Help starting my web design business from home

[Farley93]

I am a 20-year-old who's looking to start a web design business online. My idea for my business is slightly different to the normal web design business. In fact, web design might be the wrong term. Here's the idea:

I struggled for years to make professional looking websites and used sites like Wix.com and Weebly.com to attempt this. It never worked out but one day I realised how to make a site with Wordpress by purchasing a theme (template) and building the site from there. I was amazed at the time it took (24 hours) and the cost (£50) to create what anyone would describe as nothing short of an extremely professional and expensive-looking website.

I know there's plenty of people like the old me who want to create great looking sites to be proud of but can't afford to pay a web design company £800+. My idea is to create an all inclusive package between £100-150 which would see me offer them 5-10 template designs and building their site for them. These will mainly be small business who just want a bit of info, but can stretch all the way to people wanting to start online magazines.

My issue now is understanding how this would work. When I make myself a site I login to GoDaddy, buy the domain, pay for hosting and then install Wordpress and get going. How would this work with someone else, the customer? If they have already purchased a domain, am I being unprofessional to ask for their GoDaddy login or is there a safer way to access their account and install Wordpress without their details?

Maybe I'm supposed to buy and host the site for them, I don't know. I have no background in this but know for sure that I can deliver a brilliant product for a great price. These themes, or templates, are highly customisable, meaning you probably couldn't tell the difference between two sites with the same theme unless you were asked to. I have made a dating site for a friend of mine at university which is running perfectly. So, as you can see, these themes are very intuitive and easy to run.

All help is greatly appreciated as I'm looking to start my first real business and put all I can into it.

Thanks!

 

[ryedale]

First and most important advice - Don't use GoDaddy

There are so many better choices - ideally run your own VPS or server with WHM/Cpanel if you can afford a managed solution but failing that get a reseller account with someone like Heart

You'll find it vastly easier to manage all your accounts in one place , rather than trying to juggle lots of different accounts and logins

Secondly - do you know any HTML/CSS or are you just literally configuring the templates for them through the WP interface?

 

[fisicx]

Don't use Godaddy. And don't expect your clients to use Godaddy, they may well already have their own hosting. And if they don't you will need to set up hositing and work with their registration control panels to set up redirection and emails and so on.

You need to have decent PHP skills if you are going to offer wordpress websites. An be prepared for all sorts of strange requests to change features on the themes that will require changes to the code not front end customisations.

Good luck with your new business venture but you will find it increasingly difficult to build sites using wordpress unless you learn how to code.

 

[WebhostingUKCom]

Right suggestion godaddy is waste of time, if you don't have experience , will suggest you to start slow with reseller account, have your and your customers account on the reseller account , most web hosting company will provide you the guide to use reseller hosting account, will suggest Cpanel reseller hosting with auto installer for wordpress , where you dont have to worry about wordpress installation as well.

 

[Feldon]

Have a look at Ben Hunts Pro Web Design Course, he teaches a mixture of using Wordpress, some basic coding but more importantly gives you all the other bits of the puzzle to set up a business. I think he does another short course aimed at those who already know how to build websites and shows you how to set up a profitable website business. Good luck.

 

[Ben_Doyle]

Wordpress is a super platform with which to build websites, but as has already been said, you will need to learn at least some coding skills.

There is always going to be somone that requests a change that can't be done through the admin panel and can only be done with coding skills.

I also think offering 5-10 templates will cause issues - you WILL get a client that asks you to build their site using template X, then say, 'Oh, can you just use template Y too so I can see which is best...'

You could find that by the time you've finished arsing around with a customers' requests, you've made no money.

Speaking from experience, I have also found that the people that pay the least, for whatever product or service, want the world from it and demand more from you.

So, if you're only going to charge £100 - £150 you need to tell them this is EXACTLY what they're getting for their money. If they want anything more custom, it's chargeable.

Personally, I don't like this way of doing it. I think you'll find that you end up working for minimum wage, or less.

But good luck!

