[jppope]

You don't worry about the website. Smart businesses worry about generating revenue, decreasing overhead, improving their image in the eyes of their customers, or reducing risk. Worry about helping a company with those things... you may find out that their "bad" web design doesn't matter in the slightest or in weird cases it might actually be on purpose.

[rident]

Yeah this is a great way to tackle it. Image and branding comes along for the ride. Even if it's your desire - the client's desire is typically going to be functionality, security, usability, accessibility, etc. All of which are a means to an end for a lone wolf designer/engineer. Listen and learn from them about their pain points before promoting your own skills or favorite parts of the industry.

[ksaj]

"Listen and learn from them about their pain points" goes straight to the heart of it. An ugly website might be a normal nothing to them. But one of your related skills might be all they've ever wanted, and you'll only ever know by looking at what they want to solve (versus what you want to pitch to them).

[casper345]

Thanks for that. Listening is key. How do I even approach them to begin with (cold email/call)?

[jppope]

Thats marketing... and there are a lot of ways to skin that cat.

Cold Calling is virtually dead in the traditional sense (for Small-Medium business). Cold Emailing can work, but there's a lot of noise with all the SEO scams that business owners get.

For Marketing, I generally recommend doing something that you are good at that other developer's don't do. Stuff like networking events, public speaking, Business Clubs(Vistage, etc), etc. Indirect approaches work really well too- Partner with a bar for a "business happy hour" and buy everyone's first drink, then literally go business to business (of businesses that have websites you would like to redo) and invite them. A similar sort of a thing, with less personal interaction is to build a website that would directly benefit local businesses and give it to them for free. Targeting is important.

These sorts of things are really only for when you are starting out though (1 year tops). After a year of these sort of gimmicky things you should have built a solid portfolio and should focus your energy on growing your business via your existing clients. They should be ecstatic to give you more business because you took care of them so well.