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Any Advice for Starting a Web Design Business?
stizoked asks: "Although we both have full time jobs, my wife and I have been doing a little web design/development on the side for some extra cash. Since we've started, we've built up a nice little client list, one big enough for us to consider getting a little more serious about pursuing it as a business. Does anyone have any advice or experience that we can use to dodge young and stupid mistakes? Any advice on some open source project management software or other software that makes running a small business a little easier?"
I was going to post this exact same thing.
Don't do it. Take the extra cash and realize that web design isn't the place to be.
Develop your portfolio. Do some pages for your church, a favorite local charity, a group like the Lion's Club, or some club you are a member of. Do lots of them. Include links to your own company's page. Oh, and while you are at church/lion's club/etc., make sure that you say "Oh, and if I'm going to do this for the church, what can I do for you?" It's called networking.
Others suggested getting a corp right away. I actually would suggest that it's a bit premature at this stage. If you get into stuff with DB backends with client/customer data, then it makes sense. If you are doing puffery advertising type pages for local groups and businesses, hold off on the expense for a little while until you see if it is worth it.
What is preventing you from holding down your regular job as well as your new design jobs? Plenty of people who start new businesses wisely wind up working two full time jobs until the new business can support you. Or, segue into it. You work both, but your wife leaves her regular job to focus full time on the web work.
It's a rough environment to enter feet first these days. Anyone with a cracked copy of FrontPage fancies himself a web designer.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Get a deposit! Many a time have I spent putting together proposals, drafts, or even finished projects only to have the client do one of the following: Die, disappear, decide not to pay, or emigrate to China.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
to the mod on crack who moded this as a troll, I was not trolling I was serious, for many reasons this guy should not get into website design:
:-)
1.He asked slashdot and that pathetic
2.He is working with his wife and by doing that he is risking a divorce.
3.The web design business is saturated.
4.since he is not a business yet then probably his list of clients are uncle joe and cousin george.
I want my karma backkkkk,.
...is to give business. Look for opportunities refer business to your clients or anyone else. If you have a chance to bid on a large contract, consider subcontracting or partnering for the services that are outside your core skills. (I generally do this with the graphic design work when I have a web site contract.)
I've gotten some excellent referals from people and business who have received referals from me in the past, including one relationship that ultimately led to six figures in follow-on contracts.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. BB
1) Don't.
2) If you really feel you must, work out a coherent, intelligent business plan--one you can take to the bank if necessary to borrow money against. That means 1, 2, and 3 year projections, profit and loss statements, capital and other expenses. Be serious about it. Pay yourself a salary. Know precisely what your monthly living expenses are and how much you need to earn toward them.
3) Be sure that business plan includes (a) an exhaustive study of your target market; and (b) some realistic projections about how you're going to reach that market. Your list of contacts may be the best in the world, but you'll starve if you rely on referrals.
4) How/why should people find and pick you rather than one of the bazillion and one other Web designers out there?
5) Where did you attend art/design school? Know anything about color theory? The color wheel? How color is perceived by a human viewing a monitor vs. a human viewing an actual sunset? How about navigation? Typography and typefaces? Accessibility? Web standards? Any background in fine arts? Advertising? Marketing? How about computers themselves? Networks? ISP's, hosts, e-mail? How does a moitor work? How does HTTP (vs HTML) work? Do you have concrete resources for getting to the information you don't know?
Best to know the answers to all this and more. People who pick up a mouse and a copy of Frontpage make truly unfortunate websites.
I'd have to say that if you haven't puzzled your way through all of this and a whole lot more, you're probably getting ready to waste a great deal of time and money.
I've actually had my business for almost three years, and I earn enough money to contribute my half to a two-income household--most months. I didn't thrive until I did my business plan. I know precisely how much work I need to do each month to survive, and I know how much selling and marketing I need to do to gain that work.
I hope this doesn't sound too grouchy. It is realistic.
Anne
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You're dead on about problem clients. Some clients are not worth what you'll put into them, even if they're willing to pay a lot to get it. We've turned down clients (or said "no" to existing clients) for many reasons. Sometimes it's because we know that what they want can't be done in a way that will satisfy them, often because they've indicated that they're not willing to pay a price that makes it a worthwhile business proposition, and sometimes just because we know they'll be hell to work with.
That last one seems to often be skipped - if they pay enough, it should be worthwhile. It's not. From a business standpoint, you'll end up putting more into customer care than you can possibly make on the project. From a personal standpoint, they will suck the joy of the business out of you.
More generally, charging too little seems to the single most common mistake new companies (web or not) make. You won't be able to charge as much as the big boys right off, but don't undervalue your talents. You're a professional, with experience in a demanding field. If you try to compete solely on cost, you won't be taken seriously, and you'll run out of money damned fast. Let the FrontPage jockeys compete on price. High quality service has to be paid for.
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- People that have a website with another company and want to go with someone cheaper and more responsive. These are a major hassle. We call them hostage situations because what you usually find is the that old company has the domain registered in their name and they're not hot to give it up. You end up spending hours and hours fighting registrars to get the domain or trying to convince the customer to change urls. If you do go for this business, find a helpful registrar to fight for you.
- People that have no idea what they want on a website. That's why they don't already have one. They also have little idea what it should cost. This sounds good, right? But they often know a nephew that can build them a crappy site for free, so they expect you to be slightly more expensive than that. Much more than $500 and they'll just keep waiting.
- Customers that want a very complex site. This sounds good, but you can easily get in over your head, or much worse, agree to something that just isn't going to work. They often have grand plans that involve using data or a service available somewhere else, usually violating the rights they have to the data or service.
- People that want to start a new company. 95% of these will die before a real launch, leaving you with unpaid account receivables.
The best customers we've found are churchs, realtors, friends with existing businesses and no sites, and non-profit organizations with budgets. We often barter with small companies and that works great. Some realtors' companies have a set budget for web sites and you can milk those.Find a profitable place to host accounts. Don't try to host them yourself. You'll hate the work. Go somewhere like Hurricane Electric or ValueWeb and let them do the majority of the work while you collect $5/month or less on the accounts. You'll be milking those accounts for several years without touching them.
Other clients to avoid:
"Mind if we pay you in 90 days?"
"Mind if we give you only half now and half later?"
"We can pay once the site starts making money."
AKA, people that will probably never pay you for your work. As soon as you hear any of these magic words, run for the hills.