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How to Start a Web Development Business in 14 Steps (In-Depth Guide)

Updated:   February 9, 2024

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The web development industry is booming. According to Statista , the global internet software and services market is projected to reach nearly $760 billion by 2025, up from around $430 billion in 2019. With more businesses operating online than ever before, demand for web developers continues to grow.

Whether you want to build sites and applications for clients or create your digital products and services, now is an excellent time to start a web development company. You don’t need a computer science degree to become a web developer today.

With user-friendly site builders, codeless solutions, and a wealth of online education resources, launching a successful web dev business is more accessible than ever. This guide will help you learn how to start a web development business. Topics include market research, marketing, registering an EIN, obtaining business insurance, and more.

1. Conduct Web Development Market Research

Market research is essential to web designers. It offers insight into web design businesses and the industry as a whole, including trends in building a business website, your target market, local market saturation, and other important data.

Several key factors are driving this growth:

• Increased Internet and mobile usage – There are over 4.6 billion Internet users globally today, up from under 2 billion in 2010.
• Higher internet penetration leads to greater demand for web services and developers.
• E-commerce explosion – Retail e-commerce sales topped $4.2 trillion in 2020 , accelerating the need for online stores and web apps.
• COVID-19 further fueled e-commerce adoption.
• Digital transformation – More companies are shifting business processes online and view websites/apps as critical. Forrester predicts over 50% of global GDP will be digitized by 2023.
• Rise of SaaS – The SaaS market is exploding, projected to reach $227 billion by 2022. Web developers are needed to build these cloud-based apps.

The types of services in highest demand include:

• Website design – Custom sites for SMBs, e-commerce stores, blogs, portfolios, etc. Freelancers can provide quality sites for lower costs vs agencies.
• Web/mobile app development – Apps becoming essential for businesses. Startups need MVPs built affordably.
• E-commerce development – Building and optimizing online stores using platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
• WordPress development – From blogs to business sites, WordPress powers over 40% of the web . Huge demand for customization services.
• Front-end development – Making sites attractive, responsive, accessible, and converting. Allows focusing on visual design vs back-end.

With low barriers to entry and ample online resources for learning web development, opportunities abound for freelancers and agencies to capitalize on this growth market. Success comes down to choosing a profitable niche, effectively marketing/selling services, and delivering high-quality work that keeps clients coming back.

2. Analyze the Competition

Understanding the competitive landscape is crucial when starting a web development business. This involves identifying direct competitors, analyzing their online presence and offerings, and determining how you can differentiate.

To find competitors, search-relevant keywords in Google and industry directories like Clutch. Look for web dev agencies and freelancers in your geographic area first.

Monitor their websites, portfolios, and listings to gather intel on services offered, clients, pricing, and marketing messaging. Compare this to your own planned positioning.

Search social media to see the content they post and how many followers they have. This shows their traction and customer engagement.

Track online reviews and ratings to assess quality of work and customer satisfaction. Spot pain points you can improve upon.

For local brick-and-mortar businesses, audit their website’s design, functionality, and SEO. Is their online presence as strong as competitors? Are they capitalizing on digital? This highlights opportunities to offer web development services to help them improve.

Conducting competitive research upfront and consistently allows you to:

• Price your services competitively
• Identify your niche and unique value proposition
• Improve upon competitors’ flaws and weaknesses -stay updated on new offerings and trends

Ongoing analysis ensures you build a sustainable competitive advantage in the dynamic web development market.

3. Costs to Start a Web Development Business

When starting a web development business, there are various one-time start-up costs to consider before opening for business. You’ll also encounter ongoing business expenses as you delve into project management as a web design company.

Start-up Costs

• Registration/Incorporation Fees – Depending on your business structure, expect to spend $50-$500 to register your business name and obtain proper licenses/permits. Sole proprietors can register a DBA for around $50 while incorporation may cost $500+.
• Workspace – For home-based businesses, this could be $0. Leasing office space can cost $1,000-$5,000 per month depending on location and size. Coworking memberships are around $150-500 monthly.
• Hardware – A quality laptop ($1,000-$2,000), second monitor ($100-$300), peripherals like mouse/keyboard ($50-150), and potentially a printer ($100-$300).
• Software – Operating systems, programming tools, design software, office suites, etc. Budget $500-$2,000 for necessary applications and subscriptions.
• Website – Having a professional site helps win clients. Budget $1,000-$5,000 for initial site design and development costs.
• Marketing – Initial launch marketing and sales materials like business cards can cost $500-$2,000.
• Professional Services – Lawyers and accountants cost $300-$500 for initial consultations and contract reviews.
• Working Capital – Have 3-6 months of operating capital saved as a buffer. This could be anywhere from $5,000-$20,000+ depending on your living costs.

Total first-year start-up costs for a basic web development business likely range from $10,000-$35,000+ for solo freelancers. Agencies with employees incur higher costs for office space, equipment, salaries, etc.

Ongoing Costs

• Hosting/SaaS fees – $50-$500
• Software subscriptions – $50-$500
• Coworking space – $150-$500
• Utilities – $100-$500
• Marketing expenses – $250-$2,000+
• Phone/internet – $100-$300
• Insurance – $100-$500
• Professional services – $100-$500
• Salaries (if employees) – wide range
• Taxes – budget 20-30% of income

The first-year total ongoing costs for a freelancer may be $10,000-$25,000. Agencies with staff will land much higher. You may also offer to pay for web hosting or offer it as an additional benefit to customers choosing your services.

4. Form a Legal Business Entity

When starting a web development company, a key decision is choosing your legal business structure. The four main options each have pros and cons to weigh.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the simplest structure. You operate as an individual with unlimited liability.

• Easy and inexpensive to set up
• Few legal formalities
• No liability protection – your assets can be seized
• Harder to raise investment capital
• Limited options for tax reduction strategies

Partnership

A partnership involves two or more co-owners sharing control and profits. Like sole proprietors, partners have unlimited personal liability.

• Low setup costs and requirements
• Shared decision making
• Combined resources and expertise
• Equally responsible for actions of the other partner(s)
• Profit sharing must be negotiated
• Potential for disputes and deadlock

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC provides personal liability protection while allowing pass-through taxation. This is a popular choice for web devs.

• Owners are not personally liable
• Flexible management options
• Increased credibility with clients
• Easy to add owners or raise investment
• More complex to establish official filing requirements
• Increased legal/tax formalities

Corporation

A corporation is a separate legal entity owned by shareholders.

• Limited liability for owners
• Increased access to capital and financing
• Option to go public and sell shares
• Most expensive and complex to set up and maintain
• Extensive recordkeeping and reporting
• Double taxation on profits and dividends

For most web development firms, forming an LLC provides the best mix of liability protection, tax flexibility, and ease of management. It’s a scalable structure that gives credibility when pitching clients. Just be sure to handle legal formalities diligently. Consult an attorney to ensure you make the optimal choice.

5. Register Your Business For Taxes

Unless you plan to operate your web development business as a sole proprietor using only your social security number, you’ll need an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS.

An EIN serves as your business’s tax ID number for federal tax purposes. It is required to:

• Open a business bank account
• Apply for business licenses and permits
• File and pay business taxes

An EIN is necessary for LLCs, corporations, partnerships, and even sole proprietors with employees.

Fortunately, applying for an EIN is quick and free through the IRS website .

To apply, first determine your business structure. Then gather any documents showing official registration.

Navigate to the EIN Assistant and answer a few short questions about your business. You’ll need to provide basic information like business name, address, and ownership details.

After submitting the online application, you will receive your EIN immediately. The entire process usually takes less than 10 minutes.

Save this EIN as you’ll need it frequently for tax and legal documents. You should also apply for any necessary state tax IDs on your state revenue department’s website to handle sales tax collection.

There are no fees to obtain an EIN. However, individual states may charge nominal processing fees ranging from $5-$25 for sales tax permits and other business licenses.

Having an EIN establishes business tax compliance and legitimacy from day one. Take this important step early in the web development startup process for smooth legal and financial operations.

6. Setup Your Accounting

As a web developer, meticulous financial recordkeeping and accounting practices are crucial from day one. This not only ensures tax compliance but gives you insights to make smart business decisions.

Accounting Software

Investing in tools like QuickBooks can automate much of the accounting process. Connect your bank and credit card accounts so transaction data flows into QuickBooks. This categorizes income and expenses for easy tracking and reporting.

Hire an Accountant

Hiring an accountant is highly recommended as well. They can handle key tasks like:

• Setting up your accounting system
• Performing monthly reconciliations
• Providing financial statements
• Filing quarterly/annual tax returns
• Identifying tax deductions you may miss

Expect to invest around $200-$500 per month for routine bookkeeping and accounting. Come tax time, preparation fees range from $500 for simple returns to $2,000+ for more complex reporting.

Open a Business Bank Account

Keeping business and personal finances completely separate is also vital. Open a dedicated business bank account to avoid commingling funds.

Apply for a Business Bank Account

Get a business credit card as well. Compared to personal cards, business cards offer:

• Higher limits to grow with your company
• Employee card issuance with spending controls
• Better rewards like cash back or travel perks

Have your EIN, income documentation, and business registration ready when applying. The limit and security deposit are determined by your estimated monthly spending.

7. Obtain Licenses and Permits

Before taking on any clients or generating revenue, it’s crucial your web development business has the proper licenses and permits in place. Find federal license requirements through the U.S. Small Business Administration . Find state requirements through the SBA local search tool .

The specific permits needed depend on your location and business structure. Common licenses include:

• Business License – Most cities and counties require a general business license to operate. Fees are usually under $100 annually. Apply through your local city hall or county clerk’s office by submitting a simple application and paying the fee. This license covers you at the most basic level.
• Fictitious Name Permit – If operating under a DBA (“doing business as”), register your fictitious name with the county clerk to obtain this permit before marketing or promotion. Expect fees of around $50 depending on location.
• Sales Tax Permit – While web developers don’t collect sales tax, a permit is often still required to show you comply with tax law. Submit minimal paperwork to the state revenue or taxation department for approval. Costs are generally under $20.
• Building Permits – If leasing office space, permits related to occupancy, equipment installation, signs, and building modifications may be required. Contact your local planning/development office to understand what’s needed based on your situation.

8. Get Business Insurance

Obtaining proper business insurance is highly recommended for web development companies. It protects you in the event of unexpected losses that could otherwise devastate your business.

Some common risks include:

• A client sues for poor quality work resulting in high legal fees.
• A cyber attack leads to data breaches and expensive recovery efforts.
• Key equipment like computers or servers are damaged or stolen.
• An office fire destroys hardware and files, halting operations.

Having coverage like general liability insurance, cyber/data breach insurance, business property insurance, and E&O (errors and omissions) insurance can be an absolute lifesaver should disasters strike. The costs pale in comparison to the financial, legal, and reputational harm of being uninsured.

To get covered, first, assess your risks and desired protection levels. Then obtain quotes online or work with an insurance agent or broker. Be ready to provide details on your business structure, location, client contracts, and more.

Policies a successful web development business would typically cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars annually depending on the extent of coverage. Review options carefully to balance premiums with sufficient coverage limits for peace of mind.

9. Create an Office Space

Having a professional office space lends legitimacy and provides room to collaborate, meet with clients, and separate work from home. While a home office works initially, most web developers eventually require external space.

Home Office

Converting a spare room into a home office costs little upfront for a web designer. It allows a quiet, convenient workspace when starting solo. However, meeting clients at home appears unprofessional long-term. Distractions like kids, pets, or chores also reduce productivity. Expect to invest $500-$2,000 furnishing a home office.

Coworking Space

Affordable coworking spaces like WeWork offer desk rentals starting around $300 monthly. These provide office infrastructure without overhead costs, great for a web design business. Coworking also enables networking with fellow entrepreneurs. Downsides include noise and lack of privacy during calls.

Retail Office

For location-based visibility, a modest retail space costs approximately $1,000-$1,500 monthly. However, street-facing offices rarely suit web developers’ needs. Most client meetings are virtual or offsite. Retail spaces are better suited for professional services meeting patients, clients, or students onsite.

Commercial Office

Leasing traditional office space provides the most professional environment but carries the highest costs. Expect to spend $3,000-$10,000 monthly for commercial offices with meeting rooms and custom configurations. This pays off through space to grow but requires multi-year leases unsuitable for new companies.

10. Source Your Equipment

Web developers need quality hardware and software to deliver results for clients. While costs add up, numerous options exist to secure equipment affordably.

Purchase everything new from retailers like Best Buy . Top-of-the-line laptops, PCs, monitors, accessories, etc. ensure optimal performance. However, expect to spend $2,000-$5,000+ outfitting your technology toolkit by buying brand-new equipment.

Buying Used

Save substantially by purchasing used equipment in good condition. Scout deals on:

• eBay – Broad selection of cheap refurbished systems.
• Craigslist – Meet locals selling used computers in your area.
• Facebook Marketplace – People often sell laptops and monitors at discounts.

Buy used gear at 50-80% off retail prices. Test thoroughly and buy from reputable sellers to avoid lemons.

For short-term needs, renting computers and accessories is economical. National chains like Rent-A-Center offer flexible monthly computer rentals. Useful when needing systems quickly for temporary contractors or overflow projects.

Leasing via IT equipment financing companies spreads costs over time. Often includes maintenance/warranties. A good option for accessing the latest systems without major upfront capital expenses. The downside is being locked into lengthy lease terms as a newer entrepreneur.

11. Establish Your Brand Assets

Establishing a strong brand is crucial for web development companies to stand out. By investing in core brand assets upfront, you lay the foundation for recognition and growth.

Getting a Business Phone Number

Secure a professional business phone number to accept client calls with services like RingCentral . Choose a local area code and dedicated business line vs using your cell. This builds credibility and keeps work separate.

Creating a Logo and Brand Assets

A logo crystallizes your brand. Consider a letter mark using initials or an abstract design mark symbolizing technology. Tools like Looka make professional logos easy and affordable.

Ensure brand colors, fonts, imagery, and messaging align with your logo across websites, business cards, proposals, and more. Consistency drives recognition.

Creating Business Cards and Signage

Order quality business cards from Vistaprint to network offline and leave with prospective clients. List your services, logo, phone number, email, and web address so prospects can connect.

Signage may also be needed depending on your office location to direct clients.

Purchasing a Domain Name

Secure a domain name matching your brand like YourCompany.com. Short, simple, and memorable is best. Use a trustworthy registrar like Namecheap . Redirect it to your primary website and leverage it for professional email addresses.

Building a Website

Every web developer needs a polished website to establish expertise. Use DIY builders like Wix or hire a freelancer on Fiverr if you lack web skills. Showcase past work, services, and ways to contact you prominently. This is your 24/7 sales hub – invest time and budget accordingly.

12. Join Associations and Groups

Joining relevant associations and groups is a smart way for web developers to network, learn, and grow their business.

Local Associations

Look into developer groups like the Local Chamber of Commerce chapters to connect locally. Attending association events gets you face time with peers and potential clients.

Consider joining broader professional groups like the National Association of Professional Developers for wider reach and resources. Memberships start around $100/year.

Local Meetups

Attend technology meetups and conferences to gain insider knowledge. Use sites like Meetup to find regular events like Startup Grind and networking happy hours. Bring business cards and actively participate. The connections made can be invaluable.

Facebook Groups

Facebook communities create space for global collaboration. Join popular groups like Women+ in Web Development and Business Owners Networking Daily to exchange ideas. Promote your services and products tactfully within relevant groups.

13. How to Market a Web Development Business

Implementing an ongoing marketing strategy is essential for web development companies to continually attract new clients. While numerous approaches exist, focus on your network and digital channels to build momentum.

Personal Networking

Start by tapping your inner circle. Satisfied clients who endorse you to their connections are invaluable. Deliver exceptional service, then politely ask happy customers to review your work online and refer others in need of a web developer. Offer incentives like 10% off their next project. Word-of-mouth referrals are marketing gold.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing enables scalable lead generation with detailed targeting options. Effective online tactics include:

• Search ads – Bid on relevant keywords with Google Ads to appear at the top of search results. Target local prospects like “Miami web design agency”.
• Social media ads – Run Facebook and Instagram ads promoting your services. Target by location, interests, job titles, and more.
• Content marketing – Create a web development blog sharing your expertise. Promote posts through social media and email.
• SEO optimization – Optimize pages with keywords, high-quality content, and technical enhancements to rank higher in organic search results.
• Retargeting ads – Serve targeted ads across the web to visitors who left your website to compel them back.
• Email marketing – Send professional newsletters and project update emails to build engagement. Offer eBooks or tips to nurture leads.
• Social media – Post regularly on all relevant social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Respond promptly to inquiries.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional tactics like direct mail and radio ads can work but typically don’t provide the same ROI. Consider:

• Direct mailers – Target local businesses with postcards or flyers detailing your services. Include a discount offer.
• Print ads – Local magazines and industry trade publications may offer affordable ad placements.
• Billboards – Place a branded billboard along a heavily trafficked thoroughfare. Most effective for brand awareness over direct response.
• Radio ads – Local radio ads can reach broader audiences, especially drivers during peak commute times.

The digital realm is the web developer’s home turf. Focus your marketing efforts online and within your network. Then allocate smaller budgets to test traditional channels as supplements to maximize visibility.

14. Focus on the Customer

Providing exceptional customer service is crucial for web developers to earn repeat business and referrals. Given the plethora of options clients have, customer experience is a key competitive advantage. Some ways to increase customer focus in your own web development company include:

• Focus on understanding each client’s unique needs and challenges.
• Don’t push cookie-cutter solutions – craft thoughtful recommendations tailored to their goals.
• Ask insightful questions and actively listen to build rapport.
• Deliver projects on time and budget. For any delays or changes needed, over-communicate to set proper expectations. Transparency builds trust.
• Make yourself available to support clients before, during, and after project completion. Be responsive over email, phone, and even online chat.
• Answer their questions promptly and resolve any issues ASAP.
• Following up proactively also strengthens relationships. Check-in periodically to see if they need help updating or enhancing their site. Offer optimization tips.
• When you exceed expectations consistently, satisfied clients are eager to recommend you.
• Net Promoter Scores show an average customer who refers 5 new ones. This organic growth can turbocharge your business.

Web development is a service business. By crafting phenomenal customer experiences, you reap the referrals and repeat sales to prosper. Make service a priority, not an afterthought.

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How to Start a Web Design Business: Expert Tips from People Who Did It Themselves

Updated: July 18, 2024

Published: January 02, 2024

Have you heard the expression, "If it were easy, everyone would do it?" That saying certainly applies to starting your own business. However, with the right preparation, you'll discover that learning how to start a web design business isn't as hard as you might think.

I talked to two web design business owners who filled me in on everything you need to know about how to start a web design business. I'll walk you through the steps you'll take, plus some pro tips to help you make your launch a success. 

How to Start a Web Design Business: 15 Steps

• Figure out your working arrangements.
• Identify your website design business niche — if you have one.  
• Pick a name.
• Create a mission statement.
• Determine what you want to offer.
• Establish a business plan.
• Seek legal advice.
• Check off administrative tasks.
• Identify pricing.
• Make your branding.
• Create templates and establish workflows.
• Design your website.
• Start building your social presence.
• Train yourself on anything you're not sure about.
• Network in person and online.

Whether you are figuring out how to start a web design business from home or eventually want to open up your own brick-and-mortar location, there are a lot of items to check off before you're ready to take on clients. Here are 15 steps you can follow when learning how to start a web design business. 

1. Figure out your working arrangements. 

Your first step is to figure out your working arrangements. Will you work from home or rent out an office space? Will you interact with clients virtually or offer a brick-and-mortar location where you can meet? And if you're working from home, do you have a professional, private space where you can conduct business? 

It's possible to learn how to start a web design business from home, but by addressing these questions upfront, you'll know how to better set your business up for success. 

Mindy League, UX Director at Elevated Third, owned a web design agency that one of her clients went on to acquire. She knows her stuff — League has worked in digital marketing with B2B giants, including HP, IBM, Thermofisher, and more. When recounting her experience as a web design business owner, League mentions that she feels it's easier to start a business now in a world where working from home is normalized. 

She recounts, in a pre-pandemic world, needing to have a brick-and-mortar storefront where she could work with her team or meet clients. "Now, we have this really more acceptable work from home," she says. "I think it would be easier to start a business now than it was then. Because [then] it was expected that you had a brick and mortar, which was a high cost, a high expense. It was almost validating that you're in business." 

Once you've figured out your physical working arrangements, consider your hardware and software arrangements too. When learning how to start a web design business from home, keep in mind that you'll need all the bells and whistles you would in an office, such as a comfortable seat, functioning computer, and monitor, if you like using one. 

You may need to purchase a new laptop or monitor for your web design business work. Or, maybe you'll need to sign up for Adobe Creative Suite subscriptions. If you're not launching your business ASAP, you don't need to sign up for the software right away to avoid paying for it when it's not in use. However, you should have your physical hardware ready to go. 

Pro Tip:  I know that bills can quickly add up when you're first starting a business. If you're buying a computer, I recommend considering a lightly used one as they're reasonably priced. Or, purchase a gently used desk from a local thrift store to cut costs. What matters most is that your equipment is reliable. 

2. Identify your website design business niche — if you have one. 

Niche or no niche, that's the question. There are pros and cons to both — if you choose a niche, you can become the best in that industry and establish a reputation. Alternatively, if you don't choose a niche, you can garner a large pool of clients across industries. 

One way isn't better than the other; they're just different. 

Macey Miller , the owner of Be Bold Design Studio , has created websites for "all kinds of businesses," though much of the sites she's made have been for woman-owned companies. Miller initially became interested in website design because she wanted a creative outlet when working in marketing at a hospitality technology company. You should trust her advice because, since starting her business in 2018, she's created more than 120 websites. What started out as a side gig became so successful that Miller was able to quit her full-time salaried role in six months.

"I have a lot of friends who own businesses, and they need websites," she shares. "And so I started my business out of really an outlet for creativity, but then also as friends and family needed websites and logos and designs. I was always like, yeah,  I can hop in. I'll do that.  It was a nice break after all the analytical meetings and just all the things that came with …marketing." 

Pro Tip:  If you're stuck, let your portfolio and professional experience inform your decision about whether you'll pursue a niche subcategory of website design or offer more holistic services. If you only have experience creating websites for consumer packaged goods products (CPG), stick with the CPG industry. Or, if you've created websites for educational institutions, food and beverage, entrepreneurs, and more, you may consider sticking with a no-niche agency. 

3. Pick a name. 

I know — picking a business name is tricky! It should be descriptive but not too long. Reflective of your mission, yet clever. Unique but simple. That's a lot to keep in mind. (Psst: If you need help selecting your business name, check out these 300+ examples of business names we love for inspiration.) 