Ben

 

[fisicx]

Also consider that there are thousands of themes all with different features - smoe are free some you need to pay for.

So why not just let the customer decide which theme they want and go from there.

 

[ryedale]

It may be worth seeing if you can get an internship or offer to do some free work at a local design company - we've taken on a couple of young lads lately with no experience or knowledge of coding at all and a couple of months in, they are making great strides with their design skills just from doing basic bits of styling and editing.

It would give you a valuable insight into how a web design company works as well.

 

[warwickwater]

I'd take a different view to some of the posts above. I'd argue there are many businesses - whether they be poorly funded start-ups, part time bedroom business, or even established businesses who (wrongly) don't make an online a priortiy - but there's plenty out there who wont/ cant / dont spend more than a few hundred quid.

To keep your time under control I think you have to be clear on the limits of your offer - for example who is writing / editing the copy for the pages. You can't reasonably expect to write the 'about us' page for a (example) taxi firm you only met for an hour once last week.

Stick to maybe 10-20 decent templates, and a source of images to make them relevant. Make friends with a local hobby photographer who can produce half decent pics to use of your sites. Be honest with yourself about the quality of your own English - or get help with that too.

I have several 'side projects' that don't warrant a £1000+ custom job, but if someone could turn out a decent Wordpress for a few hundred - I would buy, and wouldn't expect to give an endless stream of "can you just change that" amendments.

Hope that helps.

 

[ryedale]

You may not but unfortunately many others will. Sometimes though, getting stuck with the project that never ends is all part of the learning curve and allows you to be better prepared for it next time.

I learned the hard way in the early days when I was starting out!

 

[warwickwater]

Presumably though Rydale you arent taking on £200 projects after 8 years in the game. Surely that would be a bit like going in McDonalds and specifying your Mac 'medium rare please'...

 

[ryedale]

Yes, we still take them on as much as we take five figure projects on. Never like to reject work from any source. Generally one of the junior designers will do the work (we use Joomla rather than Wordpress) but only after we've had a careful discussion with the client to establish what exactly they are looking for, what they want to achieve with the site and how they will be providing the resources for it. It's then clearly all summed up in a written quote and contract.

 

[Farley93]

Ok, I'll do a bit of clearing up that I perhaps should have done in the original post.

I would clearly specify before the customer has agreed to make any purchase (on the website I plan to set up), that with each theme there is only certain customisations that can be made. The idea for the site is that, 'you're getting a fantastic price for an excellent end product, the sacrifice you have to make is not being able to change much with it'.

This may be a problem if the sites weren't good, but all of the sites will look extremely professional and I would give each customer a choice of 10-15 different 'options' (themes) to choose from, rather than pick myself. I would be happy, however, to make suggestions.

The types of customers I want and the ones I think I'll attract are those whose current website is something from the early 2000's in terms of design. Someone just like me 1 year ago, who didn't know it was possible to get a professional looking website for £150.

I personally feel that learning to code, even if only the basics, isn't even a smart decision because of the fact that it's time I don't have and time I need to be making money, as well as the fact that the sites will blow their minds anyway. I know I can't pick who will come to me looking for a site, but I believe I'll draw in people/small businesses who don't have a good site and would be blown away with these templates/themes.

I'm thinking gift shops, barbers, hair salons, beauty salons, restaurants, mechanics, as well as individuals wanting a fan site, an online magazine, a high-end blog. I forgot to mention I have a network of twitter accounts with over 450,000 followers which I'll use to promote myself. I've got a business account with 10,000 followers. That's 10,000 real potential customers.

The idea isn't a custom/bespoke site. It's a professional, cheap and quick solution where the only sacrifice is not being able to make small changes which weren't included on the list of customisations when the customer picked the theme. They won't be within their rights to ask for changes not on the list because 'that's not what we do', 'we keep the prices low by offering sufficient customisations to already professional themes'.

Hopefully this has helped to clear up my plans.

 

[Farley93]

One more thing I forgot to add is that I know a lot about social media and I feel websites and social media are very closely connected. For this reason, I can offer either as part of the packaged or an added extra, help redesigning and branding their social media pages, as well as helping them to increase engagement and grow followers.

If I have a problem, as I have since creating my first 3 sites for myself, I get help from a web developer on a popular website where I have to pay £3 per fix. He's helped me enormously and will continue to do if I encounter a fault or need help working something out which I haven't done before. It's by no means going to be a slick operation to start with, but I wouldn't put myself through the stress if I wasn't very confident it would pay off in the medium to long-term.

 

[Shaun_Pearce]

"I have no background in this but know for sure that I can deliver a brilliant product for a great price."

Oh boy..

All I can think of is that you're not correctly positioned in this business model. You sound more like a salesman than a web designer or developer. I can tell the ideas are literally flying around in your head. I'd consider looking at this from a different perspective and see where you would best be situated in the overall business.

You mention you're perfectly positioned to attract new customers, so focus on that? Get that guy who helps you out to do the work for you and pay him a %? Or get yourself a supplier list who could benefit from the leads you generate?

This is just my view on the matter. I say this because I've sold to a LOT of web design businesses and have managed to learn a lot about how they work. In particular I can see from 1 phone call which businesses are well organised and will make money versus those who bang out templates for £150 and will end up working for someone else in 6 months time.

I know a seller when I see one and I can tell you right now you're sales minded, even if you don't know it yet.

You've got a money making brain that see's an opportunity. The trick now is trying to suss out how to best attack the opportunity and where you best fit in.

Don't rush in to it. Consider your strengths and see how they can make you some mula!

 

[MartynKeigher]

Hey,

I totally agree with Shaun_Pearce on this. You are Sales and $$$ focused. That's error number 1.

Take some time to develop some WP skills and see HOW Wordpress works before you start offering a service. If all you do is reach out for technical assistance when you need it, then you are now just an Account Manager (as if) working on commision.

There are SO MANY great sites out there that can assist you with EXACTLY what you are trying to do... and by that, i mean... gain, understand, embrace Wordpress and THEN (once you have that understanding) have the ability to charge people for YOUR work, not an outsourced aid.

I have gone down this road myself. I went down it the wrong way, and then went down the right way. Well... the way that works for me at least. Everyone's path is different, but once you get good at what you want to do (which i'm pretty sure is Wordpress design... even though you right now you seem more focused on the $$$ aspect).. you'll appreciate your work, and your clients a lot more.

Let me know if you want me to provide you with resources... I'd be more than willing to help you out and share my experiences doing this.


Regards,
Martyn T. Keigher
[email protected]

 

[Farley93]

Thanks for your replies Shaun_Pearce and MartynKeigher.

The truth is, I do find creating these sites from templates interesting, but my main focus is making money. However, I do 100% feel that the service and product I can offer will be more than the customers would expect from £150. I really enjoy making the sites and pleasing customers and think I can do that as well as making myself some extra money.

When I mentioned about the person who helps me with site problems, I wouldn't even expect to use him for every project, it's more likely to be every other project or every 1 in 3 projects and with only one problem each time. I won't take on projects which I predict will be difficult, because not only can I not take the risk, but it's not what I want to do and doesn't fit my plan.

I feel like I could study web design, coding and graphic design and I STILL wouldn't be able to come up with a site as good as the themes I use. I could go to university for 4 years and even then wouldn't be able to. To me it makes complete financial sense to do what I'm planning. It's a neat, simple, all-in-one package for those who don't want the fuss but want a professional and affordable site.

A small bakery shop, barbers, small restaurant, florist, art gallery and gift shop won't care if it's a theme. They won't want to spend £600 more to have their own unique, one-of-a-kind site. I know there's a market and I know how I can take advantage of that. People want what's most cost-efficient and easiest with their busy businesses and that's exactly what I offer. The customer doesn't get much freedom, that's true. However, when you're trying to save large amounts of money and go for a cheaper alternative, you ALWAYS have to make sacrifices and if you look at theirs, not having the ability to make changes to a theme they approved before it was created and knew the customisation limitations of, it's quite small.

Any advice on whether to include social media redesign for free or charge extra would be fantastic too!

 

[Farley93]

Here are some examples of the sites I've made for friends to get some practice in and to build up a small portfolio:

www.talkingunited.com
www.downthewing.com
www.trendranks.com

All of these cost me £40-55 to make. Every single one of my friends were completely and utterly blown away. These are the potential customers I will target.

 

[MartynKeigher]

Read this (what you wrote) over and and over again...

""I feel like I could study web design, coding and graphic design and I STILL wouldn't be able to come up with a site as good as the themes I use. I could go to university for 4 years and even then wouldn't be able to.""

You need to change that outlook man!! You are killing yourself before you've begun! If you don't have faith in your ablities.. then why should your clients??

 

[Farley93]

Because, like I said, I know I can easily make a site for the business types I mentioned without any difficulty. It's only more complicated sites which require affiliate programs to be developed and other such large scale features that I would find a little bit harder. But I won't take on any project without checking it's possible first.

Maybe it's just me but I'm struggling to understand why only one person so far has realised the opportunity is a good one. Why spend a lot of time learning to create sites from scratch when customers are just as happy, maybe more happy, with a theme site. It's cheaper too, as if I designed sites from scratch or put a lot of work into the coding, I would have to charge more.

In my mind it's the perfect package and, like I said, I'm genuinely struggling to see what the problem is with my plan. Surely it makes sense. The customers are there. I have the ability. I have backup in the form of a tech guy. I have a 450,000 audience to advertise to for free.

 

[MartynKeigher]

OK.. i'm off my soapbox now!

While i agree that some clients wont "care" that their site is primarily theme based... its good to throw a little bit of a twist into each theme. YOUR own personal twist... maybe thats pushing a new angle on the Social Media tactic?, throwing in a custom slider that's not part of the theme you use??

Little thing like that really make sites stand out. So yeah.. No need to "re-invent" the wheel at all.. but you change what the wheel looks like!

 

[MartynKeigher]

""In my mind it's the perfect package and, like I said, I'm genuinely struggling to see what the problem is with my plan. Surely it makes sense.""

I don't think there an issue with your plan at all... there is definitely a space for it, and I'd like to see how you go down this path. It was a path i took FULL TIME, and now on the side, as much as i can... Smaller clients CRAVE advertising/marketing/exposure without spending big money. They can use services like this to "get them started"... and then once they are more established, then they might want to change their online strategy. If you do well in accelerating them to this point... then you may also get THAT business too.

 

[ryedale]

*takes deep breath*

Okay.. I've been doing this as a business for 8 years and another 6 years before that working for other companies.. It's up to you if you listen to the advice all people are giving you here or not but I really recommend you would.

Let's take a sample very simple site one of my junior designers did recently around the prices you are looking at http://bit.ly/1mmD6RQ

It used a theme as an initial starting point and looking back through notes after our specification meeting, the client asked for the following

Gradient orange on the menu bar
Her contact details in top right hand corner (this was a later request) with the number larger and bolded in blue
A quick links block putting in the right hand corner of the page
All links and buttons to follow orange colour scheme
Buttons to be curved rather than html default
Sub menu dropdown rollovers to be grey bg with orange text
Proxima nova web font for body text
Light yellow background on the contact form fields
The theme we started with had capitals for all headers, she wanted them lowercase
Large stock photo on every page (don't agree with that but their choice!)

That's all standard completely reasonable basic CSS and HTML layout changes - would you tell that client that she couldn't have them?

You cannot assume that most clients won't ask for similar or more. They will, nearly all of them. And then when they want to make changes or advance the site, you'll be stuck and so will they having spent their budget for a new site.

Being honest, your model is potentially taking money from people who may not know better about what they can get for their money and they will find that out soon enough from the first friend or colleague they ask to review the site, which isn't a very good model to build a long term business reputation on. If you're not prepared to make the effort to learn even the basics, then there are plenty of other companies who will happily do moderate levels of css customization for the same price.

As someone suggested earlier - google white label web designer - there are plenty of companies out there who will produce a cheap unbranded design for you that you can sell under your company name with a markup on their price leaving you free to concentrate on selling

 

[Farley93]

I think there's been some confusion ryedale.

I'm not offering them customisations outside those of the theme itself. That's not what I'm selling. It will clearly state that they can only customise certain things and they will be clearly listed. That's the product. I'm not offering a custom site where they can request changes. If there was a contract, it would state that the customer can only expect to have customisation done from the customisation list they were given before purchase, which clearly stated what can and can't be changed. All the themes I've used have had at least 50+ different options to change.

People who come to me asking for a custom site will be told that's not what the business does. The customers can list the kinds of things they want their site to include, I will then find as many themes as possible which suit their needs and let them pick the one they want. The business would be an 'express website building service' and not a 'fully custom and tailored website design business'.

Another user put it perfectly earlier on in this thread when he said you wouldn't go into McDonald's and ask for your burger to be done medium-rare. You know what you're getting when you walk into their establishment, and the same would be true for my business, I would just have to make it clear as it's not already known like it is with the McDonald's example.

I'm essentially looking for unambitious customers who's ideas of a professional website is nowhere near the level of professionalism they'll achieve with my site. It's supposed to be a quick turnover business, not a 7 day project per site. In my mind, it's perfect for hundreds of thousands of businesses for the following reasons:

They won't pay much > the site will be done within 36-48 hours > the site will look incredibly professional and well designed > happy customer

Most businesses don't want to make suggestions from what I can gather, they'd prefer to give a little info on their business and maybe one or two things they'd like, but my potential customers won't be picky about the gradient on a button when they've just been given their dream website which is 100 out of 100 compared to their current late 1990's site.

I am going to go ahead with this as I feel it's going to work and I will share my results with everyone when a few months in as I'm hoping to surprise a few and help teach some lessons I've learned.

 

[ryedale]

Fair enough, I wish you the best of luck

My only observation is that they can get the professional looking site and the styling customizations they might want for the same price - Equally, someone with an element of design skill would turn around sites like those in 1-2 days as well.

If you can find people that don't realize that however, then you'll probably have some success initially.

 

[Farley93]

I don't have the time to study design and coding to do what I can do right now for less money and quicker. I'd appreciate if you could give me an example of a site that could be done for the same price in around 1-2 days, maybe a URL so I can compare it to a theme for the same kind of site.

For a basic business like a bakery or cupcake shop or a business which doesn't need to take orders online but just post info, I can get this done in 90 minutes and charge £89. It'll come out exactly like this but with their info:

http://www.nicdarkthemes.com/themes/sweet-cake/wp/demo/

This is a fully responsive theme which would take 75-90 minutes to complete from start to finish. Can anyone really suggest that £89 and receiving their site same day is another short of a bargain? I don't think so.

Also, please compare the above link with the below link and that should show the massive jump from their old site to their new. This percentage increase is what will be the average for my customers:

http://www.highwycombecakeco.co.uk/

Lastly, most businesses from my research tend to leave the design of the site to the web design company anyway, so that's what will happen still with my business.

 

[titanium]

@vts There's a glaring typo on the Yorkshire Riding Wills homepage. Just thought I'd let you know!

 

[iconic]

Farley93...

I think that your idea has mileage in it. There are hundreds of small businesses out there who don't want to or can't pay £££ for a website.

I also appreciate the points of view of the more "seasoned" web designers / developers - however as you have pointed out your are offering something a bit different to what they offer.

So... I think there is a market for your offering... I've had a similar idea in my mind for a while, although I do have a little bit of HTML and CSS experience.

My one question though is why have you arrived at the figure of £150 per site?

If I was to setup a business along these lines I would offer pay monthly websites.

You could structure it something like this:

Customer chooses a theme from (for example) http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress

You charge a setup fee of £49 - which basically covers the template purchase price.

You then adapt the theme (within its scope) to your customers requirements... Adding text and pictures that THEY are have given you.

Monthly prices could be something like this (includes hosting and domain name renewals)...

£9.99 for up to 5 pages
£14.99 for up to 10 pages
£19.99 for up to 15 pages

and so on...

You could then offer to update the site (text and pictures, or small layout changes) at a set price per change.

In a nutshell... The customer gets a good looking functional website for an initial cost of £49... They are then paying a low monthly cost to keep the site online, which includes hosting and domain name renewals - They don't have to worry about anything... If they want to make any small changes they just email you, you invoice them, once they've paid you make the change.

Once you have built up a few customers you will start to get a regular monthly income... Plus money from the changes that your customers will inevitably want from time to time.

What I have written above is straight from my head... I haven't sat down and worked out costs etc... The figures mentioned above are purely examples.

I think you should go for it.

It will be a big learning curve for you - And you will find out that what others have said on the subject that you have dismissed were actually right - But then what business isn't a learning curve!

Andy

 

[ryedale]

@vts There's a glaring typo on the Yorkshire Riding Wills homepage. Just thought I'd let you know!

Ha I knew there would be something when I picked a site out - fixed that thanks

 

[Poppy Design]

If it is so easy and so quick and requires no coding, design skills to build these websites... then the client would be just as well doing it themselves!... in fact I think a lot of small companies do ie Wix, wordpress etc

Having run a small design company for the past 8 years+ I can confirm that every client/project is totally different and some of the lower cost projects seem to end up taking more time! Some clients will want to meet you and discuss so you can add 2 hours+ for a start, then there could be endless emails before/during and after the project from client - imagine 40+ emails and the time spent reviewing these, researching these and dealing with these!

Then there is the amendments - yes while you mention you will provide set themes believe me you will still get clients who want "tweaks" done - they wont pay you until these are done.You will need to be able to understand CSS/html at least to tweak some things.
So I guess what I am trying to say that even for a small theme website - the time/cost is not just based soley on the build - there are a lot of factors that you need to take into account and only through time and experience will you realise this.

If you are planning to offer/sell a professional business service B2B then you need to ensure your service will be professional.
You will need to pay for business insurance/accountancy/software upgrades etc too

Good luck with your venture - yes there is always a market for a good product/service regardless of cost

Joanne

 

[ryedale]

Joanne has it spot on above, particularly with

Some clients will want to meet you and discuss so you can add 2 hours+ for a start, then there could be endless emails before/during and after the project from client - imagine 40+ emails and the time spent reviewing these, researching these and dealing with these!

I think the only way you can find out though is by doing it yourself.

The concept of saying no to a customer for a simple html/css change is alien to me because it's such an integral part of what we do on a daily basis, particularly for ongoing support requests hence what I've tried to explain to you in this thread

Have you thought about you are going to handle ongoing support for clients

 

[Faevilangel]

I don't think your idea has legs and this is from my experiences of 5 years+ as a freelancer and 10+ building websites. I offer a similar service to clients so know what you're planning to do.

1) Clients who pay the least expect the most, most of my support requests comes from clients who took the "cheap option" but want the customisation of the bespoke site. They just see £150 and want the whole world for it. I have clients who buy custom sites in the £xx,xxx bracket and they hardly ever need support.

2) By you not having any idea on how to actually code will be your downfall, what will you do if a plugin the customer installs causes an error on the site? Do you know how to diagnose issues and fix them? You say you're paying a dev £3 to fix an issue, how long will he be available, what happens if he is on holiday?

3) Your customers will demand customisations, some will be happy to pay for them but majority won't, they will expect custom work thrown in for your work, if you don't they will cause hours of stress (I do support services for template developers)

4) £150 is not a lot, at £30 it's only 5 hours, if the theme is £40 then you're down to just £110 which is just over 3 hours work, but you need to:

- find 5 themes,
- talk them through them and they make a decision
- install the theme, set it up, install plugins and their content
- make adjustments on the the finished site, including layouts, colours etc
- show the customer how to use WordPress, the theme and the plugins

I charge for 5 hours at £40 an hour + the cost of the template for this service and I over 50% of projects take at least 4 hours

Being brutally honest, you may enjoy making websites but you aren't going into this business for the love of the job, you are seeing the money, once you have paid your hosting bills, paid for advertising and other bits, you won't be making anything.

Once the bills come in and you aren't getting as many sales as you expected, you will lose the ambition to carry on, and will try and cut corners to get more work done.

I started off the same as you, building websites for fun but I knew I wanted to do it as a job so I taught myself all the coding stuff so I could build websites properly, 10+ years and still learning, I can now charge £10k+ for a website as I have the skills, you're limited to what you can do without getting other people involved.

I am not saying don't do it but it's not as easy as going out there and making money, you will spend a lot of time looking for customers, it will take months or years to build up a decent client base, you will get ******** clients who expect you to work for them 24/7.

If you have the skills to build websites on WP then look at doing affiliate websites, you don't have clients and you create sites you want too, you earn money from people visiting your websites and clicking your links to other sites / products.

I know quite a few people who do what you want to do but they offer it as part as other services or as a hobby with their day job, unless you can get clients in fast and get sites out fast you're never going to make a lot of money.

 

[iconic]

I don't think your idea has legs and this is from my experiences of 5 years+ as a freelancer and 10+ building websites. I offer a similar service to clients so know what you're planning to do.

1) Clients who pay the least expect the most, most of my support requests comes from clients who took the "cheap option" but want the customisation of the bespoke site. They just see £150 and want the whole world for it. I have clients who buy custom sites in the £xx,xxx bracket and they hardly ever need support.

2) By you not having any idea on how to actually code will be your downfall, what will you do if a plugin the customer installs causes an error on the site? Do you know how to diagnose issues and fix them? You say you're paying a dev £3 to fix an issue, how long will he be available, what happens if he is on holiday?

3) Your customers will demand customisations, some will be happy to pay for them but majority won't, they will expect custom work thrown in for your work, if you don't they will cause hours of stress (I do support services for template developers)

4) £150 is not a lot, at £30 it's only 5 hours, if the theme is £40 then you're down to just £110 which is just over 3 hours work, but you need to:

- find 5 themes,
- talk them through them and they make a decision
- install the theme, set it up, install plugins and their content
- make adjustments on the the finished site, including layouts, colours etc
- show the customer how to use WordPress, the theme and the plugins

I charge for 5 hours at £40 an hour + the cost of the template for this service and I over 50% of projects take at least 4 hours

Being brutally honest, you may enjoy making websites but you aren't going into this business for the love of the job, you are seeing the money, once you have paid your hosting bills, paid for advertising and other bits, you won't be making anything.

Once the bills come in and you aren't getting as many sales as you expected, you will lose the ambition to carry on, and will try and cut corners to get more work done.

I started off the same as you, building websites for fun but I knew I wanted to do it as a job so I taught myself all the coding stuff so I could build websites properly, 10+ years and still learning, I can now charge £10k+ for a website as I have the skills, you're limited to what you can do without getting other people involved.

I am not saying don't do it but it's not as easy as going out there and making money, you will spend a lot of time looking for customers, it will take months or years to build up a decent client base, you will get ******** clients who expect you to work for them 24/7.

If you have the skills to build websites on WP then look at doing affiliate websites, you don't have clients and you create sites you want too, you earn money from people visiting your websites and clicking your links to other sites / products.

I know quite a few people who do what you want to do but they offer it as part as other services or as a hobby with their day job, unless you can get clients in fast and get sites out fast you're never going to make a lot of money.

