Help starting my web design business from home

[warwickwater]

I think the OP demo sites look very good - and to my mind far far better visually than the other examples in this thread (like the wills site) which definitely look very 'junior designer' to me with typos, and non existant typography / graphics! I think as long as the customer is clear on what they are getting the plan is fine - this needs to be explained in clear but positive language up front but I do not see an issue. I don't expect a new kitchen when my builder comes to install the bathroom, and Tesco didn't offer to make up my sandwiches when I bought a loaf earlier today.

I think the real issue is a lot of the small/ one man existing 'web experts' have always done thing one way, and see the rise of quality graphic/ typography in cheap themes as a threat - whether then admit it openly or not!

 

[ryedale]

Given that we use the same themes for budget sites and for a similar price, the only difference being that we actually customize them,code them and tailor them to the client's styling request and provide the ongoing support and invite them into the office for a full training on how to use the CMS, I don't think there is too much to worry about there

However, I genuinely do wish Farley the best of success, I actually like to see people getting into web design that's why I've taken a lot of time out today to try and help him and offer some advice on avoiding potential pitfalls that I went through which I believe was the original point of this thread.

Regarding non existent graphics on the wills site - the images used were supplied by the client and she chose the font, wanting clean and minimal so that fitted the bill

 

[bluedreamer]

Interesting thread. Here's my take on your idea...

For making a few quid on the side it probably has some mileage but for £150 a pop you probably won't make a full time income from it. To turn over £25k a year you'd have to sell over 150 sites a year, that's 3 a week, every week. If you do one a week you would be doing incredibly well but even that will be hard going.

I think only offering a few "themes" is very limiting, a large number of potential clients won't like your initial selection so you will need to factor in time to find something that suits their needs - then, as others have mentioned, you will inevitably have to make tweaks - clients can be very finnicky, even when you're offering cheap prices.

Limiting what you offer will also limit potential customers.

There are 100's if not 1000's of businesses offering these sort of sites, most from the far east and they generally offer more for your pound - there is a hell of a lot of competition for cheap sites so you will need to fight for every customer, that's not easy even if you have a gazillion followers on MyFace or whatever social network.

Take a very typical scenario:
Customer buys a site from you, you provide a theme that matches their requirements at the time of sale. Customer comes back to you 4 weeks later and asks for some custom feature they want adding because their business needs have changed

- what do you do?

Hosting, email and stuff
Have you really thought about handling web hosting for your clients? Irrespective of what host you/they choose clients will often expect you to help them set up things like email accounts, visitor stats, and you will often be their first port of call if anything goes wrong (when the site gets hacked, down or otherwise), even though it's not strictly your responsibilty.

Simply telling them "it's not my job" can leave them frustrated and that can reflect on you. Once a bad word gets out it can spread like wildfire.

And what about supporting your clients? You may find WP's admin easy to use but an aweful lot of people will struggle. Are you contemplating assisting your customers at all or just going to dump them it it, lost and confused?

You need to think about this!

Learning the basics
Saying you don't have time to learn basic skills like HTML and CSS (and PHP as you're using Wordpress) is very short sighted in my opinion, and it really limits what you can offer in terms of a service to your customers. Sure you can outsource it, but as you said you want to make money so learning the basics will give you extra earning potential.

Anyhow, I'd say give it a go and see where you get...

 

[MartynKeigher]

Ya... Good luck with it man!! I'd be interested to see how you go with it for sure. I know several of people have gone down this road and some failed, some has excelled in it. It's all about where you position yourself int he market and setting client expectations from the get-go!


Again, as I stated before... I'd be more than happy to help you out down this road you want to go on and may even be able to assist you in some of technical html/css bits as and when you need it.


I hope I wasn't coming across as a person that didn't seem to understand what you was trying to do. I DO see what you are trying to do... and only if you do it right, you will succeed at it.


Here are a few tips (and recommendations) I have for you...

1) Get a Wordpress site setup: OK! This one is obvious!! Kinda makes sense to have YOUR site be built off of Wordpress, seen as that is what you'll be using WP for your clients. Also make it social, add a blog. Make it relevant to your target audience.

2) Payment System: You'll need a way of accepting payments. Maybe even one in which you can create subscriptions that bill your clients automatically?? An easy and FREE one to use is "Easy Digital Downloads" by 'Pippin’s Plugins', alternatively.. PayPal.

