Thinking about starting a web design biz - need feedback

[GarryP]

Hi,

I am thinking about starting a web design business, but just want some feedback before I continue with the thought process.

As I will be running this from home, how does one deal with clients;

Do I need to talk with the client face to face?
Or is it possible to do everything over email/ticket/phone/skype?

I don't really wanting them to come to my home for a meeting, so I maybe, able to go to them within a set radius.

What your thoughts on this?

 

[bakedplan]

Hi,

I am thinking about starting a web design business, but just want some feedback before I continue with the thought process.

As I will be running this from home, how does one deal with clients;

Do I need to talk with the client face to face?
Or is it possible to do everything over email/ticket/phone/skype?

I don't really wanting them to come to my home for a meeting, so I maybe, able to go to them within a set radius.

What your thoughts on this?

You can deal with clients through a project management software, which will handle all communications, as well as phone calls or even video chats!

The best option would be to offer yourself as a freelance designer/developer that way it's much more of a personal touch and clients would understand the restrictions of visiting.

Be sure to do your research!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Many people can amend or write web software but few have the design flair that makes sites stand out, some also know whats required for SEO and PPC, some even consider themselves a designer putting up a three page site using templates others have made.

Such a misused word but hopefully not by you

Every town these days have office space you can hire by the hour rather than have people call at your house and the cheapest option is to put yourself out and visit them which gives a much better impression and even more if you have done a bit of research into their company

 

[Alan]

Hi Gary,

Many web designers work from home. I'm not a web designer, but as a web site builder sub contract design work to designers that nearly all work from home.

If you are working with local businesses they would expect to meet you during the sales process at least once. After that you generally can work by email & phone.

For very small businesses, a coffee shop meeting is absolutely fine.

For larger businesses ( maybe 2 or 3 people want to be in the meeting ) you should be able to hire a meeting room in your local town for some £20 per hour - ish - just factor that into costs.
( you may be able to strike a deal - for instance I get free use of a meeting room at one of my clients as they want me to be successful, as they want me to continue to support them - relationship thing )

If they are not local, it can all be done by phone & email for smaller businesses, but bigger businesses may want you to come to them so you can 'pitch' to them.

Be very careful about travelling to clients to 'pitch', especially distance, travelling time is expensive and businesses that are looking for 'pitches' you have a generally a lot of competition - so you need to set a 'rule' , e.g. you don't travel to a client unless the value of the project is £xxxx ( and I suggest many thousands not hundreds - but that is up to you ).

 

[Alan]

p.s. Chris is absolutely right in that 'Web design business' is an often mis used.

I even miss use it in my footer, as small businesses search for the term web designer - when what they want is just a website, complete ( design, technology, functionality, content etc ).

It would be good if you could define what you mean by 'web design business' more precisely, that way you can get more focused advice.

 

[GarryP]

Thanks for all the replies.

I mean Web Design by;
Wordpress, PHP and MySQL and HTML sites
I know the basics of SEO
I am not great with graphics, but I know someone who can do them.

Will be hosting them on my own UK VPS.

 

[Mark T Jones]

To add to the above, the 'right' answer to your question will very much depend on how you are targeting/defining yourself in the very crowded marketplace

If we can know that you can get more focused answers

 

[fisicx]

What web design in Wordpress? Are you building your own themes, developing functions and plugins and optimising the scripts and styles to make it responsive and fast ( two things Google now looks for), or are you just configuring ready made themes?

And it won't take long for your VPS to clog up and slow down. You are much better off not hosting the client sites unless you are offering 24/7 support.

 

[GarryP]

I am optimsing the themes including js and css, but you are right Wordpress not really Web design,
Have another site that is fully custom PHP/MySQL coding.
tes don't load in under 0.5 seconds, I am not happy

The VPS I am running, is 8GB RAM, 4 CPU and SSD drive, can be upgraded at any time to the next package within 30 minutes 24x7. I ran my own hosting company in the past so know how to look after the servers, so they run like clock work. I am always around and can get access to the server anywhere. Have them fully monitored every 1 minute by Pingdom.

The DNS is split between the VPS and a DNS only server and backups are off server and in another country.

 

[Alan]

web design business

Despite using the generic term - you are in the same spaces as many including myself & to some extent @fisicx

It is a crowded space, and whilst you can pick off a few early easy wins ( in starting a business you always get a initial boom because of personal contacts etc ) but after that it peters out and then you start to learn what marketing and sales really is.

Many of us in the WordPress space have diversified into other products & services that complement the solution - for instance I'm a Google Cloud Partner now and @fisicx has a few plugins to his name ( as do I ) and a theme.

I don't exactly agree with @fisicx on the hosting side of things, as long as you don't allow the clients direct access to the servers and you provide a fully managed WordPress service. However I often wonder whether I should outsource that side of my business - the problem is the rewards are quite high providing the fully managed aspects.

 

[GarryP]

Hi,

Yes I fully agree the about it being crowded, which is why I am trying to work out if it something I want to get into.

My other idea is for hosting, which I know quiet well, but is also very crowded for generic hosting.

But I think I maybe able to offer a neice market, for a set PHP script (offering a managed solution), which I know quiet well and have done coding in before, however the PHP script in question is a bit behind the times, in PHP version and would need updating.

Then do Wordpress hosting aswell, but that is crowded, as nearly all hosting companies say they do Wordpress hosting.

@fisicx Sorry if I came across rude as I didn't mean to.

 

[fisicx]

@fisicx Sorry if I came accross rude as I didn't mean to.

No worries.

There is a good local market for simple wordpress sites. I build dozens of the things for local tradesmen and businesses. I've got the whole thing scripted so can get a ready made site up and running in less than an hour. They then pay and I wait for them to provide the content. It's easy money and takes very little effort.

The big money comes from the bespoke work. building custom themes and plugins is very lucrative. For example, I've just built a plugin for a Swedish loan company; a bout 2 days work and a couple of hours on skype has earned me over 600 euros. Add that to the 3 sites I built and the pro upgrades to my plugins suite and I can easily earn enough to only have to work two days a week.

The trick is to automate as much as you can. Don't spend time setting up themes, automate everything. Or even better, build you own theme and use this as the basis for everything. Much simpler than faffing about with something you got off themeforest.

 

[QuickRebates]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Web Development / Design incredibly saturated. You also have the problem with the cheaper Indian and Asian labour workforce bringing down the margins.

 

[GarryP]

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Web Development / Design incredibly saturated. You also have the problem with the cheaper Indian and Asian labour workforce bringing down the margins.

Yes you are right it is over saturated, but I think if you can target a niche market, it is possible to do.

 

[fisicx]

Totally agree.

Become known locally (for example) as the go to person for small business websites.

Or create a niche theme or plugin.

The market is saturated with cheap developers, you need to rise above them be a specialist.

 

[Alan]

I agree https://locally.co.uk/ is the right strategy