In some cases, you may want to use your own name as the title of your business. If you believe yourself to be the face of your brand, then maybe, using your name is a good idea. Of course, there's also the search engine optimization (SEO) value if you have an uncommon name. 

I advise you to test out your business names in front of family, colleagues, or friends. You can run a poll on LinkedIn to ask others in the industry which they prefer. Picking a moniker is a serious commitment, so be sure you're willing to stick with it for a while. 

Pro Tip:  I suggest doing some research before you commit to your name. When you Google it, if a lot of other agencies pop up, you might want to pick an alternative. If there are already a ton of other businesses with the name, you'll have a hard time securing social media handles, too.

4. Create a mission statement.

Before you begin ideating your company mission statement, I suggest you check out some examples from businesses you admire. ( May I humbly suggest HubSpot ?) 

I also love Be Bold Design Studio's mission statement . It's straightforward, focused on impact, and I love how Miller clearly displays it on the footer of the studio's homepage. 

Your mission statement doesn't have to be too long or intricate. The best mission statements are straightforward and succinct, and they showcase your company's values. 

Pro Tip:  You can include your mission statement on your homepage, footer, or on its own page, depending on how much emphasis you'd like to place on it. 

5. Determine what you want to offer.

You have your name, mission statement, and niche all picked out. Your next step is determining what you want your business to offer. Ultimately, you can make your business as all-encompassing (or niche) as you want. Do you want to offer complete website design services that include add-ons such as branding and logo design or photography? Or do you want to work mainly on website rebuilds? What about maintenance — do you want to offer it or leave clients to their own devices? 

It is  your  business — so you can decide what you want to offer based on both your skills and experience. However, keep in mind that if you don't have a well-rounded menu of offerings, clients may take their business elsewhere, where they can get their website created, logos created, and branding established all in one place. 

Pro Tip:  If you're building your business with a co-founder, League suggests that you consider picking someone with expertise in the opposite of what you do. "When you're getting started, you don't necessarily think of looking for someone who does the opposite of what you're doing," she says. However, by thinking about this in advance, you can reduce the likelihood that you'll need to outsource help. (Psst: That doesn't only apply to business offerings. For instance, if you have the creative portion under control, consider working with someone more analytical who can tackle the finances.) 

6. Establish a business plan. 

In my opinion, writing up a business plan is arguably the most daunting part of learning how to start a web design business. The good news? You don't have to do it yourself — this robust guide to creating a business plan will offer you a life raft.

Your business plan should provide a clear summarization of your organizational strategy for success. You can use your business plan to acquire funding from investors or help forecast your business demands. Most importantly, when starting out a business, your business plan should highlight your goals and the way you plan to achieve them. This is also where you'll tie in your mission statement and business purpose. 

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of writing your business plan, use one of our free templates to set you on the right track. For example, I love this one page business plan template.

It's concise, asks the right questions, and makes it easy for you to keep all your crucial information in one handy location. You can download it here . 

Pro Tip:  Taking a look at other business's plans can help you figure out how to build out your own. Here are 24 sample business plans to get your creative juices flowing. 

7. Seek legal advice. 

Congratulations; you're about halfway through the process of learning how to create your web design business from home. Give yourself a pat on the back — and take a deep breath because it can be overwhelming. 

Before you go any further in your business ownership journey, it's time to seek legal advice. Your best option is to find a lawyer who has experience working with small businesses and helping ensure they're compliant with all the laws in your jurisdiction. You may need a license to operate your business, depending on what it is and where you live. Or, you might need help deciding whether you want to be a sole proprietor, open an LLC, or start a corporation.

While no one likes shelling out cash for legal fees, the repercussions of not doing so and accidentally violating a law can be massive. Your lawyer can also help you draft the contracts that you'll share with clients when entering into an agreement with them. Getting liability insurance for your business is also a good idea, and your lawyer can advise more on the steps you should take to do so. 

Pro Tip:  Lawyer fees can be expensive — especially when you're just starting out. If the cost of working with a lawyer is prohibitive, I recommend you try to find one willing to do the work pro bono. I'll admit, it can be tricky to find a lawyer that'll do the work for free. But ask around — you may have a connection willing to help out. 

8. Check off administrative tasks. 

I told you learning how to start a web design business isn't always glamorous, didn't I? I promise it will be well worth it. Your next step is to complete various administrative tasks you need to check off your list before your business can open its doors. 

For example, now that you're starting your own business, you'll need to think about how you're going to get health insurance. Maybe you can still be on your parent's insurance, or you have a partner who can take you under their wing. However, if this isn't the case, you need to think through the ways you'll be able to get healthcare.

I know this doesn't seem directly related to starting your own web design business, but it's an important administrative task you need to check off. When you're just starting out, you'll only need to think about getting healthcare for yourself. But if your business grows and you hire teammates, you'll have to think about their insurance, too. 

The next thing you'll want to think about is your retirement plan. You can consider opening a Roth IRA or a Health Savings Account. (Of course, if you want more guidance about what's best for your financial future, I suggest you speak with a financial advisor who better understands your particular situation.) 

Lastly, think through your holiday and vacation policy. You're your own boss now, which means you'll have to be accountable for getting stuff done. Creating a clear vacation and holiday plan is an excellent way to keep you on the right track. Miller believes that holding herself accountable for getting work delivered in a reasonable amount of time is partially why her business has flourished. "I think it is very important to… be true to your word," she says. 

Miller continues, "If you say you're going to deliver something on Tuesday, you need to deliver something on Tuesday. A lot of times with a website design business, you know, it's creatives, and it's hard to pin us down within the website design business. You can be a creative, but you also have to be very, very careful with that more creative energy and focus on making sure that your clients are being served well and efficiently and on time." 

Pro Tip:  If you're struggling with administrative tasks, I highly recommend talking to other small business owners you know who have taken their business full-time to learn more about how they handled administrative tasks when starting out. 

9. Identify pricing.

Now that you know what you have to offer, it's time to decide how much you're going to charge for it. 

Your first step when identifying pricing is to take a look at your competitors' pricing. How much is your competition charging for a website, logo design, branding, and bespoke photography? What about a site refresh? Find out, and make notes of what your top 5-10 competitors are charging. This will inform your rates. I suggest creating a spreadsheet that clearly identifies competitor pricing.

You'll also have to decide if you want to charge a flat rate for a project or hourly. If you go the project route, consider how many hours it will likely take to complete the project and break that down into hourly wages. Remember: You deserve to pay yourself a livable salary. 

Now that you've done your research, consider your business's overhead. Do you have to pay for your space? Have you thought about how taxes factor in? How about the software you'll need to run your business? Did you include your insurance fees when factoring in how much it costs to run your business?

From there, you can subtract your overhead per project from the rate you're thinking of charging. This leaves you with your profit. 

Pro Tip:  Adding testimonials to your website can help you feel more confident about your rates. These testimonials demonstrate the value of your work, and you can easily point to them when conferring with potential clients about budget. For some inspiration, check out HubSpot's Customer Reviews page . 

10. Make your branding. 

We're finally at a fun part of the web design business creation process. You'll have to make your branding before you begin to share the news of your business online. You're a creative, so you likely already know exactly what to do, but here are a few branding tips in case you need them:

Consistency is key — choose a color palette, style of photography, and a few fonts. Then, stick with them. This will give your business a professional flair. 

Create a logo that's not too detailed. If it is, the details will get lost when you shrink it down. 

Try to avoid already popular color pairings because they'll subliminally remind your visitors of other, more famous brands. For instance, red and yellow may not be the best bet for your company because these colors together conjure up images of Ronald McDonald. 

Pro Tip:  Need a dose of inspiration for your business's color palette? These color pairings are sure to wow.  

11. Create templates and establish workflows.

Yes, you have your branding, pricing, and business plan — but you are not open for business yet. First, it's essential to create templates and establish workflows. That way, when you do get your client (and trust me, it will happen), you already have a handle on how to get them onboarded.

Using a project management tool can help you create workflows that hold you accountable and ensure you deliver results on time. I love Asana, Trello, and Notion, so experiment to find one that works best for you and is within your budget.

This is also the time for you to make sure those contracts you worked with your lawyer to create are ready to go. Plus, create a checklist for client onboarding, the steps you'll follow to launch a client website, and make any necessary supporting documentation or templates. You should also have your invoice template in place. If you do all of this, professional is the name of your game. 

Last but certainly not least, determine how you're going to track your time. It's not enough to set an iPhone timer — you need to keep track of your time and how you spend it. There are plenty of time-tracking apps available, some of which even integrate directly with your project management tools. 

Pro Tip:  By having your onboarding checklist ready to go, you'll be ready the moment your first client comes knocking. Plus, you'll score major points with your client for preparedness and professionalism. 

12. Design your website.

You already know how to do this, so I'll leave this one to you. And if you want some sources of inspiration, you know where to find them — here, where I identified the 25 best creative agency websites . 

Just to recap, here are some key things to keep in mind when designing your website. 

Were created with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. 

Include mindful CTAs, or calls to action . (Psst: You shouldn't only have one place for visitors to go to reach out to you — that CTA should be sprinkled throughout your site so visitors can contact you the moment they feel inclined to.) 

Feature cohesive branding . 

Have testimonials and examples of past work. 

Have a sense of personality so visitors know who you are and why they should trust you with their website. 

Hire a proofreader or ask a family, friend, or mentor to look over your site. Ask them to read through it for clarity and accuracy. 

Consider having a blog on your website and writing posts that target keywords. 

Your goal on your business website is to reduce friction in any way that you can. 

Pro Tip:  About 42.5 million Americans have disabilities . Don't ignore website accessibility best practices when building your website . 

13. Start building your social presence. 

You're almost at launch day, congrats. It's time to start building your social presence. Whether you contribute to collaborative articles on LinkedIn to showcase your web design expertise, create your own X/Twitter posts with a link to your portfolio site, or begin filming trendy TikToks about web design misconceptions, the internet — erm, I mean the world — is your oyster. 

When deciding which social media platforms you want to hone in on, consider this:

Where is my audience?

What platform can I go viral on? (TikTok is great for this because, regardless of whether you have five followers or five million, you can go viral.) 

What platform feels intuitive for me to use? 

How can I best tell my brand story?

Pro Tip:  Ideally, you'll be able to create content for multiple social media platforms. However, focusing on one or two will help reduce stress. Dial in on wherever you're seeing the largest return on investment for your time. 

14. Train yourself on anything you're not sure about. 

Maybe you're a natural-born designer, but sales calls don't come easy for you. Or maybe you've always loved rebuilding websites, but you struggle with offering bespoke logo design services. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses — but your weaknesses don't have to stay weaknesses. You can decide to seek out training to teach yourself more about anything you're unsure about. 

"I think it's easy for people to say like, well, I'm not good at admin, or I'm not good at sales calls, and that's just an excuse," says Miller. "Why don't you go in and learn how to do a sales call? Like I've done two to three sales trainings, which has been very helpful because sales is a part of owning your own business. And if you're not comfortable with selling in a way that is natural and authentic but also just natural and authentic to you, then you won't be able to last." 

Pro Tip: HubSpot Academy has plenty of free courses that can help teach you more about different facets of marketing, sales, and beyond. You can even earn free certifications, which look great when you're trying to build authoritativeness. I've done several courses, and I found them to be both educational and engaging.  

15. Network in person and online.

You did it! You've successfully created your own web design business. I hope you're proud of yourself because I'm proud of you.

Now, it's time to share the incredible news with your family, friends, colleagues, and mentors. Remember to bring business cards with you when you meet with people, and bring along extras so your friends can pass them along to their friends. You never know who may be your first client. 

Online, you can spread the word on your personal and professional social media accounts. You can also reach out to any business owners you know and let them know you're open for business if they wish to enlist your help.

Pro Tip:  Keep your mind open when it comes to finding clients. You never know how your clients will make their way to you — just trust that they will. Be sure to spread the word so everyone you know can have their feelers out in case anyone they know needs a designer. 

What are 5 tips for people starting a web design business?

These five tips from Miller and League — who have actually gone through the process of building a web design business themselves — can help set you up for success. 

Remember that potential clients are everywhere. 

League recounts that when she owned her agency, she was living in Austin, Texas, where she had a large network. "There were a lot of folks that I knew," she says. "And so I would just make new clients at the retail stores, or wherever I was, I would just meet people. Or they knew someone, and then we referred." A valuable lesson to keep business cards with you at all times indeed.

Give back to your clients.

League also suggests the idea of using "swag" to gain momentum for your business. "We gave a lot to our customers," she says. "We had parties and gave them swag. So when we had profit, we really gave them things that we thought they would enjoy. We [were] really appreciative of them. We were constantly giving them mugs, and we made up cute campaigns around it, like a social media campaign. [With the cups, we asked clients to] send us your 'mug shot.'"

Keep in mind that things ebb and flow. 

The reality of owning your own business is that things will ebb and flow; there will be busy seasons and slower ones. However, to keep your business afloat during tougher times, Miller suggests you get creative. "There are a lot of different ways to make money as a website designer," she shares. "One tip is being open to potentially white labeling. There are a lot of agencies that white-label their services and that need freelance graphic designers to kind of come in and help with the workload. 

When you start your own business, a lot of times you think, oh, it's just going to be me, all by myself. I'm going to be getting all these clients, but in those slow seasons, it's nice to lend your services to an agency or even take on some retainer clients and do maintenance work or graphic design work." 

Customer service speaks for itself. 

Another key learning from Miller? That customer service really can set you apart from your competition. "I found that the reality of building a healthy business and a client base requires serving your clients, marketing, networking, and a strong online presence, but really more focusing on serving your clients," she says.

"A lot of people focus more on the design and the creative part, but I truly believe that customer service is almost as equally important as the beauty of creative design. It takes time to build a client base and to establish a reputation." 

Expect to wear a lot of hats. 

Depending on the client, you may have to wear more hats than just the assigned "web designer." For instance, League mentions that entrepreneurs are sometimes more anxious regarding where their money is going than large corporations, as it's their hard-earned cash they're spending. 

"They would get really nervous before the launch because it was the unveiling of their idea," she explains. "And so that, that was something I didn't realize, [that] I had to be so much of a psychologist, making that transition from the bigger agency, you know, to the smaller agency. There was a lot more psychology. Granted, when you work with an agency or with any client, you have to worry, think of, and be empathetic towards them." 

Bring Your Web Design Dream Business to Life 

You officially know how to start a web design business, and it's up to you to decide if you're ready to take that next step toward becoming your own boss. When building your company, keep your why in mind, and commit to customer service. If you do these two things, you can't go wrong. 

Don't forget to share this post!

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Website Design Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their website design businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a website design business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Website Design Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your website design business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Website Design Agency

If you’re looking to start a website design business, or grow your existing website design business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your website design business in order to improve your chances of success. Your website design business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Website Design Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a website design business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the lender will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Personal savings is the most common form of funding for a website design business. Venture capitalists will usually not fund a website design business. They might consider funding a website design business with a national presence, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could never achieve such results.  With that said, personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for website design businesses.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you want to start a website design business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below are links to each section of your website design business plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of website design business you are operating and its status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a website design business that you would like to grow, or are you operating website design businesses in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the website design industry. Discuss the type of website design business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of website design business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of website design businesses:

• WordPress website design : this type of business builds websites with WordPress, due to its capabilities, plugin options, and templates.
• Custom website design: this type of business involves developing both the front end and backend of a website using coding, programming, databases, forms, etc. without a content management platform.
• Other platform website design: this type of business uses a variety of other platforms to develop specific types of site, such as e-commerce. Platforms like Shopify or Squarespace make specific site development relatively easy.

In addition to explaining the type of website design business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of websites launched, the types of sites developed, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the website design industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the website design industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your website design business plan:

• How big is the website design industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your website design business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your website design business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: large corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, government entities, and individuals.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of website design business you operate. Clearly, large corporations would respond to different marketing promotions than nonprofits, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most website design businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.  

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other website design businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes individuals who prefer to use template-based platforms to build their website on their own, or from dedicated in-house design teams.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other website design businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be website design businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• Do they specialize in specific site types (i.e. content sites, e-commerce sites, etc.)?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide either a wider range or more specialized range of services?
• Will you offer features such as social media integration?
• Will you provide superior customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a website design business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of website design company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to WordPress site development, will your website design business provide custom design options?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your website design company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, will you operate from a physical office, or will you primarily interact with clients online and/or at their home or place of business? In this section, discuss how your location will affect demand for your services.

Promotions : The final part of your website design marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Signs and billboards
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your website design business, including marketing, providing consultations, programming, troubleshooting, keeping abreast of new technology, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to launch your 100th e-commerce site, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to open a website design business in a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your website design business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing website design businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in programming, or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you complete/launch one website per week, or will you have teams working on multiple projects at once? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your website design business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a website design business:

• Office build-out
• Cost of buying or leasing a company vehicle
• Cost of office supplies such as computers and software
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office lease, or an overview of the services you offer.  

Putting together a business plan for your website design business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the website design industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful website design business.  

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Web Design business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how a Growthink business plan writer can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

How to start a web design business: Step-by-step guide

Want to start a web design business? Read this informative guide for eight essential steps to consider when building a web design company.

Build completely custom, production-ready websites — or ultra-high-fidelity prototypes — without writing a line of code. Only with Webflow.

Here’s what you need to think about before you quit your day job and start your own web design business.

It can be challenging to work a full-time job while also taking on freelance clients, especially if your passion lies with your freelance work. Starting your own web design business is exciting, but it’s important to think about all the factors that could affect this long-term commitment.

Are you sure of your future clients and their demands? How certain are you about their payment credibility? How will you move forward, pay your employees, bear infrastructure costs, and run the daily operations of your web design company?

Before you quit your day job and start your own web design business, you’ll need to consider these questions. Here’s an eight-step process to get you started.

How to start a web design business in 9 steps

Step 1: plan.

Start by asking yourself questions such as:

• What is your company’s niche or focus going to be?
• Are you starting out solo, or will you hire staff or freelancers?
• How many web designers are you going to recruit?
• Will you hire administrative staff, or will designers and developers need to multitask in the beginning stages?
• Where will the location of the new company be, and how much space will it require?
• What’s your budget for equipment such as computers, furniture, software, etc.?
• How much will you initially invest in advertising, marketing, and branding to attract clients?

You’ll need to dedicate a lot of time and resources to get your web design business up and running, so map out clear schedules, budgets, and plans. Be sure to research current web design trends so you can get a feel for what your future clients might request.

If you have a mentor, reach out to them. Talking with someone who has experience starting their own business is a great way to gain valuable insights into the entrepreneurial journey.

Step 2: Determine your services and specialties

• Are you an ecommerce specialist?
• Are you an expert in setting up learning portals?
• Do your services include blogging (providing content regularly), or will your web design deliverables be simple static pages?
• Will you also be hosting your clients’ websites?
• Will you provide SEO (search engine optimization) services?
• Will you offer website maintenance services?

You don’t have to be everything for everyone. Instead, focus on the skills and services you excel at.

Consider offering services that bring in automatic recurring revenue, such as website maintenance and hosting. These services aren’t as hands-on as creating a new website, but they pay off well. For instance, hardware manufacturers make recurring income by offering annual maintenance contracts. Most annual maintenance contracts are billed with no work done as the hardware components are good to run for years.

Step 3: Set up your portfolio

Once you know what aspects of web design you’d like to focus on, build your web design portfolio around them. Your website will be the face of your company, so make sure it shows off your skills and includes your services, prices, and contact information.

If you have happy customers from your freelance days, reach out to them and ask for testimonials that you can add to your site. Those recommendations are crucial for a new business.

Get in touch with your previous clients and ask their permission to showcase their projects on your website. If you are unable to share business names due to confidentiality, consider anonymizing the designs or requiring a password to view them.

Step 4: Establish your business operations

Next up is staffing. When you first launch your business, you might be working solo. But if and when you have the budget, you’ll want to reach out to your network and bring trusted designers and developers to your team. As you grow, you might consider adding administrative and marketing professionals to your team, too.

You may also consider outsourcing mundane tasks you don’t want to pay attention to, such as taxes and finances. And if you have employees, you’ll need to hire a person or service to handle things like benefits and time off for employees.

You and your team will need computers with large high-definition screens and additional monitors (minimum 21 inches) for design work. Verify your camera specifications as well — you’ll need good quality cameras and microphones to communicate with your clients. Consider getting dedicated business internet services so you’ll have fast, reliable connectivity.

Next, build your tech stack with tools for:

• Website mockups and prototypes
• Graphic design
• Web development
• Document management
• Project management

Set up a system to track your ongoing projects. Try to automate most of the day-to-day tasks.

• Use autoresponders to reply to clients who contact you via the contact form, particularly about doing business with you. You can also use email autoresponders when you’re going on vacation or taking leave.
• Find a system that keeps track of hours contributed to a client’s work and then uses that information to create invoices.
• Use apps such as Todoist and Asana for tracking to-do lists and schedules and assigning work.

As you gain more clients, be ready to accommodate your company’s growth and provide resources and changes in infrastructure.

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Step 5: Determine legal requirements

Once you’ve decided on a name for your business, it’s time to make it official.

Determine whether your company will be a private limited, LLC, corporation, etc. according to your country and/or state regulations. For example, if you live in India, you need to get a GST number to pay sales tax on goods delivered to your clients. Plus, you need to register your online domain name as well.

Ensure that your budget accounts for business insurance so you can protect both your physical assets and business.

Business taxes can be complicated, so it’s a good idea to contract a tax professional who can provide guidance and services. Work with them to set up accounting software such as FreshBooks or QuickBooks so that you can easily track business expenses and export the necessary information when tax time rolls around.

Make sure you set up a business bank account for your company revenue and expenses. And don’t forget about accepting payments from your clients! Services such as PayPal or Stripe are great for processing digital payments.

Step 6: Establish deliverables and pricing

Establish a process for keeping your clients updated about deliverables. While your clients probably won’t want a daily update, you should determine specific milestones when you’ll check in with them. Working with your clients throughout the project keeps them engaged and gives them a chance to provide feedback earlier in the process.

Stick to schedules as diligently as possible and don’t forget to account for revisions. Your contract should define what types of revisions are included in the project price (if any) and outline costs for additional changes. If you need to make adjustments, work with the client on a new delivery date so they know when to expect the revised project.

If you’ve been using freelance sites like Upwork or Freelancer, you probably have a good idea of what deliverables to offer, but be careful about setting your prices. When you have your own business, there is more overhead, so you’ll probably need to raise your rates.

There are online calculators and price charts to reference when you are unsure about prices, such as this freelance rate calculator or the Omni finance calculator .

If your budget permits, you can compare your prices to your competitors’ with tools like Luminate Market Price, PROSPros, Zilliant, and Pricefy.

Step 7: Create work contracts and agreements

A vital part of your business is a work contract. Contracts clearly establish expectations and requirements for both parties — you and your client.

The contract should include details related to deliverables, timelines, and prices and account for what-if scenarios. Aim for contracts that are simple and to the point. You don’t want to intimidate clients with massive contracts full of unnecessary legal jargon.

Define the payment terms in the contract. Clearly state how and when you will invoice for work and include instructions on how and when your clients should make payments. Don’t forget to include stipulations for late payments.

Save yourself some time by working with a legal professional to create template contracts based on the different services and packages you offer. This way, you can simply fill in a few details for each new project. You can also use template services like LegalZoom or America’s SBDC .

Step 8: Business

Even if you’re bringing your previous freelance clients into your new web design business, you’ll need a way to attract new customers as well.

Share your website on your personal social media channels to start building brand awareness. You may even want to set up separate business accounts like a LinkedIn company page or Facebook business account.

If you are providing expertise in a particular niche, mention that. That way, you stand out from the crowd. Do you create unique sites for specific industries like gaming, B2B, or software as a service companies? Do you work in a particular industry, or have you worked for government agencies? Showcase some work samples — highlighting your specialties will draw relevant clients to you from among the many looking for web designers.

Don’t ignore the importance of video marketing. Whether it is a YouTube channel or Vimeo, make your presence known with videos.

Email marketing is a good way to promote your business, too. Services such as Mailchimp make it easy to maintain an email list of clients and share promotions, new services, and company updates with them. You could even use a newsletter to share tips or promote an affiliate program that encourages existing customers to spread the word about your business.

You might also want to use customer relationship management software, which works as an autoresponder and an email marketing tool and tracks overall business development, customers, and growth.

Step 9: Continue your education

Remain competitive by keeping an eye on web design trends and setting aside time for improving your web design skills. Sign up for web design courses or watch free lessons online through platforms like Webflow University .

Watching your competition is another way of staying ahead of them. Keep track of your competitors’ websites and growth, and it will inspire and motivate you to do better.

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How to start a web design business in 2024—the right way

Your checklist of all the steps to start a successful web design business—plus answers to your most frequently asked questions.

Illustration by Ashger Zamana.

Aaron Gelbman

20 min read

Sometimes when we’re looking to make a change, it’s not enough to go from one design job to the next—because actually what we’re looking for is more control, independence, responsibility and reward. This is when creatives need to take a leap of faith and venture out on their own. 

And that’s what brought you here: to be your own boss and set up your web design business. But getting started successfully is not just about having the technical know-how; it’s about understanding the market, the challenges and the true value you can offer to your clients.

Web designer Derek Hairston’s ‘aha’ moment came with the realization that “most web design agencies leave clients in the dark with unexpected costs, delays and no visibility into the process.” He seized the opportunity to create a better experience for clients—giving them “peace of mind at every step of the way”—by starting his full-service agency,   Olam Sites . “We specialize in building custom websites and features on Wix Studio .” 

Below, we cover the essential steps of starting your web design business and answer some frequently asked questions. 

Join thousands of pro designers building their businesses on Wix Studio .

How to start a web design business

Every business is a little bit different, but in general, you’ll need to take these steps: 

1. Define your niche

2. Decide which web design services to offer

3. Set up your business operations

4. Name, register and license your web design business

5. Seek legal advice

6. Write a business plan and set goals

7. Get funding

8. Set your prices and deliverables

9. Establish your processes and workflows

10. Design your brand

11. create your portfolio or website, 12. promote and market your web design business, 13. keep learning and developing your skills, 01. define your niche.

To make waves in a crowded market, narrow down your focus and decide on the types of clients you’d like to take on. 

“Deciding on your niche is a blend of self-discovery and essentially asking the question, ‘Who would I be excited to wake up and serve every day?’” says Brad Hussey, web designer and founder of the Creative Crew community. “You’ll be spending considerable time, energy and money being around these people at trade shows, on podcasts, writing content for, networking with—and ultimately producing solutions for.”

Start by defining “why” and “for whom” you do what you do. For example, are you passionate about the restaurant industry and see an opportunity to build more professional online experiences for them? If so, start there. 

Remember: just because you decide on a particular niche now doesn’t mean you can’t broaden your reach and services later on. It’s much easier to start small than to start too broad.

In the video below, H ussey gives additional tips for solidifying your niche and the “why” behind what you’re doing.

02. Decide which web design services to offer

Once you’ve settled on your “who” and “why,” “what” you’ll offer your clients should come somewhat naturally. Your services could include:

Website design and development

eCommerce solutions

User experience (UX) design

User interface (UI) design

Search engine optimization (SEO) 

Mobile app design and development 

Website accessibility  

Graphic design  

Custom web application development

Online branding 

As you develop your list of offerings, consider how you can make these more attractive and accessible to clients seeking out your services. 

Bundling vs. à la carte:  Combining a few related services into a single package makes it easier for potential clients to buy more. Plus, giving these packages benefit-led names helps clients relate to your offering. For example, the “Fast Launch” package could include core website services, but fewer of them, making the lower-priced package and fast completion time more attractive. In parallel, offer each service individually—"à la carte"—for customers with more limited needs or budget, or to upsell to current customers.

One-off vs. recurring:  How you package and promote your services will guide potential customers on how to engage you for projects. It’s okay that one-off services, like website design, are higher priced because clients only incur this cost once every few years. However, recurring services like SEO require ongoing activity in order to fully benefit your client’s website; you can offer this as a monthly subscription for recurring revenue .

03. Set up your business operations

Take a look around and ask yourself if you’re equipped to move forward. Do you have the physical space to start servicing clients and building a team? Do you have the right tools to deliver the services you want to provide? Here’s how to sort it out seamlessly.

Workspace:  Some of the most successful entrepreneurs started their businesses from their kitchen table, whereas others joined incubators or communal work centers. There’s no single right way, so think about the following criteria and choose what is best for you.

Productivity: Choose a space where you’ll be productive, whether that’s the ease of working from your home office or a change of scenery in an office a short drive away.

Location: Be sure that you (and your potential team) can easily reach the location, considering public transportation connections and sufficient parking.

Scale: If you plan to grow a team, seek out a space that can accommodate more seats.

Equipment:  The computer you use to plan a vacation and the chair you sit in to eat dinner might not be suited for your workflow. Again, consider the goal of productivity and if your equipment is fit for the job. 

Computer: Web design and development require higher processing capabilities than your everyday device, otherwise your computer will lag. Plus, most professional web designers work with at least one external, high-quality screen to maximize display space and pixel precision.

Furniture: When sitting for hours at a time, you need both comfort and body alignment, so upgrade from a regular chair to an optimized work chair. Alternatively, you might prefer a desk that you can raise and lower to change-up your posture. Don’t forget the importance of lighting so that you don’t hurt your eyes (and so you look good on Zoom calls).

Software and tools : The leading tools for freelancers and professional teams are all accessed via the web (and not as system downloads). Go down the list of your key tasks and workflows, checking off that you have the right tools to get the job done.

Web design: No surprise here. You’ll need to choose a web design platform that matches your skillset, whether you prefer the ease of a low code, no code  tool or advanced capabilities like custom CSS  and building web apps . Don’t rush this decision and make sure your platform of choice includes all the resources you need to succeed, such as how-to tutorials  and excellent user support. (Some even come with the latest AI web design tools .)

Project management: You’ll create a productive operation when project details like owners, dependencies, approvals and deadlines are defined and shared both internally and with your clients. Check this list for the best design collaboration tools .

Client management: Your clients want to see you, but don’t let them see you sweat. Video communications tools are essential for building strong relationships, and CRM platforms will ensure you keep track of all the important details, including contact information, contract versions and other project documents.

Financial management: Business decisions are made in the context of the larger financial picture. Track the hours you spend on projects to assess if you’re under or overbilling your clients. Also, track money in and out to know whether you’re in the clear or in the red, and plan accordingly. Every financial platform will help you make and receive payments, but choose a platform that matches your level of financial literacy (and comes with easy-to-read reports). 

Some tools consolidate multiple workflow tasks in a single platform. For example, with   Wix Studio’s management tools , you can:

Streamline communications with clients and colleagues in a single workplace

Stay engaged and updated from anywhere via a mobile app

Leverage features like handover resources and reusable assets to work more efficiently

Start building your web design business on Wix Studio and create an account for free .  

04. Name, register and license your business

Before diving into creative work, address the legalities of starting your own business. But in order to register your business with the relevant authorities—like the Secretary of State in most U.S. states—first, your business needs a name. 

 To choose a business name , keep these factors in mind.  

Your niche and services: Highlight your specialty in your business name

Memorability and differentiation: Choose a name that sticks and no one else has

Long-term goals: If you plan to expand your services or team, make sure your business name isn’t too narrow

Next, decide on your legal business structure. Consider how big you plan on growing your team. Do you plan on managing the business alone or with a partner(s)? Ultimately, what’s the vision for your business and how will it evolve? The answers to these questions will help you choose between several structures.

Sole proprietorship : Owned and operated by a single individual. As the owner you have unlimited personal liability and business income is reported on your personal tax return.

Limited liability company (LLC):  Combines elements of partnerships and corporations, offering limited liability for owners (members) and flexibility in management. Income is typically passed through to individual tax returns.

Partnership : A business owned by two or more individuals who share profits and liabilities. There are general partnerships (equal sharing) and limited partnerships (with limited liability for some partners).

Corporation:  A legal entity separate from its owners, providing limited liability protection. Shareholders own the corporation and it can be taxed as a C corporation (double taxation) or an S corporation (pass-through taxation).

As shown above, each structure has its own tax obligations, protections and requirements. You’ll therefore want to make sure to thoroughly research your options and consult a business attorney, consultant or accountant before making a final decision. (More on that next.)

At this stage, consider whether you’ll need to apply for an   Employer Identification Number (EIN)  from the IRS and open any business accounts with your bank to keep your finances in order. Make sure to obtain all necessary licenses, insurance and permits for running a web design business in your region, too.

05. Seek legal advice

This is important—throughout the process of starting your web design business, legal advice is never “one and done.” You will need steady legal advice as you go along, even after your business is launched and projects are underway. Now is the time to find a legal expert you can trust and who is specialized in your professional arena.

Finding a lawyer  is the hardest part, and this is where professional networks come into play. Recommendations are the safest bet, so whether it’s an online forum or phone calls with peers, ask about others’ experiences, successes and watchouts as you search the legal marketplace. (Try the Wix Studio Community  to connect with hundreds of creative professionals.)

Paying for legal services  begins immediately. Often a lawyer will offer a short, free consultation to understand your needs and introduce his or her credentials. But then the fees come. Use your hours with a lawyer wisely and ensure you have some available funds to pay these first invoices. 

Spreading out legal services  to use over time will help you manage the costs. At each phase of your business development, tackle only what’s relevant. For example, if you seek outside funding, your lawyer can advise on financial contracts and conditions. There’s no need, yet, to broaden the scope to client contracts. Deal with that later.

06. Write a business plan and set goals

Your business plan will serve as your roadmap, outlining things like:

Your business description

Target market 

Competition 

Organization and management 

Services and products 

Goals and strategies 

Financial projections

Goals, in particular, can be hard to set when you’re starting your business without any past performance. But goals are fluid and can be anything measurable—just remember to set them against a time frame, like one month or one year. Perhaps your goal is to achieve a value of monthly sales or to work with a set number of clients by the end of your first year. More importantly, by setting these goals you can tangibly measure your business’s success and set new goals for the next month or year. 

Building out your business plan may also show you that you’re missing something to achieve your goals—like outside funding. 

07. Get funding

Whether you need extra resources to expand your services, grow your team or invest in marketing, your business plan can help you decide when and how to raise money. It can also show where the money will go when approaching investors, banks or other potential backers. And your lawyer can advise you on these conversations and agreements.

“I started off as a penny-pinching bootstrapper, although I’m not convinced that’s the best way,” reflects Hairston on the early days of Olam Sites. “I projected revenue based on the potential customers in my immediate environment, but this limiting mindset put a ceiling on our earnings and scalability.” 

His suggestion for designers getting started: “Your projections and confidence should justify raising funds for greater scalability,” he says “Otherwise, what’s the point?” 

Your funding options could be well within reach—e.g., personal savings, family and friends—or might require a bit of bureaucracy if you’re looking for larger sums via bank loans or capital investments. Whichever option (or options) you choose, this is also the time to clarify the return on the funding, such as a loan payback schedule or equity ownership in your business.

08. Set your prices and deliverables

You’ve already determined your service offering, but how much will you charge and what will you produce to hand over to your client? For instance, a restaurant provides a service—say, dinner—but in practice produces and delivers a range of many dishes at different prices.

Similarly, one of your services, like web design, could be offered at different price levels because you provide different amounts of assets: a single-page website, with fewer final assets, will cost less than a multi-page website, with more complexity.

First, revisit your service list and write up deliverables for each item. Deliverables can include a built website, a digital strategy guide, a fixed number of blog articles at a specific length, brand guidelines, an asset library, etc. 

Then, set your prices. There are different web design pricing  models and you don’t have to choose only one.

Flat fee (a.k.a. “Project-based pricing”): A fixed amount that you and your client agreed on at the start of the project.

Hourly fee: An hourly cost, ensuring that you get paid the agreed-upon amount for every hour you spend on a project. 

Monthly fee (a.k.a. “monthly retainer”): A contract, either measured in time or value, that involves monthly payments for a certain amount or type of work. 

Learn more:   Choosing the right business model

Oftentimes deciding on what price to charge can feel like taking a shot in the dark. Or, you may feel pressure to price your services low if you’re just starting out.

However, you’ll want to avoid selling yourself too short. Do your research and learn what your competitors are charging. Identify your differentiators while weighing your expenses—like workspace costs and software licenses—and ideal profit margin. Think about the different clients you plan to take on and what they can afford, whether you’re targeting large enterprises or local shops.

09. Establish your processes and workflows

Having clear and repeatable processes for your web design business will unlock more efficient team and client management —start with standardized web design proposals , client contracts (another time to engage your lawyer) and project flows.

This also helps when marketing your services. By communicating your workflow and demonstrating your expertise and experience, you build credibility and confidence with prospective clients from the get-go. 

To create the workflow that’s right for you, first take a look at your individual needs such as:

Number of projects you will manage simultaneously

Complexity of your projects

Then, map out a workflow that covers the full lifecycle of your projects. A typical workflow includes:

Project briefing and kick off

Research and strategy

Brand and creative development

Wireframing

Website design

Website development

QA and launch

Project wrap and handover

Depending on your service offering and scope of work, the list above could vary, particularly if you sign clients for monthly fees or recurring services.

Hairston provides some insight into Olam Sites’s efficient way of working: “Our operations strategy is centered around standard operating procedures, leveraging efficient tools—Asana, Hubspot and Wix Studio—and a phenomenal project manager. Wix Studio centralizes all client websites and team access, making the deliverable handoff process seamless and scalable.”

Start building sites smarter with Wix Studio ’s collaboration and client management tools.  

Now for the fun part—turn your business name and service offering into a brand identity. This consists of:

Color scheme

Image and/or photography style

Why is it important to take this step and not jump directly to creating a website?

Make a strong first impression. When potential clients land on your website, show them you know how to build a brand and not just a website. You have only a few seconds to impress new site visitors—a structured and methodical brand is far more impressive and impactful. Make visitors think, “I want this too!”

Consider it a case study.  How you create your own brand—the process, research and decisions—can be presented to clients as how you’ll approach their projects. Especially if you’re creating your web design business from nothing, a personal case study adds credibility to your credentials.

A strong portfolio is how you’ll attract clients and showcase your design skills. Here you’ll pull together all the elements you’ve developed so far—branding, service offering and processes—to show (not just tell) future clients what you’re capable of creating online. 

When creating a website for your web design business, choose a platform to: 

Host both your website and your work for clients.  This not only keeps everything in one place but also helps you to get ultra-familiar with the web tool you’re offering your clients. 

Build sites easily for all devices.  Your next client could find you from a desktop or mobile device, so your site needs to be flawless on all screen sizes. (Make sure to build your site with these mobile design best practices  in mind.) 

The most successful creative portfolios include sections, pages or CTAs like:

About : Introduce yourself and your team, including your credentials like any relevant education, industry awards and your value proposition.

“Our Work:”  Showcase projects that represent your best work, and make sure there’s a brief but clear backstory so that visitors understand how you solved your clients’ needs. Keep in mind that before uploading client projects, you should always get client approval in case projects are confidential or not yet live.

Services : List the different services you offer so that you’ll spend less time weeding through requests and more time connecting with relevant prospects whose needs match your skills.

Contact : Make it easy for people to contact you with any questions, and consider embedding a form into your site to collect useful information from prospects (such as their company name, current website’s URL, etc.). 

“Book a Meeting:”  Offer high-intent prospects the opportunity to meet you face-to-face via an online booking feature.

A solution like Wix Studio, for example, is tailored for agency work. It brings together features—including AI tools—for web design, development, SEO, eCommerce, website maintenance and CMS. Beyond having the tools to design cool, interactive sites for your clients at scale, you can enjoy built-in capabilities that allow you to expand your services. 

Build your agency site on Wix Studio with one of these   responsive templates .

Once your site is published and you’re open for business, take steps to establish your brand and to proactively get in front of potential clients. 

“Building authority in your industry by creating content is like investing money in the stock market,” says Hussey. “When I started creating videos, writing blogs, appearing on others’ podcasts—those efforts may not have produced results in the immediate term, but over time, the benefits have paid me back in multiples.” 

To get started, try these content ideas:

Client testimonials

Case studies

Then, promote your content and business profile across different channels:

Social media

Professional databases like the expert listings in the Wix Marketplace  

Email subscribers

You can use   Wix Studio's marketing integrations  to schedule social posts, send emails and track performance—both for your clients and yourself. 

Don’t forget to invest in your personal brand and network. Given how nearly   70% of consumers  trust influencers, friends and family over information coming directly from a brand, it’s always a good idea to use your own sphere of influence to connect people with your agency. 

Here Hussey suggests four additional ideas for your outreach:

Winning your first client isn’t the end of the story. It’s just the beginning of how you grow your business and your skills. In fact, these two go hand in hand. By growing your skills, you can offer more services and meet the needs of even more potential clients. 

Develop your skills : The market offers a wide curriculum, whether you want to improve your technical abilities or learn strategic concepts. Either way, you benefit from advanced knowledge that helps you charge more, build better sites and solve more customers’ problems. The Wix Studio Academy  can help you get started with how-to web design tutorials, webinars from agency founders and more educational resources. 

Get certified:  Certifications are a stamp of approval, signifying that you’ve met the conditions to deliver a specific service. Complete certifications and add them to your website and marketing materials—this signals to potential clients that you’re a trusted and trained professional. You could aim for a certification in the broader area of eCommerce web design, as well as a Wix Studio certification for expertise on the web creation platform. (Then, show off your new Wix Studio Expert badge on Contra ,  a freelance marketplace.)

Look at continuing education as an investment in your success: the more you learn, the more you can offer and gain in the long-run.

How to design a website FAQ

What is a web design business.

A web design business is a type of design agency that specializes in creating and maintaining websites for clients. However, more often than not, it’s about more than just design; it’s about building functional, user-friendly online spaces that serve a specific purpose for a client. 

The scope of work involved in a web design business can be broad. They can range from simple static pages to complex web applications and everything in between. Whether it's an eCommerce platform, a personal blog or a corporate website, each project comes with its own set of design and development challenges and requirements

Why start a web design business?

The web design industry offers a world of business opportunities for creative and tech-savvy entrepreneurs. Starting your own web design business not only taps into a field that blends art and technology but also positions you in a market with high demand for your services.

The benefits of starting a web design business are numerous. Here are some of the most compelling reasons to consider taking your career in this direction.

High demand:  In a digital age, nearly every business needs a website, increasing the demand for skilled web designers.

Flexibility : Running your own business means you can set your own hours and work from anywhere, be it your home office or a beach in Bali.

Creative freedom:  As the owner of a design business, you have the freedom to express your creativity and make decisions that align with your vision—from the clients you choose to take on, to the design and website niche you specialize in.

Is web design a profitable business?

The profitability of a web design business can be significant if managed correctly. Here's what you should keep in mind.

Demand for services: With more businesses going online, the need for professional web design services is on the rise. Tapping into that demand can mean a lot of work for a web design firm. You’ll need to think about things, such as your   sales process for your web design business , amongst other key business needs.

Pricing strategy : Setting competitive rates that reflect the quality of your work and the value you provide is the key to profitability. To do this, you’ll need to have an idea of what your competitors offer and how they package similar services. Be mindful of value-pricing, which is setting your rates according to the value of your work, not just the time spent on it.

Marketing : You’ll need to promote your business to give yourself the best chance of securing long-term and profitable clients and projects. This could include networking or connecting with related online and offline communities to promote yourself and your business. Encourage your current clients to refer you to others who might need the same services and build your   freelance community  along the way.

Diversify your services : Offer a range of services within the field, including content management and social media promotion, if relevant to your expertise.

Build client relationships : Establishing long-term relationships with clients is crucial to getting repeat business and   securing more freelance design clients.

Stay updated with industry trends and changes : Knowing the latest web design trends  will keep you competitive in an evolving market.

Can I start a web design business with no experience?

With no prior experience, starting any type of business can be challenging. However, focusing on education and growth from the outset can help you maintain momentum and see measurable development over time.

These steps can be a solid guide for your first few months:

Learn the fundamentals: To understand web design from the ground up, get familiar with user experience, content writing and the principles of good website design . While these days it’s not necessary to create websites with code, an   online coding class  in HTML, CSS or JavaScript will help you understand the backbone of your websites.

Practice your skills: As you learn new concepts, put them to use. One option is to recreate websites you find online, down to the details of hover interactions and entrance animations. Practicing with   Wix Studio's design  tools can help you focus on your web design skills, since the platform has extensive no-code features.

Share your progress: Whether you’ve created wireframes, designs or live websites, share your real-time process and finished products on your social channels. You’ll receive encouragement and feedback from professionals, plus you’ll enjoy going back to your old posts to see how far you’ve come.

Connect with professional heroes and mentors: “Become an apprentice of someone who is already successful in the industry to gain the skills, experience and industry insight,” advises Hairston of Olam Sites. “This could be in a variety of forms: employee, mentee or YouTube channel subscription.” Choosing a professional hero—someone whose style you admire and want to emulate—will give you a wealth of creative inspiration. Plus, it’s never a bad idea to get in touch with them; they might be happy to provide mentorship and feedback as you find your feet. 

Build your online presence: Now that you’ve completed a few projects, organize everything on a portfolio website. You’ll have one link that you can easily share to show off your past work, whether you’re looking to take on clients or build up your network.

Can I start a web design business with no technical background?

Yep. In fact, there are many platforms that offer website creation without code, and that provide all the necessary features in a single solution. Since you’ll learn web design as you go, choose a web creation platform that’s suitable for your level of knowledge.