3) Ticketing System: To effectively keep on top of your customers needs it’s a good idea to have a real support/ticketing system in place, and maybe even a CRM system to help you with communications. My personal recommendation here would be "Zoho". That'll cover you for your CRM and Ticketing needs... unless of course, you develop your own (maybe even in wordpress!)

4) Multi-site Admin: Get familiar with a tool that enables you to manage multiple Wordpress sites from ONE console. Having to record all those sites/usernames/passwords will get harder over time. 2 good ones that are worth a look are "ManageWP" & "InfiniteWP". There are many more out there I’m sure.

5) Have fun doing it and LEARN as much as you can from each thing you do. Whether it be a through a mistake or a win. Never stop learning or having fun!!

Regards,
Martyn T. Keigher
Twitter: @MartynKeigher

 

[silvermusic]

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?

You've not had many dealings with the general public before have you.

Listen to what you're being told by the experienced web people, it's sound advice. If you don't you're heading for a whole world of pain.

 

[Farley93]

silvermusic...

I've kept a note of that very 'helpful' contribution and will be back to show my success or failure in a few months.

Might be a good idea to actually offer some advice next time you post, rather than aimlessly echo others who are clearly more knowledgable on the topic than you.

 

[jacksonian]

Farley93,

1. First thing I would put to you is... how well do you know the needs of you market? The second thing is... the more focused on money you are, the less likely you are to succeed. You need to focus on helping people who have a problem! Find the need/desire in the marketing and fill that gap.

2. You need to be prepared to invest! Online businesses take WORK, time, and EFFORT, just the same as off line businesses do, and anyone telling you otherwise is full of BS.

3. Join the Warrior forum and spend a few weeks or months perusing the forum and doing some pertinent searches for your particular interest - or as you should realize by now, those needs that are required my a hungry market that you think best fit your skillset in terms of being a supplier. "Internet marketing" and its sub-niches is a vast territory, but there are more than enough opportunities for people all the time. You need to be become familiar with this specialised area of business - through a specialised (dedicated) forum. This one is excellent, but serves a general, not specific, market.

4. IMHO you should check out Tony-Shepherd dot com; he's a top guy in his field, and runs various progs that WILL show you how to create an online business. He has various platforms that suit varying levels of experience, and is a down to Earth, no BS type of guy. PM me if you'd like any more info, I'd quite happy to give you 30 mins direction for fr*ee on Skype

 

[ryedale]

Reading back over this thread this morning, was't going to get involved any more but realised I hadn't touched on the issue of getting content.

That will be a huge issue for you - most small businesses decide they want a website but then can take weeks / months to give you the content after ordering the site They often don't realize how much is involved in writing good copy for a site or they get sidetracked by business or life events

We have 3 or 4 small projects that have been ongoing for months, one dating back to last December because the lady involved has had health problems

So you need to factor in the time for constantly chasing content on the phone or emails and then organizing it when it arrives in dribs and drabs and doesn't quite fit the template you had in mind.

Sure, you can make rules and regulations, all content must be delivered by this time etc. but it will be ignored and the more you hassle the client, the quicker you'll get their backs up.

Then bear in mind that when you do finally get the content and the site sorted, you often won't get paid for another 30 days or more.

This is a prime reason why people on here are advocating that you learn some coding skills - if you can take on bigger projects and make more money then you can sustain the delays on the odd small project - if not, then it will be a real struggle to make anything on it.

 

[tombuckland]

For someone looking to start up a small business and asking questions to a business forum, some of the responses are not very encouraging. I know everyone is going to say they are just being realists and its worse to say to someone "yeah thats amazing go ahead" but constructive criticism is one thing, shooting down someone else's idea and making them feel a bit sh*t is another....

 

[ryedale]

I think to be fair, a lot of people, including myself, have wished the OP success - it's not a case of trying to shoot him down at all, his enthusiasm is great

The main reason I think most of the designers in this thread have posted is to try and encourage him to see how much bigger and therefore more financially viable he could make it with even a little coding knowledge.

It's a tough industry to get started in, a lot harder now than when I started and if he's aware of some of the pitfalls then that can only be a good thing surely

 

[beasty]

A great site, completed in 24-36 hours for only £150. Where can you go wrong?



Let me count the ways....

Actually let me not it would be a long post

 

[Farley93]

A great site, completed in 24-36 hours for only £150. Where can you go wrong?



Let me count the ways....

Actually let me not it would be a long post

Time to look for others forums I think. Offer some advice or constructive criticism or don't waste your time and energy replying.

 

[fisicx]

Farley,

I get what you are offering but know from many years experience that you will get bogged down in the details. Even using themes there are so many variables and extras that customers want. The actual theme is almost secondary to getting a site up and running. You won't be able to streamline the biz the way you want, every customer will prevaricate over colours, fonts, plugins, footers, logo, sidebars, widgets and so on.

And forget your twitter followers - if you start pushing your services through social media you won't have an followers.

As many have suggested, learn wordpress and then launch the biz. You plan will have legs for a month or so then the leads will dry up and you will spend more time marketing than you do building websites.

 

[Farley93]

Maybe it's because I'm slightly younger, but I'm coming at this from a different perspective. Maybe I'll come to learn that I was naive to begin with, but at this point I believe I have a great, perhaps new, way of running a web design, if you can even call it that, business.

I'm aiming for the small businesses, the ones who are just glad to be online as it is. I might only know a few small businesses, but every single one of them had almost zero involvement in the actual designing of the site. They just want a professional website to reflect well on them in front of the millions of people online.

What people should realise it that these small business (salons, restaurants, florists, bakeries) will probably have, and want, 10-15 pages like they have on their current site. They'll probably want the same information or a slightly altered and improved version of the content already on their site. This, despite what another user suggested, won't, in my mind, become an endless wait for them to send me the info they want on their site. Firstly, I'll just copy and paste their current content if they don't want changes and if they do, while waiting for them to reply to my email, I'll have their old content included so they can see how it looks and that'll excite them enough to get it sent quicker.

My business would be an express service because, from the little knowledge I have, small businesses don't want to wait a long time for their site, quite the opposite. Sure, there will be customers who take their time, but I think the reason this user suggested people take a long time to reply is that you're taking a certain time to make a site and in the meantime they may have become less excited about the project and it's not immediately on their mind. My turnover time will be so quick, they won't have time for the excitement to wear off.

Maybe it's not the best way to go about treating customers well, but I'd see it as a production line. I'd have emails which need to be sent to them sitting on my computer as drafts. When I get a contact form from a customer from my website, I copy and paste the email I've previously written out and send it to them with 5-15 theme options. They tell me the one they want and let me know if I'm using their current pages/content or whether they want to make changes, and then I'll have the site done in 2-4 hours. I'll email them another draft email but change the URL to their site URL. Then I'll send them a draft email of wordpress instructions and we're done, onto the next one. They may not say it was overly attentive customer service, but they won't be disappointed with it either, because they'll have a fantastic new website, a maximum of 36 hours after contacting and for only £150.

The bottom line is that I feel I'm new to all this and can see it from another perspective and, with respect, some of the users who've replied are stuck in their old ways and can't or won't see that their are other opportunities and more profitable ones too.

 

[Farley93]

Farley,

I get what you are offering but know from many years experience that you will get bogged down in the details. Even using themes there are so many variables and extras that customers want. The actual theme is almost secondary to getting a site up and running. You won't be able to streamline the biz the way you want, every customer will prevaricate over colours, fonts, plugins, footers, logo, sidebars, widgets and so on.

And forget your twitter followers - if you start pushing your services through social media you won't have an followers.

As many have suggested, learn wordpress and then launch the biz. You plan will have legs for a month or so then the leads will dry up and you will spend more time marketing than you do building websites.

I've mentioned already in this thread that when I present them with suitable theme options, they'll also be presented with the customisation options that are available. This means they won't be able to ask for tiny details. Secondly, I see what you are saying in that they could endlessly change their mind about colours and ask me to make the changes for them with 10-12 hours in between every email, but if this becomes a problem I will complete the site and include in the wordpress instructions that I'll send them how they can customise it themselves, as it's very easy. Also, it WILL NOT be stated anywhere that they can request unlimited customisations. It WILL stated that I will make one 'round' of changes and then they will need to do it themselves. I'll give it a positive spin.

I am pretty much an expert now at social media, you don't gain that many followers in just over a year without picking a lot up along the way and I know exactly how frequent to tweet and when to make sure people don't see it as spam. It's also not critical. I could gain 10-20 customers just by contacting other twitter fan pages with 50,000+ followers and refer them to 'my web design guy', who'd obviously be me on another twitter account, and gain a bunch of customers.

