You need three things before you take money: technical competence, a portfolio, and a repeatable sales process. Technical competence means you can build a fast, mobile-responsive WordPress site using a modern page builder like Elementor, Bricks, or Oxygen, handle basic SEO setup (meta tags, schema, XML sitemaps), and troubleshoot common issues like plugin conflicts or caching problems. This takes 40-80 hours of focused practice if you already know basic HTML and CSS. Build 3-5 portfolio sites before charging anyone. Offer free or deeply discounted sites to local nonprofits, trades businesses, or friends who need a web presence. Focus on different industries so you can show range. These sites prove you can deliver, and they give you case studies that show real businesses trusting you with their online presence. Pricing for small business WordPress sites in Canada typically runs $2,000-$4,000 for a basic 5-7 page site, $4,000-$8,000 if you include copywriting, professional photos, or custom functionality. Avoid hourly billing early on because you're slow. Fixed project pricing protects you while you learn speed. Add $100-$300/month maintenance retainers for updates, backups, and support, which creates predictable revenue. For leads, start with warm outreach. Tell everyone you know you build websites. Join local business groups, BNI chapters, or chamber of commerce meetings where small business owners gather. Cold outreach works too: find businesses in your city with terrible websites (slow, not mobile-friendly, looks like 2010), and send a specific email explaining exactly what's broken and how you'd fix it. Offer a free audit call. At Ottawa SEO, we started the same way in 2014. Early projects were underpriced and over-delivered, but they taught us what businesses actually need versus what we thought they wanted. Once you have 8-10 completed projects, referrals start coming naturally if you do good work. Until then, your job is 50% building skills and 50% talking to potential clients. Don't hide behind courses or certifications. Ship work and iterate.