Drag and drop  website builders have a more user-friendly interface for beginners. All the design elements you need—such as text boxes, page sections, buttons and video players—are ready-to-go for you to place on your page and customize via a code-free inspector panel. 

Pre-set animations  will add personality, surprise and engagement to your page and can be added to your site’s elements without any code. Not only is it easier to trial and change the animated effects, an inspector panel gives you controls to customize the timing and speed of the effects.

Clickable add-ons  like an online store, blog pages and lead capture forms will expand the functionality of your site without any additional development—cutting both the time and complexity to create business-generating websites.

And be sure to study detailed guides along the way, so you can apply your learnings in real time and get familiar with industry terminology like breakpoint, responsiveness and navigation. This guide on how to make a responsive website  is a good place to start. 

Use Wix Studio ’s drag and drop editor and no-code animations for your next site.

Can I start a web design business from home?

Starting your web design business from home brings great advantages like no commute time, significant cost savings and complete control over your work environment. 

And though this also comes with its challenges, you can overcome them with these best practices.

Enlist time management for work-life balance: Different from project management, time management helps you organize your day across your different tasks, including any personal tasks that you may have to take care of while at home. Set a clear start and end for your work hours, as well as offline times for lunch and screen breaks.

Create a Zoom-friendly space: Video conferencing isn’t unique to working from home, but take notice of what’s behind you when you’re on camera for video calls. Make a good impression by clearing away laundry and dirty dishes, and find a space away from household interference.

Connect with online communities and local organizations: Without an outside office space, it can be more difficult to cross paths with like-minded professionals for shared learning and networking. But with a little effort, there’s a big payoff. Join online professional communities like   Freelance Fam  for web design freelancers, and   Creative Crew  for web design agencies. Find nearby events to attend via resources like   Meetup .

Schedule in-person meetings: While it’s comfortable and convenient at home, health experts encourage getting out of the house daily for physical and mental well-being. Do this by finding time to meet with colleagues or clients face-to-face, whether for business meetings or casual coffee chats. 

Learn more:   Guide to Remote Work

Can I start a web design business with no money?

Starting a web design business will always require a small amount of money at the beginning. Why? 

Registering your business comes with a processing fee that varies depending on your country or state. 

Legal advice isn’t required, but spending a little bit of money to work with a lawyer at the beginning can save you a lot of disappointing (and preventable) loss. For instance, a lawyer can help you craft a solid client contract that protects you and saves you from any costly troubles.

Creating a website with your unique domain name comes at a cost, but gives you a portfolio to send to prospects and that will index to appear on Google Search.

However, there are plenty of areas at the beginning where you can manage your new web design business without incurring costs. Working from home relieves you of space fees; Google Sheets is free and flexible enough to manage project plans, timelines and finances; and some web design tools don’t cost anything for designers to use—your client will cover the cost for a website plan when it’s time for their new site to go live. 

Even though you can get by with very little upfront investment, use your early client revenues to slowly build up your financial security. Try these common best practices:

Collect an initial deposit to support your first days or weeks of expenses

Set aside +/-10% of each payment as a safety fund for when business is slow

Save +/-10% of each payment that you can reinvest later in marketing or tools

Create a free account  to build your next site on Wix Studio.

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Web Design Business Plan

In today’s digital landscape, your website often serves as the first interaction potential clients have with your web design business. This initial impression is crucial, as a well-designed website can significantly impact your company’s success. According to Stanford University , 75% of people judge the credibility of a company based on the design of its website. Consequently, having a strong web design business plan is essential for anyone looking to start or grow a web design company. A comprehensive web design business plan not only provides a roadmap for developing and managing your web design services but also ensures you stay competitive in an ever-evolving market. In this article, we will explore a web design business plan sample using a fictitious company, “WebCrafters Studio,” to illustrate how to craft an effective plan and achieve your business goals.

What is a Web Design Business Plan?

A website design business plan is a detailed document that outlines the goals, strategies, and operational framework of a website design business. It serves as a roadmap for establishing and growing the business, providing a clear direction for achieving objectives and managing resources effectively. The plan includes various sections such as market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing strategies, operational plans, financial projections, and more. Understanding how to start a web design business is critical, and a well-crafted plan is essential for success.

Why You Need a Web Design Business Plan

A website business plan is essential for several reasons:

• Clarity and Focus: A well-structured web development business plan provides clear goals, target market insights, and strategies. It serves as a roadmap for your business, guiding your decisions and actions. Knowing how to design a business plan is fundamental for aligning the web design business management with its long-term objectives.
• Attracting Investors and Clients: Investors and potential clients often require a business plan for a website to evaluate its feasibility and potential. A comprehensive business plan website demonstrates your understanding of the market and commitment to success. Incorporating a business plan portfolio and appendix in business plan further solidifies the business case.
• Operational Efficiency: By outlining resources, technology, and team structure, a web business plan design helps ensure efficient operations and effective management, setting the stage for growth. Understanding how to start a web development business and utilizing a website development timeline template ensures the business stays on track.
• Risk Management: Conducting a SWOT analysis for web development company allows you to identify and address potential risks and challenges, helping you avoid pitfalls. Understanding SWOT analysis of web design company provides a strategic edge in managing business risks effectively.

WebCrafters Studio: Business Plan Sample

This sample will demonstrate the structure and content of an effective web designs business plan, including sections on marketing strategy for a web design company, marketing strategies for web design company, web design service plans, and website design plans. The plan will also cover elements like how to market your web design business, starting a web design business, and how to end a business plan effectively.

1.0 Executive Summary

WebCrafters Studio (herein also referred to as “WebCrafters” and “the company”) was established in New York by Founder, Ms. Lisa Thompson. Founded in 2022 with an initial focus on providing bespoke web design services to small businesses, the company has since expanded its service offerings to include comprehensive web development, e-commerce solutions, and digital marketing strategies.

WebCrafters’ innovative business model is strategically designed to tap into the growing demand for high-quality digital presence across various industries. By broadening its services beyond basic web design, the company leverages its expertise to deliver integrated solutions that meet the diverse needs of its clients. This approach not only drives revenue growth but also ensures resilience against fluctuations in any single service area.

To accelerate growth, WebCrafters is seeking a $100,000 loan to invest in critical business areas. The funds will be allocated towards securing a larger, centralized office space to enhance team collaboration and client interactions. Additionally, the investment will support the acquisition of advanced design and development tools, enabling the company to offer cutting-edge solutions and expand its client base.

Under the leadership of Ms. Lisa Thompson, WebCrafters Studio has earned a reputation for delivering exceptional quality and personalized service. Her forward-thinking approach and deep understanding of industry trends have been key drivers of the company’s success. With a strong focus on innovation and client satisfaction, WebCrafters Studio is well-positioned for continued growth in the competitive web design and digital marketing landscape.

2.0 Business Overview

WebCrafters Studio operates a comprehensive B2B and B2C business model with a primary focus on delivering custom web design and development services. The company primarily targets small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, and entrepreneurs who are looking to establish a strong online presence. WebCrafters Studio creates tailored websites that are not only visually appealing but also optimized for performance, ensuring that clients can effectively engage their target audience and achieve business growth.

To diversify the company’s service offerings and cater to the growing digital needs of businesses, WebCrafters Studio also provides additional services including e-commerce development, digital marketing strategies, and branding solutions. These services are designed to provide clients with a comprehensive suite of tools to enhance their online visibility, drive traffic, and convert visitors into customers.

2.1 Mission Statement

The mission is to empower businesses by creating impactful digital experiences through innovative web design and development. The company is committed to delivering solutions that drive results and contribute to the success of its clients.

2.2 Vision Statement

The vision is to become a leading web design and digital solutions provider, recognized for creativity, innovation, and excellence in delivering value to clients worldwide.

2.3 Core Values

WebCrafters Studio’s culture is built upon a foundation of core values that guide every aspect of the business. These values are integral to all operations and are deeply embedded in the company’s philosophy.

Innovation: WebCrafters Studio is dedicated to staying ahead of industry trends and continuously improving its services to offer cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of clients.

Quality: The company is committed to delivering high-quality web designs and development projects that meet and exceed client expectations. Attention to detail and a focus on excellence are central to every project undertaken.

Integrity: WebCrafters Studio conducts business with honesty, transparency, and a strong ethical foundation. Building trust with clients, partners, and employees is paramount to the company’s success.

Customer Focus: Clients are at the heart of everything WebCrafters Studio does. By understanding and anticipating client needs, the company strives to deliver solutions that drive tangible results and long-term success.

Collaboration: The company fosters a collaborative work environment where every team member is valued and encouraged to contribute ideas. By working together, WebCrafters Studio achieves its goals and delivers exceptional results for clients.

2.4 Goals and Objectives

3.0 Market Analysis

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, understanding market trends, regulations, and the competitive environment is critical for positioning WebCrafters Studio as a leading web design and development firm. This analysis will provide an in-depth look at these factors, offering valuable insights to shape a successful business strategy.

Global Web Design and Development Industry

The global web design and development industry is a cornerstone of the digital economy, providing businesses with the essential tools to establish an online presence. The industry encompasses a wide range of services, including website design, development, e-commerce solutions, and digital marketing. As the world becomes increasingly digital, the demand for high-quality web design services continues to grow, driven by businesses’ need to engage with customers online, enhance their brand image, and improve user experience.

In 2023, the global web design market was valued at approximately $40 billion, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% from 2023 to 2028. This growth is fueled by the increasing adoption of digital technologies, the rise of e-commerce, and the growing importance of mobile-friendly and responsive web designs. Additionally, advancements in web development technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and content management systems (CMS), are expected to drive further innovation in the industry.

3.1  Industry Trends

• Rise of E-Commerce: The growth of e-commerce is a significant trend impacting the web design industry. Businesses are increasingly investing in e-commerce platforms to reach a broader audience and offer seamless online shopping experiences. This trend is driving demand for custom ecommerce website designs that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also optimized for conversions.
• Mobile-First Design: With mobile internet usage surpassing desktop usage, the demand for mobile-first and responsive web designs is on the rise. Businesses are prioritizing mobile-friendly websites to ensure a smooth user experience across all devices, which is becoming a standard in the industry.
• Focus on User Experience (UX): User experience has become a critical factor in web design, with businesses seeking to create websites that are not only visually appealing but also easy to navigate and use. The emphasis on UX design is driving the adoption of practices such as user testing, A/B testing, and the use of analytics to optimize website performance.
• Integration of AI and Automation: The integration of AI and automation in web design is revolutionizing the industry. AI-powered tools and platforms are enabling the creation of personalized and dynamic websites, while automation is streamlining various aspects of web development, such as coding and content management.

3.2 Government Regulations

The web design and development industry is subject to various regulations, particularly concerning data privacy and accessibility. In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) governs how businesses handle personal information. Compliance with PIPEDA is essential for web design companies, especially when designing websites that collect user data.

Additionally, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) mandates that websites be accessible to individuals with disabilities. This regulation requires businesses to ensure that their websites are designed to be inclusive and usable by all individuals, regardless of their abilities. Non-compliance with these regulations can result in legal penalties and damage to a company’s reputation.

3.3 Competitive Analysis

To better understand WebCrafters Studio’s position in the market, a competitive analysis has been conducted to identify key competitors and their respective strengths and weaknesses.

4.0 Products and Services

WebCrafters Studio offers a comprehensive suite of digital services designed to help businesses establish and enhance their online presence. The company specializes in delivering customized solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of its clients across various industries. The core offerings include:

• Website Design and Development

WebCrafters Studio provides end-to-end website design and development services, from initial concept to final launch. The company focuses on creating responsive, user-friendly, and visually appealing websites that are optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. This includes custom website designs, e-commerce platforms, and content management system (CMS) integration.

• E-Commerce Solutions

Specializing in building robust e-commerce platforms, WebCrafters Studio designs and develops online stores that offer seamless shopping experiences. These solutions include payment gateway integration, product management systems, and custom features to meet specific business requirements.

• Digital Marketing Services

WebCrafters Studio offers a range of digital marketing services to drive traffic, increase visibility, and generate leads for businesses. These services include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and email marketing campaigns tailored to the client’s target audience.

• Brand Identity and Graphic Design

The company provides brand identity and graphic design services to help businesses establish a strong and cohesive brand image. This includes logo design, branding guidelines, and other visual assets that reflect the brand’s values and resonate with its target market.

• Website Maintenance and Support

WebCrafters Studio offers ongoing website maintenance and support services to ensure that clients’ websites remain up-to-date, secure, and fully functional. This includes regular updates, security monitoring, and troubleshooting services to address any technical issues.

5.0 Sales and Marketing Plan

The sales and marketing plan for WebCrafters Studio outlines the strategic approach to reaching potential clients and driving business growth. The plan focuses on leveraging digital marketing channels, building brand awareness, and establishing a strong presence in the web design industry.

5.1 Target Market

The target market includes small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across various industries, startups, and entrepreneurs who are seeking to establish or enhance their online presence. The focus is on clients who value high-quality, customized digital solutions that drive business results.

5.2 Marketing Strategies

• Digital Marketing: Utilize SEO, content marketing, and social media to increase visibility and attract potential clients. This includes maintaining an active blog, engaging with audiences on social media platforms, and optimizing the website for search engines.
• Partnerships and Collaborations: Form strategic partnerships with complementary businesses, such as digital marketing agencies and branding firms, to offer bundled services and reach a broader audience.
• Networking and Industry Events: Participate in industry conferences, workshops, and networking events to connect with potential clients and showcase the company’s expertise.
• Referral Program: Implement a referral program to incentivize existing clients to refer new businesses, leveraging word-of-mouth marketing.

5.3 SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis provides insights into WebCrafters Studio’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats:

6.0 Operational Plan

The operational plan for WebCrafters Studio outlines the essential processes and activities required to deliver high-quality services consistently and efficiently. This section covers key operational aspects, including hours of operation, location, procurement, and risk management.

6.1 Hours of Operation

WebCrafters Studio operates Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. These hours allow the company to provide services during standard business hours, ensuring accessibility for clients. This schedule also supports a balanced work environment for the team, promoting productivity and well-being.

6.2 Location

The company is strategically located in a central business district, providing easy access to clients and partners. The office space is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and tools to support the creative and technical aspects of web design and development. The location also offers opportunities for networking and collaboration within the local business community.

6.3 Procurement Plan

WebCrafters Studio sources its tools, software, and hardware from reputable suppliers to ensure the highest quality in its deliverables. The procurement plan includes regular updates to design and development software, as well as the maintenance of hardware to support optimal performance. The company also maintains strong relationships with third-party service providers, such as hosting and domain registration companies, to deliver reliable and secure web solutions.

6.4 Risk Analysis

7.0 Organizational Plan

The organizational plan for WebCrafters Studio outlines the structure, management team, and human resource strategies that will support the company’s growth and success. This section covers the roles and responsibilities within the company and the approach to building a skilled and motivated team.

7.1 Organizational Structure

WebCrafters Studio has a streamlined organizational structure designed to promote efficiency, collaboration, and innovation. The structure consists of the following key roles:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Responsible for overall strategic direction, business development, and client relations.
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO): Oversees all technical aspects of web development, including software selection, project management, and quality assurance.
• Creative Director: Leads the design team, ensuring that all visual elements align with client goals and brand identity.
• Marketing Manager: Manages all marketing activities, including digital marketing strategies, content creation, and social media engagement.
• Project Manager: Coordinates project timelines, resource allocation, and communication between teams to ensure successful project delivery.
• Web Developers and Designers: Responsible for the technical and creative aspects of website creation, including coding, design, and UX/UI development.
• Customer Support: Provides ongoing support to clients, addressing any issues or updates required post-launch.

7.2 Management Team

The management team at WebCrafters Studio comprises experienced professionals with a deep understanding of the web design and development industry. Each member brings a unique set of skills and expertise that contribute to the company’s success:

• CEO: The CEO has extensive experience in business management, with a strong background in web development and a proven track record of leading successful digital projects.
• CTO: The CTO is an expert in software development and has a deep understanding of the latest technologies and trends in web development.
• Creative Director: With a background in graphic design and branding, the Creative Director ensures that all design projects meet high standards of creativity and quality.
• Marketing Manager: The Marketing Manager has a wealth of experience in digital marketing, specializing in SEO, social media strategy, and content marketing.

This management team is committed to driving the company’s growth, fostering innovation, and ensuring client satisfaction.

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8.0 Financial Plan

The following financial projections have been carefully crafted by the management team of the company. All projections are forward-looking and are dependent on securing the required financing. It is the audience’s responsibility to conduct all necessary due diligence.

8.1 Pro Forma Income Statement

8.2 Pro Forma Cash Flow Statement

8.3 Pro Forma Balance Sheet

9.0 Conclusion

Creating a detailed and well-thought-out web design plan is crucial for starting and growing a successful web design company. By focusing on key components such as market analysis, services offered, marketing strategy, and financial planning, you can build a strong foundation for your business. Whether you’re launching a new venture or expanding an existing one, a comprehensive business plan for website will help you navigate the competitive landscape and achieve your goals.

At BSBCON , we specialize in crafting customized web design business plans tailored to your specific needs and goals. If you need assistance with your business plan, contact us today to get started on building a successful business web design.

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Options and Tips for Creating a Web Design Business Plan

Don’t get too intimidated by writing a web design business plan, a lot of it just means getting down onto paper things you likely have been considering anyway. According to Entrepreneur “Writing…

Estimated Read Time:   40 minutes

Don’t get too intimidated by writing a web design business plan , a lot of it just means getting down onto paper things you likely have been considering anyway. According to Entrepreneur “Writing out your business plan forces you to review everything at once: your value proposition, marketing assumptions, operations plan, financial plan and staffing plan.”

If I can do it – and go from 1 to 10 people in three years, you can too 😉 My wife will tell you… I’m no genius.

Table of Contents

Main Points in a Web Design Business Plan Outline:

1. business concept –.

What is the web design industry like in your immediate area and region? What are the high-level possibilities for the success of your web design business? What are the prime differentiating factors and how you will set yourself apart from the competition?

2. Who is the market for your web design firm?

Who are your customers? Are you serving only mid-sized businesses? Only editorial publications? Churches? Non-profits? Teenie tiny mom and pop shops? Fortune 500 companies? What niche are you looking to serve? What is the demand like for the service? And this leads us into our next question.. What does your pricing need to look like to serve these customers? And it’s not always getting your price down into affordability; maybe you need to price higher so that your company seems more professional and that you can offer above and beyond service. “Price high and justify.”

3. Income and Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet etc.

“Start by estimating the revenues generated by an average sale. Then subtract the costs that change with each transaction, like sales commissions and costs of producing the products sold. The result is your “unit contribution.” Next, predict your monthly overhead, or expenses that don’t vary directly with sales volume, such as rent, salaries, utilities, legal fees, and accounting expenses. Finally, divide your monthly overhead by your unit contribution. That number will tell you how many transactions you’ll need per month to break-even.” From this article on Inc. of The Basics of a Business Plan by the Numbers.

Get started with this One Page Web Design Business Plan

General Principles for writing a Web Design Business Plan:

1. Keep your business plan short and simple.

Go for it right now with this One Page Web Design Business Plan .

2. Use visual charts to quickly show key numbers.

3. Do what you do best, and make it look professional.

4. Ask key questions like what will be it’s annual revenue in a year, and in 5 years.

5. What things can I delegate? Sales, Technical or others? How will you attract these people to help, and what will be your key differentiators of process and culture?

6. Is the business plan going to help you raise money? 

7. How much of an initial investment will the business need?

Tools for Creating a Business Plan:

1. LivePlan.com – Visual planning tool, helpful if you really don’t know where to start. It will give you the sections and the template is already there.

2. The Art of The Start 2.0 (Book by Guy Kawasaki) – “It’s most relevant for technology or IT companies, but he has a way of writing that’s very clear, very to the point. There’s not a lot of pedantic info that you’ll find in textbooks.”

3. Score – Business Planning Templates –  Quickly assess your marketing plan, Free business listing list for search engine optimization, Marketing must haves etc.

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Other Links related to Web Design Plans:

• Web Design Sample Business Plan – Executive Summary
• 9 Steps to starting your freelance web design business – Business Tuts
• Plan a Web Development Business Part Two- BPlans
• How to Make a Business Plan for a Website Development Startup – Color Whistle

Getting Your First Web Design Clients

My first web design client was my future mother-in-law, a real doozie. A non-profit, I was paid $500 and an iPad. I’ve also been paid as little as – negative $ for making a website, because I was so eager for real world experience. Do you want a website? I want to give you one.. just let me pay for your hosting and I’ll make the website out of the salt from the sweat of my children.

Don’t sell yourself short. Charge a decent amount.

So the first real website I sold was a couple months later. I was just learning WordPress and I sold a site for 10 monthly payments of $250 dollars. Because it was a fairly simple marketing website and didn’t have a ton of custom features on it, this was actually a pretty solid deal for a starting out web designer.

The first half of selling yourself as a web designer is evidence. Let’s see the goods.

Make sure you have a decent portfolio out there, that you made yourself..

I don’t care if it’s on WordPress, straight HTML, or Ruby on Rails. Get that thing out in the open, give it the best you got and make sure it shows the best of your best work. Code up a non-profit’s website for free if you have to, and show as many real projects as you possibly can. I iterated on my website 3 times, with 2 live at my domain before I ever got my first real set of clients. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to exist.

Here’s my site I made in 2012 (click here to see it in the Internet Wayback Machine):

Here’s the site in 2013 (click here to see it in the Internet Wayback Machine):

Yes.. I agree my portfolio was a little weak at this point, but guess what? I was getting clients. I wasn’t by any means, raking them in, but people I knew were coming to me and asking if I could help with their website or help them make a new website. I was eager to be of service, and make enough money to stop bussing tables.

Let the world know you’re making websites now.

Change your job on Facebook to ‘Self Employed Web Designer’, change your LinkedIn –  don’t put Aspiring Web Designer in your Twitter profile, put Web Designer. You’re a big boy (or girl) now. I personally took a good hard running jump at web design, and with one client and one month covered in expenses jumped out into the market as a web designer. No more restaurant job (which for me didn’t pay THAT well anyways.) When people hear that’s what you do, and you take a friendly and helpful attitude when they reach out, or you offer your services you can quickly earn some awareness around the new service you offer.

Don’t wait until you have it perfected, just go for it.

I’m not suggesting you make the new 3M website, or try to sell yourself as a ten year veteran of website design. You can, however, say you will go above and beyond for a client as you are starting out fresh and will do everything in your power to make them an excellent website. If you’ve created a couple of examples, then that can help adjust expectations and although you may need to put ungodly amounts of time into your first couple websites you will earn your chops in the struggle. You’ll figure out how to z-index a logo over the top of overlapping nav div.