I still don't understand the insistence on learning to code. I can make better sites using themes than I could if I studied graphic design and web design for 4 years at uni, because I can pick the best themes on the website I use to buy them from the best of the best. It's also cheaper this way, the sites look better, they're complete quicker and less stressful. I understand perhaps learning a bit to make changes I'll want to make without outsourcing it, but again, that's too time consuming and I don't think it's necessary when the guy I currently use charges £3 per problem.

 

[fisicx]

They tell me the one they want and let me know if I'm using their current pages/content or whether they want to make changes, and then I'll have the site done in 2-4 hours.

This is where I think you are wildly optimistic. I can get a WP site up and running in under an hour. It can then take days to get all information together to finish it off.

For example, you could install the theme and have it looking nice but they want a specfic social media plugin or a booking form or a slider gallery. It takes time to get these installed and configured and often days to get the images or SM details or whatever. And then they realise the prices they gave were all wrong and the theme doesn't support tables or the font the custmer wants won't load properly or they want the avatars removing. It's all these little tweaks that take the time resolving.

But from your posts you seem to have it all figured out so all the best with your new biz.

 

[DazRave]

The bottom line is that I feel I'm new to all this and can see it from another perspective and, with respect, some of the users who've replied are stuck in their old ways and can't or won't see that their are other opportunities and more profitable ones too.

I've just read the majority of this thread and as a Web Consultant for 7 years working for both freelance small scale businesses as well as large blue chip companies, i thought i would give my two cents:

You might make a bit of pocket money with the format you are applying... but you will not make anywhere near the money I think you are hoping for. You are mixing up naivety with stubbornness. Just because no one has started a web design agency like you are doing, doesn't mean there is some sort of gap in the market for it. It CERTAINLY doesn't mean everyone so far are old fashioned and stuck in their ways. I'm only 26!

I wish you the best of luck and I certainly hope you can prove me wrong, as I hate seeing people waste their time with bad idea's they are blind too.

 

[NickGrogan]

I am pretty much an expert now at social media, you don't gain that many followers in just over a year without picking a lot up along the way and I know exactly how frequent to tweet and when to make sure people don't see it as spam. It's also not critical. I could gain 10-20 customers just by contacting other twitter fan pages with 50,000+ followers and refer them to 'my web design guy', who'd obviously be me on another twitter account, and gain a bunch of customers.

What's your twitter id?

 

[Farley93]

This is where I think you are wildly optimistic. I can get a WP site up and running in under an hour. It can then take days to get all information together to finish it off.

For example, you could install the theme and have it looking nice but they want a specfic social media plugin or a booking form or a slider gallery.

I've said already, the theme comes with what it comes with. They'll be able to browse live versions of the themes before picking one and whatever comes with it is what they'll get. They'll also get the customisation options too. These themes are created to be complete, they'll have social icons, contact forms, maps and everything else you'd expect.

I'll offer them the completed site exactly how the theme preview was but with their content. I will then offer one round of changes to the customisation options and if the theme comes with other features, as they often do, like pricing tables, gallery sliders etc, I will add in one or two of these too.

They're getting a brilliant site for a small amount of money and in a maximum of 36 hours after giving me the green light to go ahead after they've told me the theme they want and given their content. They won't be picky and won't be within their rights to be, as they know what they were getting before the agreed.

 

[Farley93]

You might make a bit of pocket money with the format you are applying... but you will not make anywhere near the money I think you are hoping for. You are mixing up naivety with stubbornness. Just because no one has started a web design agency like you are doing, doesn't mean there is some sort of gap in the market for it. It CERTAINLY doesn't mean everyone so far are old fashioned and stuck in their ways. I'm only 26!

I'm not sure if I stated this before, but I've got 2 other ways I make money which will be done at the same time as this. All 3 ideas don't make much money on their own, and couldn't be done on their own, but together, they do. One is my Twitter network which literally takes 45 minutes per day and makes me £14,000 a year at the moment, the other takes 4 hours per week and makes £5,000.

I feel there is a gap in the market, I wouldn't waste my time if there wasn't. When I wanted my own website, when my parents wanted one for their site, when my friends wanted one for their business idea, they don't want to make endless changes. They want to basically be given a good looking site and don't want the burden of having their less-than-experienced eye for design potentially risk the look of the site. They want the expert to do it, do it quickly, do it cheaply and not have them worry.

 

[fisicx]

If these are paid themes are you buying the developers license?

And there is a gap in the market, I make an awful lot of money filling it. What make the money isn't building the site - it's doing all the tweaks afterwards that brings in the big money.

 

[Farley93]

What's your twitter id?

Give me yours and I'll tweet you. I am not willing to share on here.

Also, I have many but I will tweet you from one of the biggest.

 

[Farley93]

If these are paid themes are you buying the developers license?

I've had my step mother's dad look over the details of the license, as he is a lawyer, and he told me it's perfectly fine as long as I don't buy a theme to use for another customer and then use the same file again without re-buying it. You're allowed to use the theme to make one site for you or someone else, but not to endlessly make them with the same theme download/license after only paying $50 (£30)

 

[Farley93]

What make the money isn't building the site - it's doing all the tweaks afterwards that brings in the big money.

I agree, and will charge for extra additions if I can fit it into my schedule.

 

[NickGrogan]

Give me yours and I'll tweet you. I am not willing to share on here.

Also, I have many but I will tweet you from one of the biggest.

@theenergybroker
https://twitter.com/TheEnergyBroker

 

[CompuGlobal-Hyper-MegaNet]

there's too many posts to read through in its entirety but here's my view:

- those websites are very nice. admittedly all the work was done by someone else, but your customers won't know that. people who don't know about web design etc will be happy with low cost sites that look like that

- your customers may or may not know about people per hour, but if they did, they could get a more skilled WP coder to do more for less. I had a responsive site coded from scratch in HTML5 for £28 (it was so good i doubled that with tip)

- you're fortunate that you're young and have little overheads and probably do other stuff for the rest of the time (study, go out etc) so you can quite easily grow this idea organically over time without having the pressure of salaries and bills to pay

- you've already had a few clients. try pushing for word of mouth recommendations as you learn the pitfalls of sales, business and your product. don't expect to become a millionaire overnight, but you can expect healthy growth from happy customers before you even begin marketing to the outside world.

 

[Farley93]

@theenergybroker
https://twitter.com/TheEnergyBroker

Done.

 

[NickGrogan]

thanks, impressive.

 

[DazRave]

One is my Twitter network which literally takes 45 minutes per day and makes me £14,000 a year at the moment, the other takes 4 hours per week and makes £5,000.

Sorry to go off topic a little, I'm curious to know how you make 14k a year from a twitter network exactly. Are we taking paid/sponsored tweets or something?

 

[Faevilangel]

Farley, you're looking at it from a newbie to the industry and being blunt, you're doomed to fail, Fisicx, Ryedale and I have years of experience of the industry and you're basically saying we are wrong because you think you know the customers better.

I do the same service you offer at twice the price because of the pitfalls you're ignoring, customers will not get the details to you quickly, the site will not be done in 2 days and they will want hundreds of changes. They start off all nicey about the theme and then suddenly say "can you change that as I don't like it" or "my friend who builds sites says this can be done".

You aren't going to be making any money from this, a third of your price is the template, then you have hosting costs, payment processing costs and then you have business costs. Web design is not a cash cow, it's a long, hard game and the cheaper the price, the more hassle you get from the customer.

To make a decent living you need to be doing a site a day, 5 days a week e.g. £750 a week turnover, then minus your themes and your costs, you will be lucky to take £300 a week. I used to get more than that working in Tesco.

It's ok as part as another business but on it's own it's not a good business, you cannot streamline it enough to be able to build enough sites to actually make a decent living. If there was 3/4 of you then you could possibly make better money but for a single person it's a a dead duck imho.

You're main issue is going to be marketing, can you really supply yourself enough customers to keep you busy but also leave you enough time to actually do the work, you will quickly realise there is lots of admin to do in the background which will end up eating your working time. I spend on average 20 hours a week creating invoices, chasing invoices and replying to emails, that's 20 hours of unpaid work.

You need to raise the price, you want to cut the useless customers off, the ones who want the world for the cheapest price but you need to entice those who want a good job done and are willing to pay for it. £150 is bottom of the barrel prices which will only lead to issues with poor customers. Trust me when I say it, you don't want to be doing cheap prices, it just leads to the wrong type of customer.

Have you thought about teaming up with a company that offers this solution, they can offer the people to get it done quickly and you concentrate on bringing in the sales, you won't make £150 per sale, maybe £50 but you will be able to get much more done than if you did it yourself?

 

[Farley93]

Sorry to go off topic a little, I'm curious to know how you make 14k a year from a twitter network exactly. Are we taking paid/sponsored tweets or something?

That's only possible on some accounts where the integration seems more natural. However, starting websites for the accounts with interesting content and knowing where to put what ads and how to structure articles is the main money maker. Becoming affiliates of other websites (not product websites such as shops, but article websites), is also a good idea. Finding one with content suitable for your followers is a pain but once you get one, that's £2000 per year from one site alone, but you need 80,000+ to make that. I have many accounts but the business account with 10,000 followers is the biggest earner because of all the relevant and helpful products I can tweet about.

 

[MartynKeigher]

WOW!!! Well this post has become a hot topic!!

@Farley93 ... I just want to chip in here again and wish you the best of luck with what you are looking to do!! Sure... There will be people that will/won't encourage what you are looking to do, but at the end of the day... you will do what you want to do and that's fantastic!

Be sure to take some nuggets from the positives that people have told you and also take the negativity you have received and turn it into a driving force to make you better.

No matter what anybody does.. you cannot please everyone. So you stick to what it is you want to do and continue to dig for advice on issues that you need answers with. You may want to subscribe to some small-biz forums, or even attend an online webinar or 2, or something similar and just take notes. I'm not saying you "don't know anything".. I'm saying that "you have lots to learn". (Do both mean the same thing?? Hell, NO! but...one is a more positive statement than the other!)

Don't get dis-spirited by people who tell you "you are doomed to fail" ... Just do what you want, listen to positive feedback, learn how to take constructive criticism, have fun, learn, and if you do pick up some WP skills along the way... then where is the harm in that!??

Can't wait to see some of the work that you do!

Good Luck with it all and keep in touch!
Martyn T. Keigher.

 

[Farley93]

being blunt, you're doomed to fail

What an encouraging environment this is.

 

[MartynKeigher]

Hi Hazel,

I will soon be bringing my own website back online... after a lengthy absence due to over-commitments, (my own "enthusiastic at the time" problem!) which I'm slowly in the process of delegating off to other people.

I may actually reach out to you for some more information, regarding your services, if that's OK. Can's say exactly when I will be 'rebooting' my site... but it WILL be by the end of the year. (or at least, that's my goal!)

If that sounds alright with you, then DM me on Twitter @MartynKeigher

Look forward to it.

 

[Faevilangel]

What an encouraging environment this is.

You pick 6 words out of 2 long winded posts I made, you are only doomed to fail as you aren't planning, you think because it's your idea it's going to work but 3 guys who have been doing this for years have told you it's not going to be easy, read the rest of my posts (and the other guys) and really take our advice on board, put your prices up, get someone who knows how to code on board and also have watertight terms so if you get an awkward customer then you can hopefully still get paid.

 

[ryedale]

There's a few questions that you haven't really answered yet which are important to make clear to potential clients

What will be your policy for ongoing support - will you help people if they mess their sites up, will you provide guidance in how to manage WP etc. Can they call you any time?

How are you going to manage this issue of getting content out of people?

 

[fisicx]

And don't forget, no matter how tight your T&C you will stuill be getting emails and phone calls asking for help. And if their site falls over because of a dodgy plugin they will be asking you for help - doesn't matter if it's nothing to do with you, they will still expect you to help.

So maybe change your marketing model and charge more to cover 'online support' or whatever.

 

[BusinessDeli]

Go ahead and do it - you have to believe in it strongly or you wouldn't still be here. Do it and find out who was right.
From scanning through the thread I reckon your biggest avenue in the future is the social media; although you haven't discussed it at any length I got the impression you were more skilled at that so maybe offer that service above hacking themes together.
While trying out the WP route though remember that these styles of sites are image-rich and anything provided by the customer is likely to be rubbish so you'll also need to buy in stock images.

 

[wearewattle]

This thread demonstrates what real people with (in my case 18 years) experience have to contend with. The OP openly states he has no skills or knowledge, openly admits that he is not willing to educate himself and openly states he wants to take peoples money for something they can do themselves.

A Wordpress theme is not a website people. This service is effectively conning people, my grandmother could do what the OP is trying to sell.

OP - if you want in on the web design business, I formally would like to offer you a one month unpaid internship within my agency. Please feel free to PM me for details.

 

[telemax]

. I used to get more than that working in Tesco.

These are words that should ring loud and clear in the OP's ears.

Selling on price is the lowest form of sales on the planet. In an initial conversation regarding web sites, price doesn't need to be mentioned. It's about finding out what they want, If you do it right they will tell you their budget without being prompted, and if you call the right companies it's often way into the thousands.

You will be better off working at Tesco than knocking out sites for £150.