boring. It’s forgettable and doesn’t leave much room for genuine connection. As I started to become comfortable being myself in client meetings, they usually reciprocated and were authentic and personable with me. We asked about each others weekends, shared parenting woes, and complimented each others dogs.

Business is all about relationships. I just cannot emphasize enough how important building trusting relationships in your professional and personal networks can be to being a business owner. When I switched from the nonprofit industry to web design, it seemed like a complete restart in my career. But I can trace back so many of my clients to relationships I built during those first years, and then relationships that I built off of those relationships in the years since.

And how being a helpful person—as opposed to someone fixated on making a sale—can paradoxically lead to many, many sales (plus friends along the way!). Clients become friends and friends become clients. I’ve had so many people go out of their way to refer me to potential clients and other opportunities.

My friends and professional network is the most important asset I have. I don’t have any idea what the web design/development industry will look like in 10 years. But having this deep network of connections makes me feel confident that the next pivot or career shift won’t be starting from scratch.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spaciousphilly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spaciousphilly/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisesh/