multi millionaire from web design?

[killah]

Is it realisticly possible to become a multi millionaire from web design, if not whats the more likely high profit areas in IT.


Cheers

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Possible yes. Realistically? It depends on your definition of realistic. Someone could do it, but it's bloody difficult.

Something like that would involve setting up an agency and either doing thousands of web designs, or taking on some large projects worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds. To get those though you need to be one of the best web design companies in the field.

[killah]

yeah though as much so not really realistic from a guy out of uni, any ideas of things in IT that would be more realistic.

[sirearl]

yeah though as much so not really realistic from a guy out of uni, any ideas of things in IT that would be more realistic.

ecommerce done well can bring in millions.

Earl

[Cornish Steve]

Depends whether you "do the job" (designing websites) or "run a business" (having people build sites on your behalf). The former may earn you enough to live on; the latter could make your fortune.

[Page]

To earn a lot in any shape or form requires either a one off skill - footballer - writer - inventor - where you create and others then do the work.

Or for you to set up and build and run a business with all the infrastructure etc and others doing the work while you manage it. (So managing not web designing)

Do you have the skills for either?
Are you prepared to learn and develop them?

[pcross]

With the internet anything is possible - relatively speaking we are still in the early days of the internet and what is yet to come after Twitter, Facebook and the rest is going to be very exciting - and somebody has to come up with these ideas. So why cant it be you? You just got to get an idea and give it a try - and then try again!

WhosOff.com was not our first idea and took a while to get going - but is now used by companies from all over the world!

[Coppock]

Lol, funny this is something that I've been considering for a while.

My goal is to become a millionaire and I believe I can do it... but will I do it in with a graphic/web design/seo business?

I don't think I will. As Scott says, if you outsource or run a very large agency then it's possible, but that will take a massive amount of work and dedication.

What I do think though, is if you create a web design business, earn a good living and invest your profits into other ventures, property, stocks etc - then you still stand a good chance at reaching the millionaire status... but by running a design firm alone it will take a lot of staff, a lot of work and above all else a lot of clients.

Nothing is impossible, "shoot for the stars and you'll at least hit the moon" - T Harv Eker (Secrets of a Millionaire Mind) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Millionaire-Mind-Think-Rich/dp/0749927895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279271404&sr=8-1)

[Astaroth]

From web design as an industry, absolutely its possible. From being a solo web designer and designing sites for others? I think it would be unlikely.

If you look at corporates or even large Ltds in high value sectors like Financial Services then they can easily pay £100k for brochureware sites etc. One previous client of my business services was quoted £600,000 for 2 websites to be built for 2 of its brands.

The difficulty will always be gaining access to these types of jobs and whilst others talk about skill, to be honest, a lot has to do with who you know.

[NuBlue]

With the internet anything is possible - relatively speaking we are still in the early days of the internet and what is yet to come after Twitter, Facebook and the rest is going to be very exciting - and somebody has to come up with these ideas. So why cant it be you? You just got to get an idea and give it a try - and then try again!

WhosOff.com was not our first idea and took a while to get going - but is now used by companies from all over the world!

I like your website :) Good idea too.

In theory you can become a millionaire from anything! There are millionaire builders, plumbers, care salesman, chefs and so on.....

As mentioned I think most people who become financially successful need to get to the stage where they are not personally providing the service but instead manage a company that does, so it can grow to be bigger than the individual. Even then you’re probably not going to get the reward until you sell that company as it would take a LOT of work to build a company that could afford to pay you a million pound salary.

I think the key thing is not to be motivated by financial gain. Money is a by-product of doing something well and should not be your main motivator in business imho.

[edmondscommerce]

working on it

though yes agree with the general sentiment here that web design company should be part of the portfolio as a whole

having a web company as part of your portfolio though is very handy indeed as more and more business is done at least in some part on the web

[killah]

I think I would be more suited to running the business and managing it than building websites all myself as from my previous experience cost/time factor is not good for a guy just starting out in the field.
The next question is where the hell do you start there's so many things to think about where would you begin on starting a Agency and how to get business from brands rather than little shops.

[SOTRC]

Is it realisticly possible to become a multi millionaire from web design, if not whats the more likely high profit areas in IT.