In defense of the designer-developer.

Yes, I’m suggesting you will have to write code. Can you sell a website for $2,500 dollars and give half of it away to a front-end developer when you’re starting out? Perhaps, perhaps not. I personally couldn’t, and so… I learned to code. Basics at first, how to modify WordPress themes ever so slightly with CSS. Then cutting and splicing bits of PHP, then eventually writing my own themes from scratch. This is why I suggest having a couple of websites under your belt before really having someone pay you for your web design services; you can find the rhythm that works for you. If you are an epic visual designer who can confidently charge $5,000 for your first website you could potentially find the right person to develop it for you and you can pay them adequately to make it good. It’s really to each is own, because I preach design/development, and you have an equally right  person 2 doors down who wouldn’t touch a CMS to save his life. Literally … my old neighbor above me would sell sites for 7-8k and I thought he was an internet god. He would write the HTML, CSS, and Javascript (In Dreamweaver, hello throwback,) and then outsource custom Content Management System development for 2k. I just wanted to learn how to not pay that 2k .

Other ways to promote your new web design business

• Look for ways to trade your services for advertising : I sold my services in an auction by a Minneapolis newspaper  in exchange for adspace in their lifestyle magazine VitaMN.
• Get every viable social media handle/url under the name you’re using to freelance , promote yourself vigorously on TWO of these, and understand you’re not going to do ALL of them well .
• Make a list of all the acquaintances who have small businesses, and that could use a website. Send them a quick note, and always be of the mind that you’re there to be of service – not sell.
• Go old school and create a flyer : I put boots on the ground and peddled my wares (a one page services sheet – without pricing on it) around every business that I could open the door to in my area of Uptown Minnesota. I focused on what I did that was different. Alot of times this is personal service, since you likely have less clients and more time and attention than alot of web design shops in town. – To be perfectly honest, this didn’t get me a client. Maybe what I’m really suggesting here is hustling your ass off and being as present as possible… take every opportunity to share what you do until you gain momentum.
• Put out content on a blog on your website and promote it on social media : Don’t sell dude. Don’t do it. You can still see my oldest posts on this blog that are salesy… it’s not going to kill your blog, but it’s really boring and no-one wants to read those. Just give as much value as you can, share your experiences and focus on the ONE SERVICE you are really trying to sell and things you’re learning in that discipline. Use it as an opportunity to dig deeper into your craft, and to share as you go.

Price High and Justify

After you promote the living shit out of yourself on social media, talk to your long lost friend with a supplement or house painting business, and make a few mistakes it’s time to price high and justify . You have to charge what people will pay, but as soon as you can push that number up as high as it can reasonably go. Why? If you have high prices it means you can make more excellent work! Justify the price with above and beyond service and you’ll feel great about what you do. Your work will mean more profitable businesses that benefit from the excellent websites you make. It feels good to help people feed their families by helping them get the word out about what makes their business special. And in the end, that’s what it boils down to for me.

Make Sure Your Process Differentiates You from Competitors

It’s important to recognize what your business’s competitive advantage is, and unless you want to build a business that depends upon what’s special about YOU as an individual you have to draw out and nurture the special things about your process. To focus on your own unique specialties alone builds a prison fortress around you, and if you ever want to hire or contract out parts of the business you’re stuck with a business that only works with you sweating away at the center of it; the wizard behind the curtain, slowly getting too tired to perform at the same level.

So for me the key pieces of my web design process as I am learning to define them are:

1. responsiveness to changes that clients need..

– Example: Client asks for a lighter color scheme in development, instead of fretting we work hard to satisfy the request and push back when appropriate to keep within a reasonable budget.

Key to fulfilling: Web design services should not be dirt cheap, and if they are they aren’t taking into consideration the time it takes to build something fully customized for the business’s needs. Templated solutions get generic unfulfilling results. (However, I still feel that for some customers templated solutions such as Squarespace.com and WordPress Themes from Themeforest without custom code can occasionally fulfill their needs and suggest that they try those routes if their budget doesn’t allow to really hire someone to do it right.)

2. Examining the overall market for the client and tailoring the content on the site to the scenarios that could be useful to their favorite kinds of clients.

– Example: Your site is serving people who just suffered hail damage to their home, we assess that a key to surprising and delighting these types of customers is serving up content that is about how to buff out hail damage on their car.

Key to fulfilling: It’s crucial we think about the psychology of the people coming into the site. This is the number one question we ask when making a website: “how can we serve your ideal customer with this content, this imagery, the messages we’re sharing and the story we’re telling.”

3. Building out the main service pages of the website in the hope that the content will attract new customers, making key items like ‘contact us’ and ‘buy now’ super easy to access on the main promos, sidebars, and at the end of content.

– Example: Adding bigger content pieces after key visual blocks on service pages so that the service page is indexable by Google and people who want to really dig into what you have that option. Big old juicy buttons that say “Contact us now” or “Request a quote” are super obvious and surrounded by trust factors such as positive testimonials, industry badges, a phone number, or 3 key differentiating features in bullet points.

Keys to fulfilling: It’s important not only to think about how people are going to perceive this site when they get there but how they are going to get there in the first place. By thinking about big content pieces that could provide big value for the client during the design process, the website can be built in a way that emphasizes and makes those big content pieces that are serving a real need available and to the forefront of the site with menu structure, and other pieces of navigation and structure.

4. Imagery is outside the box, and elicits a positive emotional response from key individuals your business is targeting.

– Example: A Death to Stock Photo image that feels less stock photo-esque and more candid than most stock photos.

Even better, you and your storefront, your set of tools. An ACTUAL satisfied client, smiling and holding your product or enjoying your work.

Keys to fulfilling: Often this involves imagining what a positive interaction between your business and your client will look like. Is it you sitting with them, them smiling, and a chart of upward momentum on the computer screen in front of you? Is it freshly cut grass without them lifting a finger, so they get to smile and sip fresh lemonade on their porch? This is the story we want to display. We want the imagery to feel candid, real and maybe even a bit unusual. But a visitor should be able to see it and think to themselves, I want to be there. They should be able to imagine themselves in the place of the person pictured on the site.

5. The copy is written in a way that quickly explains the core benefit/value from your product or service, invites the visitor to participate, and explains why it will be awesome for them.

– Example: A moving company could say “Your back will thank you, call us for a custom quote today.” A remodeling company could say, “You’ll feel as good as your home will look.” with a call to action button that says, “Get a quote for a fresh look.”

Keys to fulfilling: Never be generic! Shake out the cobwebs in your marketing brain right now. Seriously, every single product or service has a unique and special story behind it, and the customers you serve need to know why anyone would choose you . Why have they in the past? I speak to the business owners and people representing businesses in their marketing teams, and I ask: “Tell me the story of positive customer experience, that you’re aware of.” What does that look like. Tell that story on the site. The more you get curious about these stories and the core benefit a product or service is providing, very few things are truly boring. The more you get interested in the story of the product or service, and tell that positive experience story the more you’ll see that almost anything can be interesting.

And the moral of the story is:

As you can see, the key differentiating features of this design process is a personal connection, customizing the solution to the industry and those specific businesses prime differentiating features, and enthusiasm. That enthusiasm through every piece of the puzzle is crucial. It’s important to note at every step of the process that this is for a business composed of REAL PEOPLE, whose food and shelter depends on telling the story to the world, and REAL PEOPLE who benefit from the product or service being served. This is the real end value. So anyone I work with, or for feels that: the enthusiasm and the genuine intent to provide value. This is key to this design process. 

How to Speak About Design to Establish Trust

“I thought you might like the flourishes in the header, it has that bohemian, natural feeling you were talking about when we first met up to discuss the project.” = FIRE ME . “Thought you might like,” “Going for that feeling,” and “I was inspired to take a fun direction,” all scream of whimsical dainty little artist types who could literally die from the harsh realities of designing for real economic pressures. The real economic reality is that families food and shelter depends on the success of a business, and a key component of how a business does is how that business presents itself to the world through design.

I’m not saying you can’t feel a feeling and apply it to your work in design, but design isn’t art. It is meant to solve real world problems. So instead of focusing on your feelings while presenting to the client, focus on design principles, web design best practices, and the persona’s and scenario’s you established during your discovery phase. Focus the conversation around:

• Design Principles
• Web Design best practices
• Persona’s and scenario’s

Why do design principles even matter?

I’ve had a couple situations lately, where someone seems to be questioning why a font choice even matters. They rolled their eyes when I mentioned a study that called Baskerville the most trusted font. It got me thinking. How am I presenting this wrong? Because I know in my heart of hearts that design matters. <- FIRE ME,  but I can’t seem to always make it dead obvious to people I’m presenting work to.

I want to show them two ads side by side, one with high quality fonts that were chosen with serious intention and one with quickly chosen free fonts , and ask them which of them makes the product they represent seem more expensive, or which one makes the product seem more quality. Because good design does indeed represent products and services in a better light, and makes them seem more high quality. You know that, and I know that, but:

But how do we make the value of design dead obvious?

1. Resolve to help them find solutions to pain points. – Your website looks like shit on mobile, let’s fix that. Your logo has gradients and shadows in it to the point it’s hard to use on shirts and in other simple ways. Let’s address those and work from there how design can help solve problems you’re aware of now. Maybe it expands from there; as a designer, you’re a problem solver and the more you can identify and come up with creative and solid solutions for, the more design solutions you get to get paid for.

2. Dive into their world and become aware of what they value. – For web design you might realize the client cares more about looking cool than contact form submissions. You might realize they value their relationship with their family deeply, that a certain type of customer is their favorite . Once we realize what they care about deeply… pause pause pause …we can help them communicate those values through the design.  By diving in, visiting their shop, asking a lot of questions, and being present we can then better let them know how good design will help them do that.

3. Focus on the things they do understand like ‘Trust factors’, ‘color psychology’ and ‘telling the story.’ – ‘We have to tell the story of your business better,’ is going to resonate with some people better than my fascination with the font Baskerville. Even though I deeply care about typography, it’s just not always as accessible of a topic, or as interesting to clients. What they do understand is how adding a Better Business Bureau badge next to the contact form will help increase the likelihood of people contacting them, and how blue is associated with trust and how green get’s associated with natural, fresh, or innovative. This really depends on the particular client, as some clients can go deep without a lot of prep.

Let’s circle back for a bit and make sure you’re working with the right kind of client:

The client defines the value and the designer discovers it. Ask the client what their business or organization does and why is it important to their target audience. If they don’t give you a quick comprehensible answer they are not ready to work with a designer or an agency. If they do answer the question you should next ask them what success looks like and what their goals are. DO NOT lead them toward what you think success might be. Let them define it.

When you get their feedback, dig deeper. A good way to do this is by asking who their target audience is and what their target audience needs are. If they can’t answer this they are not ready for the value a designer or an agency will provide. The client needs to have experience communicating with their target audience in order to set proper goals. If there’s no goal, how will you know whether or not a project is successful? Here are some red flags to look out for in the beginning stages of communicating with a potential client. I asked a fellow designer, Brenna French to share some thoughts on this issue:

“You sit down at a coffee shop excited to talk to a potential client about the project and the first thing they say is, I want to build a website how much would that be? This is a red flag because this means their mindset is already focused on getting a deal and not on the value you can provide for their business or their target audience.

This goes both ways in the relationship by the way, you never want to position the project or conversation around money. If you talk about money right away this shows the client that you are money hungry or desperate for work. Remember you are a professional and you are serious about your work and the value you can provide. Positioning the conversation around value sets the tone for the whole relationship in a positive way.

Say you get past that money conversation and everything is going well so far so you start talking about the project. The client starts to explain that they are wanting a one-page website design and they also want the main colors to be blue and orange because to them those are beautiful colors, oh yeah they also want a picture of themselves in the main header. This is a red flag because they have too many ideas of what they are visually wanting the end product to look like.

As a design professional, I don’t want to execute the client’s wants in mind. I design the best possible solution for the client’s target audience so the client will reach their business goals. From my experience, a client that has a specific visual direction is difficult to work with. Position the conversation around value. By the end of the conversation, you both are excited to get started. You set clear expectations and attracted the client by positioning the conversation around value.”

– Brenna French

Ask these questions of new possible clients: Is the client sure of their target audience?

Is the client aware of their target audience’s needs?

Are they able to answer right away, what is it that you do and why is it important to your target audience?

Do they start talking about their budget right away? (If they do it might be a red flag – try to change the conversation to talk about value that you’ll provide, not an arbitrary number you come with on the fly without fully understanding the project.)

Do they give off the impression that they understand you’re the expert, that they understand that are only responsible for Content – and Business Goals?

Do they have alot of ideas already about how the website should look? – A possible red flag.

That last one is challenging, and occasionally working for small businesses it’s important to kindly educate your clients on what is your responsibility and what is yours. But needless to say, if they come out of the gate giving strong layout suggestions and explaining their specific vision for look and feel you’re being pigeon-holed into the position of technician implementing someone else’s design, not the dynamic problem-solving designer.

Ways to talk and words to use

Talk confidently and make sure to include examples of previous work where you solved a specific goal-oriented problem. Now is the time to ask what their primary objective is, and to set up a metric for the design you’re working on currently. 100 e-mail list subscriptions, 15 contact form submissions by legitimate prospects, 20 sales the first three months of launch. Make specific goals have a date attached to them. Gathering this information after the design should be part of what you’re being paid to do, and part of what you’re selling.

Do user testing on the old site when they come in, if it’s worth testing. Talk about testing critical things. Words and phrases to use: research, effective, goals, trust-worthy, tell your story, appeal to your core demographic. Always do research on their industry before getting into the site design. Their competitors, and brand positioning. By doing this you better understand what they are up against and you position yourself as the expert with a unique understanding of their dilemma. This is another reason to hold off giving a price for the work until you fully understand the problem at hand.

Share research. You don’t always have to have it on hand when you are discussing a particular issue. But you should do your due diligence, if they want a pop-up newsletter subscription box then you should be able to go find the research on which way of doing that is most effective (right away, timed, or exit intent,) or general tips on making a pop-up effective. I find it especially effective to share these bits of research right before you show the design at all. Come up with three pieces of research to support points that might be contentious or that push their comfort level on the design. Share them briefly before going over the design.

When you get into showing the design, avoid the real estate tour; ‘here’s the logo,’ ‘here’s the nav,’ etc. Go straight for the heart of why the design serves their goals. Talk about flow and conversions, and especially focus on how the design presents their story in a unique and compelling way to appeal to their core demographic. Never ask for feedback, ask if they have any questions. In this way, you can further ingrain yourself in their mind as an expert. I think of it as a bit of swagger. Humble swagger, but you have to have some swagger in this industry.

Content Strategy for Web Designers to Attract Ideal Customers

Devising a workable and effective content strategy can be difficult for any company or brand, as the needs and desires of readers, clients, and businesses always vary from individual to individual, and from day to day. With a bit of work and the following content strategy guide to get you started, you should be well on your way to developing a stellar web design content strategy ! The most important part is that you start, and these practical and actionable strategies will help you get your ass in gear.

Begin with an Introspective Evaluation

Before taking that first step down the road of content creation, the best tactic is to initially spend some time to evaluate where your company, your content, and your brand currently stand. Begin this evaluation by honestly answering a few simple questions:

How is our brand currently perceived in the marketplace?

What are good and bad aspects of the brand’s existing content?

What content-related goals would we like to achieve?

How does our brand match up to other web design competitors?

With these basic questions answered about your brand and where your company currently stands, you can move onto an overall content strategy design by answering “The Five Ws”:

Who is the audience of our content?

When should particular content be available?

Where (in which channels) should the content exist?

Why is the content relevant (or) why will the audience care?

What is the message or purpose of the content?

For example, throughout this article I’ll illustrate examples with a fictional up-and-coming web design firm called Green Lemon Design. The Green Lemon team — who are looking to establish themselves in the web design market as a talented, young, and energetic choice for lower to mid-tier web designs — might answer these questions in the following (simplified) form:

Potential clients: Users seeking low- to mid-range website design and consultation services.

Existing clients: Users who have worked with us in the past.

Most content on the website should be available 24/7, while content that is time-sensitive (such as a month-long new client special deal) can be temporary.

Onsite, Blog, Email, Twitter, Facebook

The audience should be seeking professional and affordable web design services that we can offer (for potential customers) or additional customer support and services (for existing clients).

To inform and educate our audience on the skills and capabilities of our brand, to impress with our past successes and portfolio, and to establish good rapport and relationships with both potential and existing clients.

Establishing Brand, Voice, and Tone Guidelines

With the basic questions answered that inform you of a need to change your content strategy , now is a good time to evaluate the brand, voice, and tone guidelines you’ll utilize throughout the content.

Brand guidelines can cover logo design to color pallette and everything in between. For content strategy , the best places to start are:

Fonts and typefaces : What fonts will be used throughout the content? How about sizes for various elements (paragraphs, headers, testimonials, etc)?

Colors and palettes : What colors best suit your brand or company and can be utilized throughout the content? – Example above includes a distinctive color palette that could be applied to other elements.

Images and logos : Which particular static images or logos should be prominent throughout the content? – It’s useful to repeat symbols such as the ‘greenish lemon’ throughout this piece. This may be particular to the content you put out on your site in general, or a particular blog post or content hub.

Videos and animations : As above, are there any video clips that should be frequent or readily available somewhere in the content?

Voice & Tone

Determine early in the process what kind of voice and tone you wish to attach to your content and thus associate with your brand. This can be difficult at first, particularly without much in the way of experienced writers on staff, but finding an appropriate voice can be a huge boon to your content strategy as a whole.

For example, Green Lemon Web Design may elect to take on a very informal, even humorous tone throughout their content. As a young and fresh company, they may feel most comfortable keeping their tone light-hearted and fun, to attract the business and clientele of smaller, younger companies like themselves.

Onsite Content: The Bread of Your Content Strategy Sandwich

Time to get down to the real core of your content strategy by first devising the outline of content that should exist onsite. Remember, anything  that exists on the company or brand website (with the exception of the blog) is considered onsite content and should be under your complete control.

For our fictitious Green Lemon Web Design, the outline for onsite content strategy might include the following sections:

Voice & Tone : Errors/alerts, testimonials, FAQ, portfolio should have a fun and humorous tone, while a more serious, business tone is necessary for transactional and billing-related messages.

Images : In addition to the logo and color palette established previously, we’d like some professional photography to splash through the core onsite pages (about us, contact us, etc), but with a refreshing twist: Each photo should contain a small green lemon strategically placed and tucked somewhere in the graphic, to bring a branded element into the design for brand awareness and maximum impact.

Portfolio : A list of clients we’ve assisted in the past with small testimonials from business partners from each when relevant.

About Us : Details about how Green Lemon came to be, including headshots of all employees with short, fun bios from each. Employees must provide a quote (think high school graduation yearbook quote, or ask a curious question to get your team showing their true colors.) In my experience looking at analytics for a lot of sites, people visit these pages more than you might initially think. It make sense, because we want to know about the people in your business. Tell us more, give us the inside scoop, tell your story.

Contact Us/Get a Quote : Standard form with name, email, and (optional) telephone fields for potential clients to get in touch. Should we include our company promise to establish return correspondence within 4 hours?

FAQ : Answer basic questions, primarily focused at potential customers. What is our typical turnaround time? What post-design support can we offer? Include a handful of fun and humorous questions at the end as well.

Services : Describe all services we offer, broken into categories (consultation, marketing, technology, industries, etc).

Errors & Alerts : 404 error should be squeezed green lemon with one final drop of juice falling out. Logged in clients with unread messages or invoices should see amusing flash message on each screen until dismissed. Little alerts and responses to contact form inquiries can be an opportunity to show a bit of the companies friendly, human character as well as display being adept with technology and attention to detail.

Blog Posts: That’s the Good Stuff

While strong onsite content is of course critical to the success of any strategy, very often the real meat and potatoes of your online presence is contained within the blog. The blog offers an avenue for expressing ideas and sharing content that is timely, relevant, and inspirational for the audience.

A blog is also a more appropriate channel to take risks — even slight ones — with the content your brand produces. Blog content can be anything from industry news and competitor-vs.-self comparisons to tutorials and how-to guides.

A successful blog is a channel for content that relates to the brand or company, but then extends well beyond the purview of the brand to provide relevant and interesting content for the audience to consume.

Don’t get caught in the old-school idea of a blog, where one or a handful of curators post personal stories and anecdotes. While that type of content is certainly acceptable and sometimes appropriate to a modern blog, try to expand the content well outside the bounds of that traditionally small umbrella.

For example, Green Lemon might highlight some potential blog ideas for their new web designer content strategy :

Leveraging Influencers

A post discussing highly influential creatives in the design space and how they have inspired Green Lemon and other designers. We should emphasize the great projects these creatives have worked on over the years to entice our readers by illustrating how Green Lemon understands the industry and that our team (or freelancer) strives to meet the same standards of excellence.

Discuss the importance of social media contact, even amongst these influences, by tagging them on Twitter with a link to the blog post. An ideal tactic is not to directly ask a question of the power user in question, but to ask a question of our general Twitter audience (e.g. “Designers: How has @Influencer inspired you in your own projects? #GreenLemonDreaming”).

Content Hub Posts

Posts that emphasize a highly-curated and relevant series of links and posts found elsewhere that relate to a particular topic, such as web design. Since a popular group of articles gathered in this singular “content hub”-style post will drive a lot of SEO traffic and referral linkbacks to our site, we can be confident that the effort in putting together these posts is worthwhile and will generate a great deal of buzz and traffic for Green Lemon.

Emphasizing Keywords

As a relatively new company, we cannot be afraid to try emphasizing localized keywords to drive interest and traffic to Green Lemon and bring in potential clients.

A great technique is to create a series of blog posts that highlight particular keywords and heavily focus the relevant aspects of the content on those keywords.

To drive localized traffic we can start with “Web Design in Minneapolis” and “Web Design in Minnesota,” which should feature some location-specific content mixed into the standard information. This can be as simple as pictures or mentions of local attractions in the city or state that residents of these areas who read the article will relate to.

Conversely, we’ll need more broad language and images to accompany our post about “WordPress Web Design,” which should shy away from localized content but instead contain information solely about the techniques and technologies (CMS organization, colors/typefaces, content release schedule, etc).

Inactivity is a Death Sentence

While the initial questions and answers when getting started in the content strategy process as seen above might seem at first to provide only a very rudimentary insight the steps to implement a strategy, there is one key lesson to learn when it comes to anything related to content: Don’t get bogged down by the minutiae and thus never take action .

The biggest mistake anyone can make when it comes to content strategy is to be too passive, to over-assess and over-plan to the point of inaction. Particularly in the online space — where content moves at the speed of light (both figuratively and literally) — failing to act at all on a new content strategy is far worse than taking action and modifying or adjusting the content strategy plan as you learn and grow along the way.