Gareth,

A few images on your website don't seem to load?

I'm using Chrome.

Andy

 

[Poppy Design]

I forgot to add... there are plenty of hobby/2nd job/student web designers around offering cheap websites ie £99 etc so I don't see what's new or unique about what you are planning? It's been done and is currently out there... there must be a design service around for every budget and requirements already.

TBH if you are not going to offer any customisation/tweaks for your clients you will struggle - the client can easy do what you are planning themselves as most of the WP themes have in built editors to change colours/text etc

 

[tombuckland]

Agree with most of the stuff that has been said above, but at the end of the day you are only charging them £150? They are not going to expect the world. If you were charging 7k it would be a different story. But I imagine the sites you can create would look very professional as I understand the sort of thing you are trying to do, it is quite similar to an idea I had a few years ago.

If you can "sell" your services I'm sure you will be successful, you might want to set out some contracts with clients and also why not get a reseller hosting yourself and sell the hosting for a few pounds a month to the people you are creating websites for, then you have the residual income coming in in the long run too.

 

[Farley93]

Thank you tombuckland

You have clearly understood the idea and service. As you said, they won't be expecting the world only paying £150 and that's exactly right. What's great is they won't be expecting the world but will get a fantastic end product anyway.

I will definitely take on board your reseller hosting idea as this seems to make complete sense for my business model.

 

[Farley93]

I'm setting up my site now and wanted to know, based on the multiple descriptions of my service that I've given in this thread, can anyone suggest a domain name? It needs to be a .com and doesn't have to be anything relating to me, such as my name or location.

I want it to be relatively short and perhaps suggest it's an all-in-one easy website building solution. The name can also be completely random but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[iconic]

I'm setting up my site now and wanted to know, based on the multiple descriptions of my service that I've given in this thread, can anyone suggest a domain name? It needs to be a .com and doesn't have to be anything relating to me, such as my name or location.

I want it to be relatively short and perhaps suggest it's an all-in-one easy website building solution. The name can also be completely random but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Does it have to be a .com ? I have a good .co.uk available...

Andy

 

[ryedale]

Thank you tombuckland

You have clearly understood the idea and service. As you said, they won't be expecting the world only paying £150 and that's exactly right. What's great is they won't be expecting the world but will get a fantastic end product anyway.

I will definitely take on board your reseller hosting idea as this seems to make complete sense for my business model.

Three designers on here with 25 years experience between us of working with exactly the sort of people you are targeting have told you that it's the people who pay the least who want the most and you will hit a lot of problems.

We're not trying to be killjoys, We just want you to be realistic but I don't think there's much more we can say, you'll just have to find it out for yourself

 

[Farley93]

Three designers on here with 25 years experience between us of working with exactly the sort of people you are targeting have told you that it's the people who pay the least who want the most and you will hit a lot of problems.

We're not trying to be killjoys, We just want you to be realistic but I don't think there's much more we can say, you'll just have to find it out for yourself

My point was that someone finally fully understood the concept. A lot of the other replies seemed to miss the point a bit, despite the fact they were still helpful.

I don't doubt that the customers paying the least are usually the hardest to deal with, but what I do know is that they are not within their rights to complain because they'll have known from the beginning, as it'll be made crystal clear, that 'we' can only customise the options given to you when you were picking a theme.

This means they can't be trouble because of the rules I've set out beforehand. I just feel, despite your experience, that it makes complete sense. A great site, completed in 24-36 hours for only £150. Where can you go wrong?

I won't be needing consultations with the customers beforehand, the whole business is going to be simple and streamlined. They'll be asked what they want in the contact form they fill out on the site, I will find 5-15 themes which comply with their requirements and let them pick one. Each theme will have the possible customisation options included so they know what can and can't be changed. That way I'm completely covered and cut down the time dealing with customers.

If I turn out to be wrong, I'll learn a lesson. But I'm confident I can help others learn a lesson with the way they approach their businesses if, as I hope and predict, my new business does well.