Cheers


I'd love to become a multi millionaire from doing graphic/web design :D .... but realistically, I'd just love to live comfortably without money worries :)

[heathcote123]

I think you can become a millionaire from any profession really. It's just about being good at it, selling it well, and growing it to the level that generates the kind of cash you are after (I appreciate thats easier said than done!). It is however a industry with incredibly low barriers to entry so the competition is fierce. Theres always the guy down the road that will do it for less, so if you want the higher value stuff, you'll need to present yourself professionally, differentiate yourself from the competition and work hard on your sales skills which will be hard to start if theres only one of you.

I'd hate to put you off anything, but if you are looking to make your million from web design, get a job with a professional company full time for a few years, keep your head down, build your relationships & portfolio & and work out how the business side of things are done (fee's, contracts etc). You can be the best web designer in the world, but if you come across as an amateur or present yourself badly, no bigger companies will want to talk to you.

Another approach is to make the money from your own web sites rather than building them for others. The Web is an excellent field to be in to obtain millionaire status - you only need that one cracking idea and execute it well to pull it off. You could look at your paying clients as the bill payers while you work on your big idea.

Good luck!

[Scootek]

I would have to agree. It's very difficult becoming a millionaire just be designing websites yourself. However, if you are full service agency that get's large web design contracts from corporate clients then anything is possible. Getting those clients is not easy at all.

[mung]

i think to you have to serve the masses to produce a sustainable multimillion pound web business, such as web templates and instant DIY website accounts, that save people money AND provide them with a great service. self maintenance within a site such as this (e.g auto instant setups, auto renewals) will also save you a lot of overheads

[killah]

So which areas have high profit and low cost to start seems to me that its getting harder and harder to make money purely from the net.

[trebor8]

I couldn't even imagine anyone on this planet becoming a (multi) millionaire from web design, even if a company full of designers.

Have you ever designed a website? You shouldn't even be thinking about becoming a millionaire from it, its called dreaming

Concentrate on your skills. strengths weaknesses. Offer qaulity, build good relations, customer feedback and somewhere along this line you might actually discover something unique that will make you millions. Otherwise settle for your 100k

[heathcote123]

So which areas have high profit and low cost to start

Well if you find it, whatever you do don't mention it on here!

Like someone else mentioned, you need to find out what you are good at, and then figure out how to make money from it.

Theres plenty of other areas of IT that attract higher day rates than web design, but you need to be good at it, which you probably won't be on day 1 out of uni.

[Ranks]

Yeah I'd say it is possible, realistic even. But you'll need to be on the ball hitting new trends as they start, you'll need multiple income sources, and you'll need to automate a massive amount of design and marketing techniques.
Start off with small business web design - its a quick way to make cash but not too scaleable. Once you have that sussed, automate it. A job that took you 2 weeks for a couple of grand in the first 3 months should take you a day tops for the same amount of £, but ensure to keep the quality no less than 80% of the hand built sites. You're going to have to sell the product or get someone to sell it for you - door to door on small business and shops will get you 5 leads a day, with 1 job and a couple of good leads out of it - make sure you have your sales pipeline in place and efficient.
Another 3 months of automated client web design and you'll have a fair bit in the bank. Now sell all your customers a monthly product(SEO, hosting, whatever), what ever you can get out of them per month will be your wages for the next 6.
With the cash, and more importantly the knowledge, you have built up in the last 6 months, get some of your own sites out there. I'd buy established sites from Flippa personally, but if you have some good ideas build em from scratch.

Get it right and you'll hit the million between 10 and 12 months.
Questions you need top ask your self, if you want to do something like the above are:
Am I prepared to work 80 hour weeks on this?
Can I sell at this level of volume?
Can I learn, in 6 moths, how to automate 60% of your whole business?

I done similar when I started online, and I didn't hit the million. My priorities changed during it, and it was not as quick as I outlined above. But thats not to say you couldn't hit it mate

Jay

[trebor8]

Yeah I'd say it is possible, realistic even.

Get it right and you'll hit the million between 10 and 12 months.

I done similar when I started online, and I didn't hit the million. My priorities changed during it

Out of curiosity, How much did you hit?

[Ranks]

Out of curiosity, How much did you hit?