That’s not to say planning and strategy are not important, but in many situations for both companies and clients alike, it is far more important to just “get out there” with the content so the audience can begin to interact with the content or brand than it is to delay far too long with nothing to show for it from a public perspective.

Maintaining Your Flexibility

Content strategies come in all shapes and sizes and should not be solely thought of as a brand-wide, all-inclusive methodology for every piece of content the brand creates.

Instead, content strategies can and should be developed in a modular fashion. Similar to a well-crafted website, an interchangeable content strategy allows for flexibility throughout the process over time, as variables change and the success (or failure) of a particular strategy evolves over time.

This technique should most commonly be used to distinguish between the various channels in which your content resides. A strategy module that suits email campaigns is likely not as well suited for handling social media interactions on Twitter, just as the static onsite content used throughout the site will differ significantly from the content posted on a blog.

Embrace these differences and freely develop multiple modules of your content strategy to fit each appropriate channel. You can and should still maintain an overall parent strategy that infuses elements into every child strategy below that (fonts, colors, common logos/images, etc), but much of the content beyond that will shift as the medium changes.

The Necessity of Taking Risks

A very useful tool when first developing a content strategy is to evaluate the various levels of “risk” involved in any given style or example of content. That is, when a reader or user engages with that content, how likely are they to expect it versus how likely are they to be pleasantly surprised? Additionally as the content creator, how likely is a piece of content to feel standard and safe versus something risky that could fail or be taken poorly, but provide benefit if successful?

There are numerous risk strategies out there, but a solid standard for content strategy used by Portent, Inc. is the 70-20-10 rule .

This rule effectively states that 70% of your content should be safe and expected, 20% should be moderately risky and challenges the standard 70% of your content, and the last 10% should be very risky , such that it is entirely unexpected content or may horribly fail in some way (but will offer large benefits if successful).

For the fictitious Green Lemon Web Design, they have elected to disperse their content using the 70-20-10 rule in roughly this manner:

70%: Most onsite stuff, such as About Us, FAQ, Services, Contact Us/Get a Quote, etc.

20%: Most blog posts that relate to the industry; those that provide assistance to clients, potential customers, or casual readers.

10%: A handful of blog posts that go against the normal, such as emphasizing the great work our competitors have been doing in the past few months or a post about a seemingly unrelated topic to drive traffic and user interest (books, gaming, fishing, etc). We’d also like to add a comparison chart of services and pricing between Green Lemon and popular competitors, which may include features we are weaker at than others but may ingratiate readers to us for our honesty.

Whatever the exact risk assessment is that your own brand settles on, it is vital to not be too afraid of taking risks from time to time. Being a little out there or edgy with your content will make a lasting, memorable impression instead of the countless other examples that are boring and forgotten after a short glance.

A Handful of Content Examples

Below you’ll find a list of example content titles that a new web design firm like Green Lemon — or even you — might find useful to pursue, roughly categorized by intended audience and/or creators.

For Web Designers

Web-for-All: Accessibility for Modern Web Design

Why Improved Design Cannot Solve Content Issues

Content Optimization for Mobile Platforms

Why Email Requires a Responsive Design

And Dash of That..: How A/B Testing Dramatically Improves User Experience

A Bridge Too Far: When Additional Feature Requests Should Be Ignored

This Ain’t Your Granddad’s Pixel: How Modern Displays Are Changing Web Design

Creating Beautiful Graphics and Logos in Pure CSS

The Homepage: When Automation Must Take a Back Seat to Human Control

For Web Marketers

Identifying Your Audience and Content to Meet User Demands

Community is Everything: Why Building a Community is Critical to Content Strategy

Risk vs. Reward: Why Safe is Often the Least Safe

Cultivating Client Relationships

I Like You: Spreading Your Content via Third Party Services

Localization, Love, and Liberation: Why i18n is Critical to Content Strategy

For Clients

Miniature Adults: How Children Utilize the Web and Interact with Your Site

Stay Awhile and Listen: How to Genuinely Engage with Readers

Establishing a Content Strategy for Personal Websites

Online Trapdom: Why Free Services Rarely Are

Just You Being You: How Social Media Encourages a False Sense of Self

Look At All My Resources!

While this article should provide a great starting point to establishing your own web marketer content strategy , there are multitudes of resources online with great information to boost your knowledge and get you down the right path toward content nirvana.

Below are a handful of prime resources to chew through at your leisure, so please enjoy!

Creating a Content Compass : Explores the diverging content strategy of a particular web project across the entirety of a brand’s content universe.

The Magic Content Marketing Ratio: Email Conversion Rate

4 Keys to Capturing a New Audience for Your Content Marketing

Being Real Builds Trust : Discusses why trust with users and clients is among the most vital components of strong marketing content strategy .

Help Your Content Go Anywhere With a Mobile Content Strategy

Future-Ready Content : Developing a web design content strategy that is as future-proof as possible, not just technically but in the manner in which content is created.

Contently Comic: Sponsored Insanity : Explores the pitfalls and trouble that can come from unnecessary sponsored content.

The Most Important Audience for Your Content Marketing : Your Own Employees : How brand and businesses should ensure employees fully understand and adhere to the marketing content strategy .

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How to Write a Web Design Business Plan

If you’re ready to take your web design business to the next level, creating a business plan is a great place to start. Whether you’re a freelancer who wants to go full time or a professional designer who wants to grow your web design business, a business plan can help you set ambitious goals and determine how to achieve them.

When done right, your business plan should read like a how-to guide, spelling out exactly how you’ll start, build, and grow your web design business. You’ll pitch your business, analyze competitors, identify risks, and set key milestones. You’ll also make financial projections, and share the operational plans, marketing strategies, and sales tactics you’ll use to get there. 

Your business plan should address several audiences at once. It’s a powerful tool for you as you analyze opportunities and devise strategies for meeting your goals. It’s also a great resource to use when pitching clients , partners, and investors on the services you offer.

This versatility speaks to the ultimate value of creating a business plan. While it requires research and foresight up front, it will help you build a web design business that’s both successful and sustainable.

Key components of a web design business plan

Executive summary.

Your business plan should start with an executive summary. Think of this as a TL;DR for anyone reading the document: business plans are often long, and a user-friendly summary can make the read less intimidating.

Introduce the reader to your web design business, and summarize what they’ll find in your business plan. Provide a concise overview of the business’s mission, vision, and key objectives. Highlight the services you’ll offer, emphasizing standout features and competitive advantages that may pique the reader’s interest.

This executive summary should be short. If your business plan is 25 pages long, give it one to two pages. If it’s 10 pages long, write just a few paragraphs.

Though the executive summary is the first thing people will read, it should probably be the last thing you write. After all, it's tough to sum up the rest of your business plan when you haven’t written it yet.

Company description

Help clients, partners, and investors get to know your web design business by telling your business's story . Walk them through your background as a web designer, and share the company’s raison d’être: when, how, and why did you realize this business needed to exist?

This is a great place to build credibility. If past experiences or accomplishments set you apart from other web designers, highlight them. Similarly, if you’re working with a team, share who they are, what roles they’ll fill, and why they’ll make great collaborators .

You’ll also want to cover some nitty-gritty details, like the company’s legal structure (think: LLC, DBA, etc.) and ownership information. 

This section should be concise, but comprehensive—about one to two pages long. You want to fully introduce your web design business without wasting the reader’s time.

Market analysis

To build a successful business, you need a clear understanding of your target customer, your competitors, and the web design industry at large. This information will live in the market analysis section of your business plan, which should be about two to four pages long.

Start by defining your target customer : who is your business trying to reach? Instead of aiming for all web design clients, identify a target market segment—a smaller group of web design customers with shared needs, interests, behaviors, or demographic characteristics. 

Research this group in detail, and use client personas to bring them to life. Client personas are specific but fictitious representations of your target customers. They can help you illustrate the challenges your target customers face and the impact your business will have on them.

With your target clients defined, you can analyze your competitors: which website design businesses occupy a similar niche ? Identify at least five competitors, and honestly evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Then, clarify how you plan to compete. 

Use your client research to pinpoint where your competitors are falling short. By delivering something they don’t (i.e., lower prices, specific services, etc.), you can stand out . Wherever possible, back up your assumptions with research. Cite trend data, keyword research , or testimonials that show your target customers want something no one else offers.

Round out your analysis with a critical look at your business model: what are its strengths and weaknesses? For example, a smaller target market may be easier to penetrate, but it caps the number of clients you can reach.

Then, assess the web design industry at large. Highlight trends you’re capitalizing on, new technologies you’re taking advantage of, or market weaknesses you’re circumventing.

Services and portfolio

Now that you’ve illustrated the need for your business, give your reader a glimpse of it. List the services you’ll offer , complete with sample prices . Establish your brand identity with a logo, mission statement , and style guide . And include examples of the work you’ll create. These can be relevant portfolio samples , case studies , or freshly made mock-ups.

Spend one to two pages fleshing out your business. Instead of scattering visuals throughout your text, store them in an appendix at the end of your business plan. This will keep your reader from losing momentum and allow them to skip ahead as they see fit. 

Marketing and sales strategies

Once you have a great product, you need a strategy for landing customers and generating revenue. Dedicate one to two pages to the marketing and sales tactics you’ll use, and be specific. If you do the heavy lifting now, you’ll know exactly how to grow your business once you launch it.

List the marketing channels you plan to leverage, and establish a strategy for each one. Create a content calendar for social media posts , newsletters , and content marketing campaigns. Specify what you’ll do for SEO , post on your blog , and spend on paid advertising. You can also detail which networking events you’ll attend or host, how many cold calls you’ll make, and how you’ll generate referrals. Focus on the marketing channels that deliver real value for your business: where is your target audience, and how can you reach them.

Your efforts shouldn’t stop at landing clients. You also need to impress the ones you have. Zero in on your competitive advantage , whether that’s writing standout proposals , offering subscription services , or promising the best value around. Create a plan for regularly checking in with past clients , and consider how you can use discounts , packages, and promotions to keep them coming back for more.

Operational plan

Dedicate one to two pages to business logistics: what will your day-to-day operations look like? 

Think about who you need to hire , what roles they’ll fill, and what responsibilities they’ll have. Compare office spaces, list essential equipment, and consider what web design tools you’ll need to do your best work. Factor in sneaky necessities, like WiFi and office supplies. You’ll also want to think about nice-to-haves, like snacks and coffee for your team.

Your plan doesn’t need to be exhaustive, but it should be practical. These expenses will affect your financial projections, so you want to be as realistic as possible.

This is also a great place to map out internal policies. If you have project management protocols , client communication best practices , or other in-house guidelines, detail them here.

Financial plan

Show that you’ve done your due diligence with a thorough financial plan.* Map out what your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement will look like every month until you break even. Then, keep going until you reach profitability.

These financial projections should be pragmatic and thorough. Clarify where you’ll get the funding to start your business . If you’re working with investors, list your investment terms. And include every cost you can think of: taxes, depreciation and amortization, operational expenses, and more.

Keep your growth estimates conservative, and explain your math. Don’t expect to gain new clients without increased marketing and sales efforts, and don’t assume you can raise your rates without investing in new tools or team members. 

While any charts, graphs, or spreadsheets you create will live in your appendix, you should still spend one to two pages contextualizing them. Back up your numbers by explaining the calculations you’ve done and the assumptions you’ve made in your forecasts.

Milestones and timelines

While your financial projections offer a timeline for profitability, there may be other major milestones you’re keen to meet. Ask yourself what success looks like at different stages, and create a one-page timeline detailing when you expect to reach each landmark. 

This timeline will help you track your progress as you scale your business . If you miss a milestone, you can analyze why—and adjust the rest of your expectations accordingly.

Risk assessment

While it may seem counterintuitive to end on a low note, thoughtfully addressing risks is a great way to build trust. Dedicate one page to the challenges your business may face, and explain how you’ll handle each one.

By thinking through and planning for the worst case scenario, you can show partners and investors that your business is in good hands. You can also confidently take the next steps in your business journey, knowing that starting a website business isn’t as intimidating as it seems.

As a reminder, your appendix should hold any visuals referenced in your business plan. That includes examples of work, style guide resources, financial projections, and more.

This appendix can be as long as needed. Between your portfolio, style guide, and financial projections, you’ll easily clear two pages. Just be cognizant of your reader’s time and attention. Only feature resources that are illustrative or impactful, and ensure your appendix is easy to read. 

Creating a business plan will show you how to start a web design business, ensuring you’ve accounted for every cost and contingency. Over time—as the industry changes and your goals evolve—you can adapt your business plan to reflect your current ambitions. 

Your web design business plan should include:

Executive summary (one to two pages)

Company description (one to two pages)

Market analysis (two to four pages)

Services and portfolio (one to two pages)

Marketing and sales strategies (one to two pages)

Operational plan (one to two pages)

Financial plan (one to two pages)

Milestones and timelines (one page)

Risk assessment (one page)

Appendix (two or more pages)

Check out Squarespace Circle , Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.

Lindsey Lanquist is an experienced writer, editor, and content strategist. As a contributing writer for Squarespace (and an amateur web developer), Lindsey enjoys making website building more approachable. She also has a soft spot for all things business and entrepreneurship, and she loves helping people find new ways to grow their businesses.

Web Design Nightmares: Spine-Tingling Situations and How to Fix Them

How to transform your client's website for the holidays.

How to Start a Small Web Design Firm

Callum Mundine

8 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

For web designers, transitioning from working full-time for someone else to freelancing has some perks, like being your own boss and having a more flexible work schedule. But you’ll also be in charge of every aspect of running your business and making hard decisions which can impact the success and growth of your company.

Once you’ve decided that you’re ready to start a small web design firm, you’ll need to develop a host of skills to help you run a successful business, including time management, sales and promotional strategies, and client acquisition.

• 1. Create a one-page business plan

The first step to running your own business is creating a solid plan. This is where you get your idea out of your head and onto paper to put it to the test, but it doesn’t have to be a 50-page long document that you’ll work through once and file away, never to be seen again.

Instead, you can create an alternative to a traditional business plan—a one-page plan which is easier to adapt throughout the life of your business. The goal here is to write a plan that’s going to lend itself to regular reviews and frequent updates, based on goals and performance that might change quickly over time—it should be a tool, not a static document.  

Your one-page plan should include an overview of your strategy and tactics (problem-solving and possible solutions), your business model (including your target market and competition), and a schedule of what you’re doing and when. You should also include some core financials such as a sales forecast, expense budget, and cash flow forecast. Don’t forget to outline your milestones , so you’ll have a clear sense early on of whether your strategies are working.

Most importantly, you should set up a timeline to keep revisiting your plan and adjust it on a regular basis to ensure you’re on track to meeting your goals.

• 2. Calculate startup costs

While you may envision running an agency full of designers in the future, you’ll probably begin your journey as an independent (solo) freelancer.

The good news is that startup costs are relatively low, but you will need a few things, so make sure you spend some time thinking through your startup costs .

• The basics . In addition to basic equipment such as a computer, phone, and desk, you’ll need to consider the cost of registering a domain name and building your own website. You’ll also need business cards, stationery supplies, and software that’s specific to your design work. When you’re just starting out, you can make use of 30-day free software trials until you find the right fit. But ensure your business cards and other promotional materials showcase your best design work to make a good first impression.
• Insurance, taxes, and software . Be sure to consider the costs of health insurance, personal liability insurance, and taxes, and software tools that you’ll need. When it comes to accounting software, many services are aimed at small businesses and handling your own bookkeeping can work out cheaper. QuickBooks , Xero , and FreshBooks are all popular choices. However, finding a good accountant early on can save you a lot of heartache in the future, and will help ensure you know exactly where you stand in terms of your tax position and other liabilities.
• 3. Build your brand

How you brand yourself is an important decision which can impact the way your clients see you. Many freelance web designers choose to use their name as their brand, which on the positive side lends a personal attachment to your business.

Your clients will feel they’re working with an individual rather than a fully fledged agency, which usually translates to more flexibility, a personal approach, and cheaper rates.

However, if your high-level goals include growing your business, maybe turning it into a studio and hiring a few more people, then you may want to start out with a more formal name.  

When you’re creating your business plan, take the time to think about how you’d like potential customers to perceive you and how this fits in with your view as a freelancer and your future goals. Would you rather be seen as a young startup company, or work on creating your own personal brand?

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• 4. Establish your freelance rates

If you don’t have a framework for establishing your rates from the beginning, it’s very easy to end up working for very little money. It’s much harder to raise your rates later on and can affect the timeframe for getting your new venture off the ground.

Calculating your rates:

• It’s difficult to know where to begin, so start by calculating your monthly costs. Include everything such as your rent, utility bills, travel costs, insurance, and tax liability.
• Multiply this sum by twelve and add your ideal annual salary.
• Divide this figure by 48 to figure out what your costs are per week (allowing for four weeks holiday).
• Finally, divide your weekly cost by the number of hours you plan on working in a week —many freelancers start with 20 hours—to establish your hourly rate.

Make sure you get paid

Managing cash-flow as a freelancer can be very stressful, so once you’ve established your rates, you’ll need to do everything you can to ensure you’re paid on time. Make sure you always have a contract which stipulates the scope of the project and terms of payment and request a deposit before you begin work.

For longer projects, it’s also standard to ask for milestone payments so that you’re guaranteed compensation over time.  

Some freelancers prefer to be paid up front, but in order to do this, you’ll need to be able to estimate the typical number of hours a project will take and then add a percentage for overage.

• 5. Showcase your work

Your portfolio website is undoubtedly one of your most important assets when it comes to promoting your services. At a minimum, your website should state your services and offer a clear way to contact you, but to really show off your expertise, you should use it showcase your previous work.

This can be hard when you’re just starting out and your portfolio can seem light, but there are ways around this. Consider reaching out to local charities, schools, church groups, and so on, and offer your services for free or at a low cost.

This is a good way of expanding your portfolio, practicing your skills, and helping out in your local community. You don’t need to include all the work you’ve ever done—three or four high-quality pieces should be enough to show people what you can do.

• 6. Promote your services

However good your web design skills are, they’ll mean nothing if you don’t know how to promote and sell your services.

You should develop a sales process that covers the following:

• Finding new prospects
• Cultivating relationships
• Informing potential clients about your services
• Offering your services to the right people
• Fulfilling expectations
• Developing relationships with clients

To identify your ideal client (or your target market ), think about who they are, what they do, and where they spend their time (both online and in person). Choose some of the same places to hang out and try to engage them in conversation.

This is the perfect time to impress people with your elevator pitch , which is what you use to show potential clients how you can help their business and the reasons they should hire you.

Online freelancing platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer are also good places to find prospective clients. However, competition among freelancers from all over the world is fierce, and many employers opt for the lowest possible rates. You’ll need to be selective about the jobs you bid on and try to identify serious clients who are happy to pay for quality work.

Show your target market how you tackle their specific concerns and provide concrete examples of how you’ve solved those problems successfully in the past. This approach makes it much easier to find new clients.

• 7. Start networking

Connect online . Communities where other professionals in the industry hang out are great places to find support from people who are in a similar situation. Follow other designers and developers on Twitter, and reach out to people on LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social media channels.

Be part of your local community . Joining groups for freelancing professionals and immersing yourself in communities provides great opportunities for networking, asking and answering questions, establishing your expertise, and helping people who may be looking for your services in the future.

Keep your ear to the ground . You could start by following blogs which have a high number of comments and regular contributors, as well as signing up to RSS updates on web development boards. It’s all about interacting with other web designers, connecting with potential clients, and gaining referrals.

• 8. Master time management

As a freelancer, being organized and productive means you can get the most out of your day without being glued to your desk for hours on end, so you can start to scale your business. By implementing a little structure, you can schedule your tasks around the times you’re most likely to get things done.

Develop a routine . It can help to group similar tasks together and consistently carry them out at a certain time of day. For instance, answering emails in the morning as you’re still waking up, taking care of phone calls after your second cup of coffee, and coding/designing whenever you have the most energy.

Take advantage of tools . There is lots of software available to help simplify and automate many of your daily tasks, so make use of the tools available for time tracking, project management, managing finances, etc.

• The bottom line

Successful freelancers are excellent multitaskers. To deal with the uncertainties of running your own business and the stress of an irregular income—at least when you’re starting out—you need a plan. The more structure you have from the outset, the easier it will be to develop a successful business and grow your company in the right direction.

Callum is the head of marketing at Warble Media. They are a boutique website design and digital marketing agency based in Dubbo, NSW, Australia.

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How to Write a Business Plan for a Web Development Firm: Step-by-Step

By alex ryzhkov, get full bundle.

Launching a successful web development firm requires meticulous planning and preparation. Before diving into the business plan, entrepreneurs must lay the groundwork for their venture. This concise 9-step checklist outlines the essential pre-planning process to ensure your web development firm is poised for success from the start.

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Steps Prior To Business Plan Writing

Before embarking on the process of writing a comprehensive business plan for a web development firm, it is crucial to lay the groundwork and address several key considerations. This checklist outlines the essential steps to be taken to ensure a well-informed and strategic approach to your business planning.

Identify Your Target Market and Their Needs

The first crucial step in crafting a comprehensive business plan for your web development firm is to identify your target market and thoroughly understand their unique needs. This foundational step will shape the entire direction of your business, from your service offerings to your marketing strategies.

To begin, conduct in-depth market research to gain a clear understanding of your potential clients. Analyze demographic data, such as industry, company size, geographic location , and buyer personas to pinpoint your ideal customer profile. Dive deeper by researching their pain points, challenges, and the specific web-based solutions they seek.

• Leverage industry reports, surveys, and online forums to gather insights into your target market's needs and preferences.
• Engage in one-on-one conversations with potential clients to better understand their unique pain points and preferences.
• Analyze the web presence and digital marketing strategies of your competitors to identify gaps in the market that your web development firm can fill.

With a clear understanding of your target market, you can then tailor your web development services to address their specific needs. This might include custom website design, e-commerce integration, content management systems, or search engine optimization . By aligning your offerings with your clients' requirements, you'll be well-positioned to stand out in the crowded web development industry.

Furthermore, staying attuned to the evolving needs of your target market will be essential for the long-term success of your web development firm. Continuously monitor industry trends, client feedback, and market shifts to ensure your business remains agile and responsive to the changing demands of your customers.

Conduct Market Research to Analyze Competition

Conducting thorough market research is a crucial step in developing a robust business plan for your web development firm. By analyzing the competitive landscape, you can gain invaluable insights that will inform your strategic decision-making and help you differentiate your services in the market.

Start by identifying your target market and understanding their needs, pain points, and preferences. This will help you align your web development services with the specific requirements of your potential clients. Utilize a combination of online surveys, industry reports, and one-on-one interviews to gather data on your target audience.

• Leverage online tools and platforms to gather market data, such as Google Trends, industry-specific forums, and social media analytics.
• Attend local networking events or industry conferences to connect with potential clients and gain first-hand insights into their challenges and expectations.

