Starting My Web Design Business
A Word Of Advice
There is going to be a lot of useful information in this article, how you use it is your prerogative and I am not responsible for any successes or failures due to what you read. These are based on my personal experiences and I want to inspire and educate anyone thinking of breaking into the web design industry. If you want to take notes and I hope you get inspired as much as I am motivated by the ever-changing world of web design. Just as a side note I am going to be talking more about a business than a freelancer. Do not quit your day job until you’re making enough money so that working full-time doing web design pays the bills and then some.
The Idea
So, you’re working jobs that you can’t stand to wake up to and the only thing you enjoy in life is your web design hobby. One your free time you start making web sites for friends and family. The thought comes into your head maybe I can do this for a living. This thought marinades in your head for a few days, then a few weeks, now it’s been a month, it’s all you can think about doing. Passion turns your hobby into a bubbling urge to make a change in your life. You finally decide to take the first step and say “I’m going to go for it.”
Pick a path
You’ve made the decision to break into the web design business but there are a few paths that you must choose from in order to market your services. The first path you must choose is the path of the freelancer or the path of the business owner. Becoming a freelancer is an easy decision to make, but there are a few central factors you’ll need to understand. As a freelancer, there’s no job security. You’re not necessarily going to receive a pay check every month. It’s entirely up to you to go out, win work, and bill clients.
Freelancing can be quite a lucrative career choice, because you can often charge a much higher hourly rate than you’d earn as an employee in an organization. By the same token, it comes with responsibilities. You’ll have to bill your customers, chase down the money, and sometimes go for a period of time where you’re without work. You’ll need to work hard to build your networks to ensure a flow of work. In short, being a freelancer is a good lifestyle choice offering lots of flexibility, but little security.
Running a business on the other hand requires a bit more knowledge. You have to think about not only about yourself but the welfare of the company that will eventually employ other people to help take care of day-to-day tasks. You have to think about their salary, insurance, and a plethora of other variables. Starting a web design business does offer a bit more leeway and security. While as a freelancer its harder to handle multiple projects at the same time in a business with multiple employees they can manage a certain amount of projects at the same time, more than one freelancer can. In turn you are able to generate more cash flow.
When it comes down to choosing, it’s all a matter of preference. As a freelancer you incur all the repercussions of bad service and products. As a business, depending on which type of ownership you choose it won’t affect your personal assets. It’s all a personal preference.
Setting Up Shop
For the purpose of this article we’re going to talk about a business instead of freelancing. So now you have decided to go with starting a business you have to assess how much money you are going to need to start. Now assuming you are reading this article you have a computer, after all web design has been a hobby. I’m also going to assume you already know your way around HTML and CSS so you already have some sort of graphics and code editor. You already have the meat and potatoes of your new business. Next you have to look into your local tax laws get everything straightened out with them find out if and how much you have to charge for taxes on your services. Now you have to come up with a name, something memorable and unique, make sure it’s available to register with your state. Every state has their own different laws please make sure you do your research before pursuing clients.
Choosing a Niche
Niche? A niche is a distinct segment of a market. For example is your web design business going to cater strictly to hair salons, or bars, etc… The important reason for choosing a niche is when you’re writing the copy (content) for your website you can start thinking about SEO and keywords so you can start ranking higher on search engines and concentrate on keyword density among other SEO practices. The best advice I can give you is search around the internet and try to find websites in a 5-10 mile radius and find out what types of businesses don’t have websites then choose your niche that way because chances are its might be the same way thought that whole industry which leads you to have a lot of work in the long run.
Design a Great Website
The next step is you HAVE to create a great website. If you don’t have a great website what is it going to say about your skills and services. Make the website eye-catching and easy to navigate. I’m not going to get much into SEO but make sure your title has the main keyword you’re wanting to use, make sure you write a good description and keywords. Make sure your content is relevant and is using your keyword in important places. Your design needs to be clean and have valid html and css so the search engines will treat you good.
Marketing Your Services
Ok, so you have everything all set up, now you need to start marketing your services. If you don’t like rejection I’m sorry then you’re in the wrong business. You’re going to need to make an investment in some business cards. On your days off or your free time visit your local target niche businesses and pitch your business to them. When you pitch make sure you point out the benefits of using your service how it will help the business. Just know starting out, you wont be able to charge $2500 for a website. You are, unfortunately, going to have to lowball your first few sites just to get your name out there. Even still, you provide the best service you possibly can because that person is going to tell others. Word of mouth is going to be your biggest marketing material.
In Conclusion
As you gain more clients and business grows you will have to adjust pricing in order to afford staffing, an office, and other items you will need to successfully run your business. These are the steps I have taken to start Krymson Productions and so far everything is working out. Things will start off slow and again you have to be able to handle rejection. You will not become a millionaire overnight but with persistence and dedication you will become successful and overcome the hurdles of the business world. Key points I want to touch on is you have to do a lot of research. Learn to dumb the tech talk down so that the average person can understand you. Terms like search engine optimization, and meta data the normal person will not know about these terms. Adopt a K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) attitude, too much does mean too much. And again provide the best possible service you can provide that’s going to be the main reason you get referrals from clients you pick up. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you have learned how to start a business, the success of it depends on you and your attitude towards it.