Im not sure mate, no where near to be honest. I changed my plans when I got to the automation part, started building my own stuff and dropped my hours down to just a few a week. Im fairly confident in my projections, and if I had stuck with it I would have made about half my target in about 15 months, which is pretty good!
Jay

[trebor8]

Im not sure mate, no where near to be honest. I changed my plans when I got to the automation part, started building my own stuff and dropped my hours down to just a few a week. Im fairly confident in my projections, and if I had stuck with it I would have made about half my target in about 15 months, which is pretty good!
Jay

that forecast sounds as credible as an octopus predicting the world cup results;)

[purebusiness]

I think you need to decide what it is YOU want to do.

I think the main reason why people go into business in the first place is to be successful and have the vision to become wealthy one day. However, there is a lot to be said for people who become wealthy as a bi product of doing what they truly love to do. Is hitting your millionaire status really what you want to do, or do you just want to live life doing the things you love doing and making enough money to be happy?

Without sounding like a 70's hippy hear, I am simply saying don't work your nutts off for 5 years on something you don't really enjoy because you think its going to make you your millions. The power of the Internet proves people can make fortunes out of almost anything if done with passion and a calculated structure.

A good book to read / listen to is 'Crush' by Gary Vaynerchuk - it really helped me realise the possibilities on the web!

Good luck!

[killah]

Doing some research on this and came across this http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/performers/industries/profits/ (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/performers/industries/profits/)
Networking and Internet shopping are the top 2, anyone in the networking communications business on here?
I like working with computers and designing but lately getting bored of designing websites and coding don't find no enjoyment out of it any more.

[Coppock]

Get it right and you'll hit the million between 10 and 12 months.
Questions you need top ask your self, if you want to do something like the above are:
Am I prepared to work 80 hour weeks on this?
Can I sell at this level of volume?
Can I learn, in 6 moths, how to automate 60% of your whole business?


phew - tough 10 months but I'd be willing to bet it's possible. You'd need a lot of good perseverance and an extremely good plan to commit too... also possibly a good spout of luck, but mostly the ability to go out there and get the sales.

Also - on another note.....

Getting more money will never stop you worrying about it, if anything it will make you worry more. You have to learn to stop worrying about money as a seperate step to wealth.
The more you earn the more you will often upgrade the car, holidays, treats, house etc - all at a cost. you will also quite often start worrying about seemingly unimportant things like - what if the money stops coming in, what if you somehow lose it all, what if your client has a better car than you, what if that hotel isn't good enough for the right image for that seminar.... there will always be things to worry about if you don't learn to stop worrying.

Jen

[sirearl]

Getting more money will never stop you worrying about it, if anything it will make you worry more. You have to learn to stop worrying about money as a seperate step to wealth.


Jen

Words of wisdom.:)

Earl

[edmondscommerce]

bring on the worry!

[killah]

hahahahaha yeah bring on that type of worry.

[killah]

I have been thinking of ideas that have money in them and and ones seeming to come up allot are.

Voice Solutions (I.e. help lines, call centres)
Data Management
Networking
Hosting
Disaster Recovery
Information Technology providers

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

I have been thinking of ideas that have money in them and and ones seeming to come up allot are.

Voice Solutions (I.e. help lines, call centres)
Data Management
Networking
Hosting
Disaster Recovery
Information Technology providers


The only way you will become a true master is if you find something you're passionate about and disregard doing it only for the purpose of achieving a goal.

If you try to pick something purely for the intention of trying to get rich, then you'll likely find it far harder to get there.

[garyk]

Agree with Scott, its one thing you will see successful business people talking about all the time. Their passion was their business *not* becoming rich, the money became incidental to their business success.

Personally millionaire in web design? Not a chance, too many decent free/cheap templates which has turned web design (along with many other things) into a commodity rather than a premium service.

Gary

[Spock]

Why do you want to be a multi-millionaire? What's wrong with being a millionaire, Rodders?

Anyway, money won't make you happy, chocolate will ;)

[killah]

I agree you need to be committed to whatever business you have to make it successful but if your business is not in multi million or billion industry i cant see many people becoming rich themselves if that makes sense.
You could be the best toilet cleaner and have the most passion about it all you like but you wont be a millionaire doing it, I'm just saying you need to really think about it because all of millionaires and billionaires choose what industry to go into based on financial gains just look at Dragons Den and Investment Bankers.