Next, conduct a comprehensive analysis of your competitors. Identify the key players in the web development industry, both locally and nationally, and examine their service offerings, pricing structures, and unique value propositions. Assess their strengths, weaknesses, and the strategies they employ to attract and retain clients.

According to a recent industry report, the global web development market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.8% from 2021 to 2028, reaching a market size of $153.5 billion by 2028 . By understanding your competitors' positioning and the evolving trends in the industry, you can develop a strategic plan to capitalize on emerging opportunities and differentiate your web development firm.

• Analyze your competitors' online presence, including their website design, user experience, and digital marketing strategies.
• Reach out to potential clients in your target market and inquire about their experiences with other web development agencies to identify areas for improvement.

Armed with a thorough understanding of your target market and the competitive landscape, you can now focus on crafting a unique value proposition that sets your web development firm apart. This will be a crucial component of your business plan, as it will guide your service offerings, pricing, and overall positioning in the market.

Determine Your Unique Value Proposition

Crafting a compelling unique value proposition (UVP) is a critical step in planning your web development firm. Your UVP sets you apart from the competition and communicates the distinct benefits you offer to your target customers. To define your UVP, start by deeply understanding your ideal clients' pain points and how your services can uniquely address them.

Analyze your competitors' offerings and identify the gaps in the market that your firm can fill. Consider factors like specialized expertise, innovative technologies, streamlined processes, and personalized service that make your web development solutions superior. Distill these unique differentiators into a clear, concise statement that captures the essence of your value proposition.

• Conduct in-depth market research to uncover your target clients' unmet needs and pain points.
• Analyze your competitors' UVPs and identify opportunities to differentiate your offering .
• Craft a UVP that is specific, compelling, and memorable to potential clients.

Your UVP should be the foundation for all your marketing and sales efforts. Ensure that it is prominently featured on your website, in your service descriptions, and throughout your branding. A strong UVP will help you attract the right clients, command premium pricing, and outshine your competition in the web development market.

For example, the UVP of Stellar Web Solutions could be: 'Transforming the digital presence of small businesses with custom web design, mobile optimization, and SEO-driven solutions that deliver a measurable competitive edge.' This statement clearly communicates the firm's specialized expertise, tailored approach, and the tangible benefits it provides to its target clients.

Develop a Pricing Strategy for Your Web Development Services

Establishing a strategic pricing model is a critical step in creating a successful business plan for your web development firm. Your pricing not only impacts your profitability but also shapes client perceptions of the value you offer. By carefully considering factors such as market rates, your unique expertise, and the scope of services, you can develop a pricing structure that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target clientele.

One key consideration in pricing your web development services is analyzing the current market rates . Research the pricing of your competitors, both locally and nationally, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the industry landscape. This will help you determine a baseline for your own pricing and ensure you remain competitive without undervaluing your services.

• Gather data on the average rates charged by web development firms of similar size and experience level in your local market and across the country.
• Analyze the pricing models used by your competitors, such as hourly rates, project-based fees, or retainer-based services.
• Identify any unique factors or specialized services that may allow you to command a premium price point.

In addition to market research, it is essential to assess the value of your specific services and expertise . Consider the level of complexity involved in your web development projects, the unique skills and experience your team brings to the table, and the tangible benefits your clients will receive. By clearly articulating the value proposition, you can justify a pricing structure that reflects the true worth of your offerings.

• Highlight your team's specialized skills, such as expertise in mobile optimization, e-commerce integration, or custom web application development.
• Quantify the potential return on investment (ROI) for your clients, such as increased website traffic, improved conversion rates, or enhanced brand visibility.
• Consider offering tiered pricing options to accommodate clients with varying budgets and service needs.

Another important factor to consider when developing your pricing strategy is the scope and complexity of your web development services . Projects can vary widely in terms of the number of pages, the integration of third-party tools, the level of customization required, and the ongoing maintenance and support needed. By carefully estimating the time and resources required for each project, you can establish a pricing model that ensures profitability while remaining transparent and fair for your clients.

• Implement a project-based pricing model that takes into account the specific requirements and deliverables of each engagement.
• Consider offering hourly rates for smaller, ad-hoc projects or ongoing support and maintenance services.
• Explore the feasibility of retainer-based pricing for clients who require regular web development and maintenance services.

By carefully researching the market, assessing the value of your services, and aligning your pricing with the scope of your web development offerings, you can develop a pricing strategy that supports the long-term growth and profitability of your business. This strategic approach to pricing will not only help you attract and retain clients but also ensure the financial sustainability of your web development firm.

Assess your financial resources and funding options

Securing the necessary financial resources is a critical step in establishing a successful web development firm. As you begin crafting your business plan, it's essential to take a comprehensive look at your current financial standing and explore potential funding sources that can support your venture.

First, conduct a thorough assessment of your personal and business financial resources. Determine the amount of initial capital you have available, including any savings, investments, or assets that can be leveraged. This will provide a clear understanding of the funds you can contribute to the business.

• Tip: Consider creating a detailed personal financial statement to get a holistic view of your financial situation.

Next, research and evaluate various funding options that may be available to you. These can include small business loans, angel investors, venture capital firms, or crowdfunding platforms. Assess the pros and cons of each option, considering factors such as the required collateral, interest rates, repayment terms, and the level of control you'll maintain over the business.

For example, small business loans from banks or the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) can provide up to $5 million in financing, with interest rates ranging from 5% to 10% and repayment terms of 5 to 25 years . On the other hand, angel investors may offer $25,000 to $2 million in exchange for an equity stake in your company, potentially providing valuable industry connections and mentorship.

• Tip: Explore government-backed loan programs, such as the SBA's 7(a) or 504 loan programs, which offer favorable terms for small businesses.

As you evaluate your funding options, consider the long-term financial implications of each choice. Determine the amount of capital you'll need to cover initial startup costs, ongoing operational expenses, and any planned growth initiatives. Develop a detailed financial projection that includes revenue forecasts, expense estimates, and a projected cash flow statement to help you make informed decisions about the most suitable funding sources for your web development firm.

By thoroughly assessing your financial resources and exploring diverse funding options, you can lay a solid financial foundation for your web development business and position it for sustainable growth and success.

Build a Team of Skilled Professionals

Assembling the right team is a crucial step in establishing a successful web development firm . The skills and expertise of your team members will directly impact the quality of services you can offer, as well as your ability to deliver projects on time and within budget. When building your team, it's important to identify the key roles and responsibilities required to support your business objectives.

For a web development firm , the core team should typically include a mix of web designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, and project managers. Depending on the scope of your services, you may also need to consider hiring specialists in areas such as user experience (UX) design, search engine optimization (SEO), and digital marketing.

• Aim to build a diverse team with complementary skills and experiences to ensure well-rounded capabilities.
• Look for individuals with a proven track record of delivering high-quality, innovative web solutions.
• Establish clear job descriptions and performance expectations to help you attract and retain top talent.

When it comes to compensation, it's important to research and benchmark industry standards to ensure you're offering competitive salaries and benefits. According to a recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for web developers in the United States is $77,200 , with the top 10% earning over $146,000 . Similarly, the average annual salary for web designers is $77,600 , with the top 10% earning over $122,000 .

In addition to competitive compensation, consider offering perks and professional development opportunities to attract and retain skilled professionals. This could include things like flexible work arrangements, continuing education stipends, and opportunities for advancement within the company.

Building a strong team is an ongoing process, and you may need to adjust your hiring strategy as your business grows and evolves. Regularly review your team's performance, identify skill gaps, and be prepared to make strategic hires to ensure your web development firm is equipped to deliver exceptional service to your clients.

Establish your brand identity and online presence

Establishing a strong brand identity and online presence is crucial for the success of your web development firm, Stellar Web Solutions. Your brand is the foundation upon which you'll build your reputation, attract clients, and differentiate yourself from competitors. By investing time and resources into crafting a cohesive brand, you can create a lasting impression and position your company as a trusted authority in the web development industry.

Begin by defining your brand's core values, mission, and unique value proposition. What sets Stellar Web Solutions apart from other web development firms? Clearly articulate your commitment to delivering custom, mobile-optimized solutions that help clients achieve a competitive edge online. This will serve as the guiding principle for all your branding and marketing efforts.

Next, develop a visually striking and consistent brand identity. This includes creating a memorable logo, selecting a complementary color palette, and establishing a distinct tone of voice for your written communications. Ensure that your brand identity is reflected across all touchpoints, from your website and social media channels to your email signatures and printed materials.

• Tip: Consider hiring a professional graphic designer or branding agency to help you create a cohesive and visually appealing brand identity that resonates with your target audience.

Establish a strong online presence by building a responsive, user-friendly website that showcases your services, portfolio, and team. Optimize your website for search engines to improve visibility and attract potential clients searching for web development services. Regularly update your website with fresh content, such as blog posts, case studies, and client testimonials, to demonstrate your expertise and build trust.

Leverage social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, to engage with your target audience, share industry insights, and showcase your work. Maintain a consistent brand voice and visual aesthetic across all your online channels to reinforce your brand identity and create a cohesive digital presence.

• Tip: Regularly monitor your online presence and engagement metrics to identify areas for improvement and optimize your digital marketing strategy.

By establishing a strong brand identity and online presence, Stellar Web Solutions can effectively communicate its unique value proposition, build trust with potential clients, and position itself as a leader in the web development industry. This foundation will be crucial as you continue to develop your business plan and take the next steps towards launching your successful web development firm.

Outline Your Service Offerings and Delivery Process

As you prepare to write your business plan for your web development firm, Stellar Web Solutions , it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your service offerings and the delivery process. This will not only help you articulate the value you provide to your target clients but also ensure a smooth and efficient operation for your business.

Start by outlining the core services you will offer. For Stellar Web Solutions , these may include:

• Custom website design and development
• Mobile-responsive website optimization
• Search engine optimization (SEO) services
• E-commerce solutions
• Content management system (CMS) integration
• Ongoing website maintenance and support

Next, consider the delivery process for each service. This may involve steps such as:

• Initial client consultation to understand their goals and requirements
• Conducting a thorough analysis of the client's existing online presence and pain points
• Presenting a detailed proposal with a project timeline and cost estimate
• Designing and developing the website or web application
• Implementing SEO best practices and optimizing for mobile
• Providing training and support for the client's internal team
• Ongoing maintenance and updates to ensure the website remains up-to-date and secure
• Consider offering a range of pricing options, such as fixed-fee projects or ongoing retainer-based services, to cater to the diverse needs of your target clients.
• Leverage project management tools and techniques to ensure efficient and transparent communication with your clients throughout the delivery process.
• Establish clear service-level agreements (SLAs) to manage client expectations and ensure timely completion of projects.

By clearly outlining your service offerings and delivery process, you'll be able to demonstrate your expertise and the value you can provide to your clients. This information will be crucial in shaping the overall strategy and execution of your web development business plan.

Create a Timeline and Action Plan for Implementation

Developing a comprehensive timeline and action plan is a crucial step in bringing your web development firm to life. This roadmap will help you stay organized, manage your resources effectively, and ensure a seamless launch of your business.

Begin by breaking down your overall business plan into smaller, actionable steps. Assign realistic timelines to each task, taking into account dependencies and potential roadblocks. This will help you create a realistic and achievable implementation plan .

• Utilize project management tools or software to visualize your timeline and track progress.
• Incorporate milestones and checkpoints to measure your progress and make adjustments as needed.
• Allocate sufficient time for tasks such as securing funding, building your team, and establishing your online presence.

When defining your timeline, consider the following key steps:

• Hiring and Onboarding: Recruit and onboard your core team of web developers, designers, and other key personnel. Ensure that you have the right talent in place to deliver your services effectively.
• Branding and Marketing: Develop your brand identity, build your website, and establish your online presence. Implement a comprehensive marketing strategy to attract and engage your target clients.
• Service Offering and Pricing: Finalize your service offerings, pricing structure, and delivery processes. Ensure that your services are aligned with your target market's needs and your unique value proposition.
• Operational Setup: Establish your office space, acquire necessary equipment and software, and put in place your operational workflows and processes.
• Client Acquisition: Implement your sales and client outreach strategies to secure your first few clients. Monitor and refine your approach based on initial feedback and results.

By creating a detailed timeline and action plan, you can effectively manage your resources, mitigate risks, and ensure a successful launch and growth of your web development firm . Regular review and updates to your implementation plan will help you stay on track and adapt to changing market conditions.

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How To Start A Web Design Business?

• Matan Naveh
• on Business
• Updated on: 06.07.21

Starting a web design business is an ideal opportunity. The industry is growing at a rapid rate and now’s the time to invest in creating a successful brand. However, it is a competitive industry so it’s important to carefully lay the foundation for your business so you can avoid those “Wait, what???” scenarios that too many first-time business owners face.

So, in the following guide, we’re going to look at everything you need to do to become a successful web designer and business owner. You’ll learn:

• How to choose your design niche
• How to set your rates
• How to attract new clients

But first, let’s look at your current situation and make sure you’re in the best position to start a business.

How to Start a Successful Web Design Business​

• 1. Pick a Web Design Niche​

2. Decide Which Design Services You’ll Offer

3. set your company goals, 4. set your rates, 5. choose a name for your design business, 6. set up the legal stuff, 7. create your digital branding, 8. build your design business website, 9. get your business software in place, 10. start building your online profile, 11. find new web design clients, 12. make time for education, 1. pick a web design niche.

Unless you have a ton of experience in a specific industry or building websites for certain kinds of folks, this might seem like an impossible task. Plus, why bother committing yourself to only one niche if you could design websites for everyone ? 

There’s actually a lot of value in choosing a niche as a web designer or web developer. 

For starters, it’s so much easier to sell yourself to potential clients when you can say: 

“I create beautiful online stores and shopper-friendly experiences for companies across the UK.”

“I’m a web designer .”

Having a well-defined niche also helps you more quickly identify leads that are a good fit for your business. You might not think that’s a big deal now, but opening yourself up to any and every job will only lead you down a time-consuming rabbit hole looking for new clients. 

Instead, take some time right now to choose a niche for your business . It’s okay if it evolves over time. But, for right now, you need to lay down a clear path for yourself and the niche is the first step in doing that. 

How to Choose the Perfect Web Design Niche

Ideally, you’ll operate within this niche for a long time to come, so it should be something that you’re passionate about and have the ability to succeed in . If either is lacking, it’ll be hard to stay committed to the work.

First things first, look at your past experiences. Were there any industries you enjoyed working in or you found particularly rewarding? This goes for your experiences as a web designer as well as in other roles. 

Then, think about what it is you excel at and where your strongest skills lie. Are you more of a designer or a coder, or something in between the two? Do you have a specialty, for instance UX design or frontend development ? You should also settle on one CMS , too. (If you’re here, that’s most likely means it’s WordPress. )

You might also want to narrow down your niche by location . That doesn’t necessarily mean opening an agency and buying office space downtown, but it does mean that you’ll focus on serving the local business community from wherever you operate. 

Once you’ve settled on a niche, do some research to make sure: 

• There are opportunities within this target niche. 
• They can afford to pay for the kinds of websites you build. 

When you’re happy with what you’ve come up with, move onto the next step.

Look around at the existing web design solutions being offered to your target niche. What do they consist of? 

Are they solely offering to build a website for a flat fee or are there other services baked in? How about web design-adjacent offerings, like website maintenance, managed hosting or consulting? 

These days, it’s a good idea to consider ways to bring extra value to your client relationships. And the reason why is simple: 

Website builder technologies like Wix and Weebly have made it easy for consumers to: 

• Build their own websites. 
• Pay a small monthly fee for them. 
• Get their businesses online in a matter of days instead of weeks or months. 
• Not have to worry about buying web hosting, themes and plugins or maintenance services. 

In the minds of business owners, this is a huge win. All those annoying things they don’t want to worry about or pay for seem to be taken care of for them. 

Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t inherently make any of this easy for business owners. Which is why when you’re setting up your business, you need to figure out a way to make both your web design services and the WordPress CMS the most attractive option. It also doesn’t hurt that it’ll put more money in your pocket at the end of the day. 

So, what can you reasonably offer to clients that they’d find valuable? 

Finn & Gray , for example, offers a multi-pronged approach:

This agency provides clients with the following services: 

• Logo and brand design
• Photography and videography

For businesses that are just getting off the ground, this would be immensely helpful as they could use the same agency to take care of everything for them. 

Then you have a company like Four Trees Media that offers digital, print and social media services: 

For companies that intend on doing more than just sitting behind a website — like networking, advertising, growing an online community, etc. — offering a well-rounded service like this would make your business an attractive option.

Or you could start simple. This is how Proxy handles it: 

There’s one package for branded web design and it includes the essentials a business would need to get a WordPress website off the ground: 

• Development
• Search engine optimization
• Managed hosting

This kind of solution is great for those business owners who don’t want to worry about the technical side of a website and would prefer to offload it to someone else.

But you need to consider what your niche and audience will find the most valuable. You should also only offer services you know you can deliver on. 

That said, don’t feel like because you don’t know the first thing about something like WordPress security that you can’t add monthly maintenance services to your plans. There are plenty of tools and third-party companies who can handle that work for you while you still make a profit on it. 

Before you start building everything out, I want you to take a moment to look ahead to the future. Without a roadmap for your business, it’ll be hard to steer yourself in the right direction. 

Answer these questions to put yourself on the right track: 

What is your company’s mission?

Sum up what you do, who you serve and why you do it in one or two lines. Then, come back to it whenever you need a reminder of why you started this business in the first place.

How do you want clients to look at you?

As a freelance designer? An agency they contracted for help? A business and marketing partner? A digital specialist? Give yourself a name, one that strongly resonates with the role you play in your clients’ lives.

When do you want to sign your first client by? 

Be realistic. If you have an existing list of clients to pull from or ask for referrals from, landing your first client in a week or two is a reasonable expectation. But if you’re starting from scratch, give yourself at least a month or so to work out the kinks in your pitch and presentation and not feel incredibly pressured to close any client that passes your way. 

How many clients do you want to work with each month?

Notice how I said “want” instead of “can”. There’s a difference between maxing yourself and your resources out to the point of burnout… and taking on a reasonable amount of clients so you can always give your best. Be kind to yourself and your clients. Set a limit on how many clients you can reasonably serve each month.  

Where do you want to be 1 year from now? How about 5? 

This could pertain to how much money your business is generating or how many clients you’re capable of taking on. It could also pertain to what kinds of services you offer. Perhaps your goal is to move from solopreneurship to running a full-blown agency by Year 5. Or maybe you want to sell your agency by then. 

Give each of these questions some serious thought and record your vision for the business. This’ll help keep you motivated even on your hardest days.

This isn’t always the easiest thing to think about, especially if it’s early in your career as a web designer or developer and you’re feeling a touch of impostor syndrome. 

But here’s the thing: 

If you don’t charge a competitive rate on Day 1 and are willing to let prospects low-ball you or, worse, ask that you work for free, it’s going to be a long while before you can start demanding the kinds of rates you deserve. 

So, here’s what I’d recommend you do to come up with pricing for your business:

• Find out what the competition is charging for the same services. 

(e.g. $7,500 for an optimized website)

• Use the average competitor’s rate (or your own, if you have one) to figure out your monthly revenue based on the number of clients you expect to have. 

(e.g. $7,500 x 2 = $15,000/month)

• Personal branding, web hosting and other things needed to maintain your site
• Marketing and advertising costs
• Software fees
• WordPress themes and plugins
• Office rent (even if you work from home) plus utilities
• Insurance fees
• Tax payments (you should put aside estimated taxes every month so you’re not scrambling at the end of the year to pay them)
• Employee-related costs

(e.g. $2,500/month)

• Subtract your estimated monthly expenses from monthly revenue. 

(e.g. $15,000 – $2,500 = $12,500)

If you want your business to be successful and you want to feel good about the work you do, you have to make a profit. It’s okay if you don’t have an exact number just yet. 

That said, don’t just look at your profit margin and call it a day. You should also consider the value aspect of what you do. 

For example, if you work with software companies that sell licenses to enterprises at $1,000 a pop, a well-built website could realistically make them tens of thousands of dollars in their first month alone. A website that costs $7,500 would be a steal for them and I’m not sure you’d want to send that kind of message. 

So, again, this is why we’re going through this one step at a time. Look again at your niche and figure out what kind of value they’ll get from the website you build for them. While it’s important that you cover all your expenses, it’s just as important that you price your services based on their value to clients as well. 

A common question I see in my freelance and entrepreneur Facebook groups is this: 

“Should I name my business after myself?”

Let’s say you start as a solo web designer , so you figure using your own name to brand everything is fine. This is what clients as well as the WordPress community have come to know you by. 

But what if you decide you want to add a team to the mix? Your name could become problematic. For starters, clients might still ask for you or fill up your inbox with requests when it’s no longer even you designing websites .

For some web designers and web developers, the ultimate goal is to pull back from the design or coding end of the business and to run the show. So, you’d want your business to have a name that’s different from your own. 

You also have to think about how your business name sounds to your target audience. For instance: 

• Is it easy enough to remember? 
• Is it too difficult to pronounce? 
• Does it sound too much like another company? 
• Does it sound like you work in another industry or with another niche?
• Will prospects be turned off because it’s location-specific even though your services aren’t?

Start spitballing ideas and run them by people you know. Friends. Family. Former colleagues. Get a gauge for how they feel about it. 

And when you’re happy with what you’ve come up with, buy your domain name as soon as you can!

This is a tricky one to cover because it all really depends on what kind of company you decide to create and where you are doing business from. In the United States, for instance, we have to deal with things like: 

• Paying for business licenses and associated fees.
• Registering with and filing local and state taxes.
• Securing various business insurances.
• Developing an iron-clad business contract .

And if you decide to create a WordPress agency on Day 1, you also have to concern yourself with employee- or contractor-related matters, like salaries, taxes, benefits setup, etc. 

So, here’s what I’m going to tell you for this one: 

Do your research.

Go to your local government’s website and make sure you’re in full legal compliance when setting up your business. Then take a look at the things you need to do to protect your business. Hiring an attorney probably isn’t necessary, but buying something like liability insurance might be in order depending on the kinds of clients you work with and how much your services cost.

As a web designer , I’m sure you’re familiar with what this involves. Even if you don’t do brand design , you know to ask for these elements before a project starts. You also know how much easier it makes your life as well as marketers’ lives when clear and consistent branding is used from the get-go. 

So, make sure you spend time building out this visual identity for your business before you start worrying about it for other people. 

At the very least, you’ll want to create: 

• A logo (with variations for purpose, background and channel)
• Font pairings
• A color palette
• Image style
• Voice/personality

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to put everything into your very own style guide either. 