[WhichLance]

If you want to have a stab at it I am selling my Web Design, Outsourced Support and SEO business on Flippa.com at the moment - nearly at reserve but not quite. But, I guess fresh out of uni you probably have a beer tab running at several thousand pounds already so it may not be up your street.. http://flippa.com/auctions/100513/Tailor-Made-Sites---Perfect-for-web-design-firm---strong-brand

I agree with others in as much as if you try to do the work yourself - as I have done on Tailor Made - you end up trying to be a jack of all trades, being a bottleneck and limiting your growth potential.. you need to set up as a company and have the infrastructure and systems in place to handle masses of work to be able to succeed - you probably also need a bit of cash behind you so you can hit the ground running - it took me 3 years to get to the level of making $4k a month from Tailor Made - but I strted with about £100 and 1 client.. If I had done it with £10,000 I have no doubt I would be making closer to $40k per month - but as the saying goes money breeds money (or something like that) and those without have to fight that little bit harder to reach the magic million marker!

Good luck with whatever you choose to do..

[commission bm]

From web design as an industry, absolutely its possible. From being a solo web designer and designing sites for others? I think it would be unlikely.

If you look at corporates or even large Ltds in high value sectors like Financial Services then they can easily pay £100k for brochureware sites etc. One previous client of my business services was quoted £600,000 for 2 websites to be built for 2 of its brands.

The difficulty will always be gaining access to these types of jobs and whilst others talk about skill, to be honest, a lot has to do with who you know.

[wykthorr]

Technically it's impossible to be a multi-millionaire just by working in web design. You'd have to be paid an outrageously high amount/hour. Don't suppose you can become a multi millionaire by running a just web design company either. Mix a few more services though and you might be getting somewhere.

Everybody tries to get as high as they can, but I don't suppose doing just one thing can get you really far. It will be a lot harder anyway.

You might want to try developing large applications(either web/local), but that will require a well managed team of programmers and technically it would still be managing not actively developing stuff.

[killah]

From web design as an industry, absolutely its possible. From being a solo web designer and designing sites for others? I think it would be unlikely.

If you look at corporates or even large Ltds in high value sectors like Financial Services then they can easily pay £100k for brochureware sites etc. One previous client of my business services was quoted £600,000 for 2 websites to be built for 2 of its brands.

The difficulty will always be gaining access to these types of jobs and whilst others talk about skill, to be honest, a lot has to do with who you know.

How would you get these type of clients, also if i wanted to hire programmers to make web and non web apps where's the best place for that. and also if i wanted to build a brand what if i wanted to bring a product out a generic product to have my brand on it.

[Coppock]

Technically it's impossible to be a multi-millionaire just by working in web design. You'd have to be paid an outrageously high amount/hour. Don't suppose you can become a multi millionaire by running a just web design company either. Mix a few more services though and you might be getting somewhere.

Everybody tries to get as high as they can, but I don't suppose doing just one thing can get you really far. It will be a lot harder anyway.

You might want to try developing large applications(either web/local), but that will require a well managed team of programmers and technically it would still be managing not actively developing stuff.

It's very unlikely anyone can become rich being paid for time on an hourly rate - simply because you're already limiting your financial possiblities as there is only 24 hours in one single day.

If you charge in direct proportion to the value you place within the market and charge for a result and/or based on a commission then there's more chance to achieve a mass of financial wealth.

[killah]

I have this book which i think sums it up prity well on what you need to make multi millions in an industry and just don't think web design or anything like that has the means of earning mass money.

Do business in a new way
Dominate the market
Consolidate an industry
Sell to the masses

[Coppock]

I have this book which i think sums it up prity well on what you need to make multi millions in an industry and just don't think web design or anything like that has the means of earning mass money.

Do business in a new way
Dominate the market
Consolidate an industry
Sell to the masses

True... however it can also be summed up by;

1. Be passionate about what you're providing, why you're providing it too, and what a positive difference you're making for the buyer.
2. Persist with focus and a solid structured plan.
3. Once you're doing well think "now how can I help 10 times more people or businesses."

I'm stuck at stage 2 at the moment, but looking forward to step 3!

[Ashankt]

There's plenty to be made from web design, but not just plain old xhtml and css. You need to start thinking about investing time in web applications and/or e-commerce if you want to make a lot of money.

Think about design from your viewers point of view and sell the product you have. If it's just to market a product be clear about that.

If you want to make money as a designer you soon learn internet trends and what people like, it's harnessing that potential that makes money.

Twitter and Wikipedia are both organisations that need to make revenue streams work, I don't think twitter's new idea will work but we'll see.