This way, you’ll have a resource you can turn to if and when you decide to revamp your branding or your website. It would also be useful if you have freelancers or employees working for you. Something like updating your website or content can and should easily be outsourced to others when you’re focused on building a successful brand and business. 

One of the nice things about being a web designer or developer is that you don’t have to worry about this part of the startup process. That’s why I’m not going to tell you how to build your business website with WordPress. 

What I want to do, instead, is to give you some quick pointers on things you should do to make your life easier:

Make your own website one your clients would pay for 

Your portfolio is going to do a lot of the heavy-lifting in terms of demonstrating your prowess as a web designer or developer. However, your website itself is something you can use to impress potential clients. 

By building a site they’d be willing to buy (at the highest price point you’re asking for), it’ll be so much easier to gain their trust. “See what I did here? We can do the same for you!”

Make sure it’s free of errors

You can’t give clients any reason to call into doubt your abilities as a designer. The second you do, they’re going to question every decision you’ve made and it’s going to make your life a living hell when it comes time to ask for their feedback. 

By ensuring your website is free of errors, you can ensure that their first impression is solid. 

Include testimonials

As soon as you start wrapping up jobs with satisfied clients, remember to ask them for a testimonial. It might feel awkward at first, but think about how hard it is for you to trust a service provider you don’t know when you have little proof that they’re qualified to do what they claim. 

With testimonials clearly displayed on your website, you can clear up doubts they have about taking that next step and filling out your form or giving you a call. 

Optimize it for search

From this day on, you’re no longer just a web designer or web developer . You’re a business owner. And business owners have other responsibilities than building websites .

One of the most time-consuming responsibilities (if you let it be) is the hunt for new clients. However, if you set your website up to rank for the right search terms (e.g. “WordPress designers near me”, “UX designers ecommerce”, “digital agencies Austin”), it can do some of that work for you. 

Don’t worry. You don’t have to be an SEO pro to do this. Start with one of these SEO plugins to get the ball rolling.

Automate prospecting

Once your website starts appearing in organic searches and you have prospects interested in working with you, don’t just send them to an open-ended contact form . Your website can automate the prospecting process, too. 

What I’d recommend is creating a form similar to the one ecommerce design agency SAU/CAL uses: 

It has a small footprint, asking for basic contact details. However, it also allows prospects to fill in extra details about their store, what they need, timeline and so on. Not only does this help the agency vet leads and make sure they’re actually a good fit, but it helps make the discovery call go much more smoothly. 

You could also take this a step further and embed an online scheduler like Calendly into your site and ask prospects to schedule a time to chat so you don’t have to do the back-and-forth dance over email with them. 

Up to this point, you probably haven’t spent much money on your business. That’s going to change in this stage. While you can certainly get a number of business tools for free to start, you’ll eventually have to spend money on them. It’s the only way to ensure your company maximizes its productivity and profitability every second of the day.

Here are the ones you should have in place by the time of launch: 

Project Management Software

Even if you work on your own, there are just too many moving pieces as well as projects and clients to keep track of. Project management software helps keep teams big and small organized and projects delivered on time. 

It’s also a dedicated space for you to develop and document your processes — both for your projects as well as internally. 

You can use this tool to develop a series of templates as well. So, any time you identify something you do over and over again (like a specific email you send to clients or a new project folder you set up at the start of every job), simply templatize it and save it here.

Plus, by saving your processes and templates to the cloud with one of these platforms, you can empower your team (if you have one) to update and improve them as they see fit.

Recommendations: 

• Asana (best for solo)
• Trello (best for small teams)
• Monday (best for agencies)

Contract/Proposal Software

Have you ever heard of scope creep ? How about late payments? Or, even scarier, clients that ghost you? It can be nerve-wracking entering into any new relationship, but when money, reputation and your sanity are on the line, you can’t afford to enter one too casually. 

That’s why you put a website proposal and web design contract in place to ensure that all parties are officially in agreement on the scope of work and the terms of the relationship. It’s the best way to assure your clients that you’re legit and it’s the safest way for you to do business. 

Accounting Software

You’re going to need help managing your money and an accountant might be a little too pricey at the start. That’s fine because there are plenty of accounting tools that help with things like invoicing, payment processing, as well as general bookkeeping. 

Time-tracking Tool

Really, you should be billing clients a flat hourly-rate for the work you do, be it a one-time payment for a website or a monthly fee for an ongoing service. It’s still a good idea to track your time. 

If you work on your own, time tracking allows you to see how long it takes to complete individual tasks and entire projects. This data will help improve your scheduling and may also give you a valid reason to increase your rates. 

If you work with a team, you should enable time tracking to get insights into how long it’s taking everyone to complete different tasks and phases of your projects. You don’t want your team to feel like they’re being monitored or rushed through their work. You just want to make sure they have enough time to get done what’s needed, which allows you to more accurately forecast projects and create realistic timelines for clients. 

Design and Development Software

This seems like a no-brainer, but I’d recommend you explore design and development tools that enable you to collaborate with others. By simplifying collaboration and handoff, you can get jobs done more quickly, produce better results and have a happier team. 

Many of these tools have collaboration features built in, so check on your existing ones before exploring alternatives. 

Human Resources Software (Optional)

If you decide you want to expand your web design business beyond yourself, you’re going to need tools to manage your team. This will ensure you have all information on employees and contractors safely stored as well as things like taxes and benefits automatically handled for you.

Which software you use depends on whether you hire contractors and/or employees. It also depends on how big your company is at the moment. A good one to start with, though, is Gusto .  Finally, it’s important to pay attention to the type of laptop you’re using. Make sure you have the right kind of  PC or Mac that’s most conducive for web design projects .

I originally set out to show you how to start a web design business. All of the steps before this will allow you to do that. However, before you go looking for new clients, build out your online profile a little bit. 

Remember: It’s not just your website that clients may go looking for or encounter online. 

So, while the website needs to be the central informational hub they eventually arrive at, you’ll want to have a presence on other channels as well. 

Here’s an example from Google and Zen Den Web Design of how you eventually want this to look: 

You can see that this design agency has done the following: 

• Provided Google with business details through a Google My Business account.
• Created a Facebook business page. 
• Claimed its listing on Yelp. 

Keep in mind that everyone’s online presence is going to look a little different. You need to build one out for yourself that makes the most sense. For example, do you need: 

• A Google My Business or Yelp account to reach local business owners? 
• A Facebook business page? 
• A Facebook group to grow your community?
• A LinkedIn page for recruitment? 
• A Quora account to answer questions and help potential clients find you there? 

Just keep in mind that for every profile you set up, it needs to be regularly managed and closely monitored. If you don’t have the capacity for that, then just focus on your website and one or two social media channels for now. 

Technically, everything you’ve done here will help you get web design clients . But like I mentioned before about SEO, you don’t always want to be on the hunt. It’s a time-consuming and exhausting process that’s going to take you away from paid work and building relationships with existing clients. 

That said, your SEO work is going to take some time to kick in. In the meantime, here are some ways to get in front of high-quality prospects: 

Ask existing or former clients for referrals. If they were great clients, there’s a good chance they’ll know other awesome business owners that need your help.

Connect with your “tribe” on social media . There are tons of groups on Facebook and LinkedIn where you can connect with other small business or agency owners who need clients or are maxed out and want to refer qualified prospects your way.

For instance, this is a post recently shared in the Web Designer Boss-Ladies group on Facebook : 

Reach out to your personal network. You never know, a relative, friend or former colleague might know of an opportunity that would be perfect for you.

Publish new content to your website. Content marketing isn’t just useful for raising your profile in search or on social media. It can help potential clients find knowledgeable and talented designers or developers who understand their pains and know the exact solutions needed to ease them. 

You can also use this space to communicate your mission and values, just as Wholegrain Digital does:

Offer a lead magnet. If you don’t have time to do a lot of blogging (or the funds to outsource it), put together a free and valuable resource to give away on your website, like a template, checklist, or ebook. Just remember to set up a sales funnel so you can automate pushing those leads through to conversion.

Scour job boards for good opportunities. Try to stay away from freelance marketplaces that require you to pay a fee for every job you secure. Instead, use resources like Indeed and LinkedIn Pro Finder to find reputable and high-quality clients .

Cold reach isn’t always a bad idea , especially if you’ve taken the time to research the company and website. Just make sure you actually qualify them as a lead, have a valid reason for reaching out to them (i.e., their website sucks), and have a plan for how you can fix it. 

One of the problems you may run into when your business starts to pick up speed is stagnation of your design skills. It’s not as though you’ll forget how to build websites, especially if you’re working five days a week. 

However, web design changes pretty quickly. One minute, every website is using lead generation pop-ups to greet visitors… and the next, they’re using AI chatbots to generate leads and get the conversation started. 

So, among everything else you must do as a business owner and web designer to succeed, you’ll want to make room for ongoing education.

The easiest and most pain-free way to do this is to subscribe to a few of your favorite web design or development blogs . This way, you’ll always have the latest news , trends and changes waiting for you in your inbox. 

Another thing you can do is carve out time for more formal education . And, no, I’m not talking about going back to school. There are so many other ways to accomplish this these days:

• Take free classes with a platform like Khan Academy .
• Play around with new coding or design techniques in online playgrounds like CodePen .
• Attend real-world training, collaboration, or networking events through WordCamp or Meetup .

If you want to ensure that your business does better with each passing year, keep educating yourself (and your team) so you’re always poised to deliver the most value.

The Challenges of Starting Your Own Web Design Business

To be fair, there are a ton of benefits associated with running your own small business or agency. You get:

• To set your own prices.
• Total control over your career and the direction of your business.
• Flexibility in terms of where, when, and how you work.
• Greater fulfillment working with clients you like, respect and can make a difference in the lives of.

But there are challenges, too. 

For one, you’re the boss now, which means you’re responsible for making sure that everything runs as it needs to. 

This goes beyond just successfully launching client websites. You have to make sure you’re making more money in your business than you’re spending on the business. You have to become really good at managing client relationships (and perhaps employee relationships, too). You also have to balance web design work with sales and marketing tasks. 

Being the owner of a small web design shop is a lot of work. It costs money, too (as you’ll soon see).

Then there’s the fact that how you enter this opportunity can make or break the business. 

For instance, let’s say you currently work full-time at a design agency, but your contract has a strict non-compete. When you leave, you might have to start your business with a new set of clients in a completely different niche. It’s going to take a lot of work to build your portfolio and reputation back up again if you have no previous work or contacts to leverage. 

It’s not impossible, but it does make it harder. 

Or let’s say that you’ve recently graduated from university. You have a pile of loans and expensive monthly bills that need to be paid now that you’re out in the real world. You’re having a hard time spending anything more than the bare minimum your business needs to get off the ground. 

Without a healthy safety net of cash behind you as well as the time and funds to put into building your business today, it’s going to be difficult to ever get to a point where you generate a steady and predictable income from it.

Whatever your situation, just keep in mind that you won’t be able to launch this business tomorrow nor will it become an overnight success. It takes time, money and effort to get a business off the ground and, if you’re not in the right space to do that, you may want to postpone this until you’re ready.

Wrap-Up (Plus, a Bonus Tip!)

You wanted to learn how to start a web design business — and the 12 steps above will certainly set you down the right path. However, I want you to keep one very important thing in mind here as we wrap up: 

If you do not take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of your clients. 

In other words, if you’re hustling like crazy to launch this business and take on as many clients as possible, there’s a good chance you’re going to burn yourself out. And when you’re exhausted and can’t see straight and your body is killing you from sitting around for 10+ hours every day, your head isn’t going to be in the right place for this. You’ll rush through your work, get agitated with clients who mean well and the quality of output will decline. 

This can happen in the very early days of a business as well as in the years ahead. 

So, starting as early as possible, set up the following burnout-proof practices to ensure that you and your business always perform at their level best: 

• Set a schedule and stick to it. 
• Create boundaries within your workspace as well as with clients. 
• Take weekends off and spend time with people you care about.
• Schedule vacation time at least once a year and build that time off into your pricing structure so you don’t see it as a “loss” you have to make up for. 
• Connect with and support other creative business owners who’re in the same boat. 

If you have a team working for you, foster a working environment that encourages these same best practices. No one is going to be of any use to your clients if you’re all struggling to get through the day. And you don’t want to let all the hard work you’ve invested in this business go to waste because of that.

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Don’t just sit back—dive right into our current plans now!

How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

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Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

The Complete Freelance Web Developer Guide: How to Make Money Through Freelance Programming Jobs

It’s common for developers to go the freelance route. This is true for many who have just finished freeCodeCamp and are thinking of working for themselves as opposed to working for “the man.” It is also true for many who have developer jobs but are considering going out on their own.

The idea of freelancing is also appealing to those who would like to make extra money even though they’re already working a dev job.

Regardless of the reason you’re striking out on your own, it’s important that you go about it correctly. Going about things “the right way” can help you look like the person pictured above.

While doing things the “wrong” way can leave you counting pennies.

I’m assuming you would rather look like the former and not the latter. If you have decided to go out on your own, and you are not opposed to prosperity, then this guide will help serve as a road map for how to get your new business running. It will also serve as a guide as to how to manage things once you’re off the ground.

If you’re someone who absorbs information more by reading, like me, then read on. For those who prefer a discussion based format, I’ve prepared this video:

This guide is geared towards those who have already decided to go the freelance/self-employed route. If you’re debating whether you wish to work for yourself, then you may wish to read the first section of my article on making money as a freelance developer .

For those who have already decided that it’s time to strike out on their own, let’s get to it.

This guide, for obvious reasons, is quite long. This road map provides a layout of what we’ll be discussing:

• Three essential rules for making money as a freelancer ( jump to section )
• Funding your new venture
• Deciding what niche you’re going to serve
• Determining what services to offer & pricing
• Structuring your new business
• A “to do” list for planning your new business
• The importance of “starting out right”
• Administrative items to complete
• Marketing items to complete
• A “to do” list for getting your business started
• The need to get clients in the short-term, while focusing on the long-term
• How to sell yourself to clients
• Getting clients in the short-term
• Building a brand for the long-term
• A “to do” list for getting your marketing started
• Administrative & financial management
• Managing your development/substantive work
• A “to do” list for making sure you properly manage your business day to day

When reading this guide, just hit a “back to top” link and you’ll be brought back to the road map. So, without further delay:

There are three essential rules for making money has a freelance developer ( back to top )

The first step in making money as a freelance developer requires an understanding of how to make money in general. Trying to make money without understanding these fundamental things will go about as well as playing monopoly against an expert without having an understanding of the game’s rules.

The three rules for making money are:

• Understanding that the amount of money (or lack thereof) that you earn will be in direct proportion to the level of value which you provide to others.
• Understanding that making money requires putting time into high value activities.
• Understanding that you have a full-time job as soon as you strike out on your own, regardless of whether you actually have any clients.

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Developers must understand that making money means providing value to others

Most people starting a business for the first time are used to working traditional jobs. Such jobs often mean getting paid for one’s time. When you go into a job that pays “x” per hour, for example, then you get paid “x” regardless of what you actually produced in that hour.

When you’re providing dev services to a client, however, all the client is going to care about is how much value they receive out of it. If, for example, you’re building a website or app for a small business then what the business is willing to pay is going to depend on the value they expect to receive from the website or app in the future.

The price the customer is willing to pay is not based on the time you put in (as is the case in hourly jobs). Instead it’s based on the increase in value that your customer will receive.

So, to put it bluntly, making money means understanding that your services are about providing value to others and not about putting in time.

It’s also important to understand that value will always be based on the customer’s perceptions and not yours. Too often developers see a website built on one type of framework as “better” than something that looks and functions the same, but is built on another framework.

The bottom line, however, is that if each meets the customer’s needs just as well as the other, then the one which provides the most value to the client is that which costs less.

Think of it like this - suppose a customer can get a website built by someone using a CMS for $2,500. You propose building something with Bootstrap for $3,500. You think yours would be better because you’re using “real code” and not a CMS like WordPress or Joomla.

At the end of the day, however, both websites visually look the same and one does just as good a job of bringing in business as the other. This means that your “better” website didn’t provide more value to the customer, it just cost more. Of course, the customer would not be happy with such an arrangement.

Want to make money? Then start thinking in terms of how you can provide what the customer perceives as value.

Developers must understand that making money means putting time into high value activities

The heading for this section may seem like something you would say “duh” to, but you would be surprised. I see many, many, many, many (many) instances in which small businesses or solo operations are putting time into efforts which really don’t matter very much at the end of the day.

Think of it like this. Many small operations make really good money engaging in activity “x.” They then think that they want to grow their business by beginning to offer service “y” in addition to x. When service y doesn’t work out, they then scrap the idea on move on to service “z.”

This strategy, unfortunately, is a bit insane. If activity x is making money then, instead of spreading resources across activities, just do more of x. In other words, pick your highest value activity and do more of it! This is why Mark Cuban has been quoted as saying that “diversification is for idiots.”

Let’s look at two examples of what I mean by this.

Suppose you can build a relatively simple website, with certain functionality, for small businesses and charge $3,000 for this service. Creating such a site takes you twenty hours (meaning you make $150 per hour of input).

Now suppose you can build larger scale ecommerce products for around $7,500 to $10,000 a pop, but only earn $130 per hour of input due to the projects being more complex.

It’s easy to look at these projects and think the latter is worth more money. The former, however, pays more per unit of input. This means you should be focusing on getting more of those $3,000 projects and try to make such projects your primary business.

To put it simply, identify the projects which pay the most per unit of input and to the extent possible, focus solely on getting as many of those projects as possible.

Freelance developers must understand that they now have a full-time job

I’ve talked to a lot of start-ups and entrepreneurs who don’t understand that they got a full-time job as soon as they struck out on their own. This is true even if they don’t have a single customer. I strongly, strongly, strongly (strongly) believe that this is one of the main reasons why many small businesses fail.

Let’s look at why I say you have a full-time job as soon as you start up.

Suppose Joe Developer starts up his new freelance dev operation. He puts up a website advertising his services and maybe pays for a little bit of advertising. He gets the occasional customer here and there. He completes projects for these customers on a timely basis but never really does much else to grow his business. He probably only puts about twenty hours a week into the operation during the course of the year.

At the end of the year he wonders why his business is stuck in first gear. Joe then shuts down his operation thinking that his phone “didn’t ring enough” from customers and that his advertising was ineffective. Joe blames “bad advertising” for why his business failed.

What Joe failed to understand was that he had a full-time job once he started up. His business failed because he only worked part-time (twenty hours a week) at it.

It’s really quite simple. People don’t get paid for not working. This goes for business owners as well. Once you start up, consider yourself as having a full-time, minimum of forty hours per week, commitment.

What this means is that if your coding and admin work only takes up twenty hours a week, then you are now required to put the other twenty hours a week into hustling up new business. So Joe spent twenty hours a week coding, and should have spent the other twenty hours a week going to networking events or some other marketing activity. If he had put in his time, he would have gotten more business.

Once you start up, just remember one simple rule. You now have a full-time job. To the extent that you don’t have coding projects to put in time on, you are now obligated to spend the rest of your working time trying to hustle up more business.

Do you want to be successful? If so then it’s simple. Understand that you have to provide value to your clients and that you should be focusing on the value providing activities which yield the highest amount of money per unit of input. Finally, put the time into your new business. Those three rules are key to making money in any new enterprise.

Planning your new freelance development business ( back to top )

Once you’ve decided to start up it’s then important to plan out your business. I can’t stress enough how crucial this is. Too many entrepreneurs just open up shop and start haphazardly engaging in activities out of the hope that such activities will yield a profit.

Well, no disrespect to such fine folk, but starting a business without a plan is a lot like getting in your car, driving around aimlessly, and acting surprised when you don’t wind up in a place you’d like to be.

So let’s look at what you need to for the “planning” phase of your new venture.

There are several steps involved in getting your new endeavor off of the ground. We’ll look at each of them in turn. These steps include:

• Funding your new operation.
• Deciding what niche you’re going to serve.
• Deciding on the services you will offer, as well as pricing.
• Structuring your business.

Let’s dive in.

Freelance developers will need to fund their new business

After reading the heading to this section, you may be saying “what funding?” This is understandable as most think freelancing requires little more than their laptop.

Well…...wrong. There are going to be expenses associated with your new venture. Especially if you want to…you know...make money. Such expenses can include renting server space, buying liability insurance for the business, fees for professionals (such as attorneys and accountants), and more.

The good news is that it takes very little money to start up in today’s world. The amounts necessary will seem especially small once you start generating some revenue. With all of that said, let’s look at a few rules around funding your initial operations.

The number one rule to remember with your finances is that, contrary to what many people in tech-related businesses think, it is not OK to lose money! This point was driven home really well in the book Profit First , which I strongly suggest reading.

While many small companies are willing to lose money for the sake of growing quickly, I cannot stress enough that this is actually a really bad idea.

The reasons that this is a bad idea would be a) lengthy and b) the subject of another article. The biggest point to take away for now is that you should be profitable on Day One and in each month thereafter.

The easiest way to ensure that you start out profitably, and stay that way, is to remember to avoid debt when you’re starting up as a solo.

Unfortunately, way too many people start a business (of any type, not just coding) and start putting initial expenses on credit cards. They may also take out some type of personal loan to get started.

But ensuring that you are profitable from Day One, and that you stay that way, is simple as long as you avoid debt. Why do I say this? Because if you’re avoiding debt then you can’t spend more than you take in. So, by definition the worst you can do is break even.

Growing your operations then comes from reinvesting your profits. As you make money, reinvest in the business for growth. This leads to greater profits. Keep repeating the process and next thing you know the business is doing really well without ever having borrowed any money.

Freelance developers must decide which niche they are going to serve

There are a few things to address in regards to deciding what niche you’re going to serve. The first is an explanation of why you need a “niche” in the first place. The second is how to go about choosing that niche.

As I’ll explain below, focusing on a particular subset of customers, and not saying “I’ll take whatever walks in the door” leads to higher profits and a more scaleable business. Second, picking that niche is a lot easier than many people think. So let’s have a discussion.

When striking out on your own it’s crucial that you focus on a few particular types/classes of customers instead of trying to be a general purpose coder for every type of business.

The reason for this is simple: if you’re always building different types of products then you put yourself in the role of constantly learning new frameworks and familiarizing yourself with whatever third-party applications the customer may want to integrate into the product.

While I understand that it is fun to learn new things (I like to consider myself a constant learner), this is not the way to run a business.

The reason for this is simple - it’s scale. If you build products for a particular type of company then you will certainly have to learn something new for each customer, but this learning curve will be nowhere as extreme. This leads to greater profits on your end. Let’s look at what I mean.

My primary business tends to focus on building and maintaining websites for law firms, as well as individual app development which allows an attorney’s practice to run more smoothly.

Since many law firms have similar needs I can generally re-use the same code base. Since I charge a flat rate for dev services, I’m collecting my full fee without always having to build a product from the ground up.

If, by contrast, I offered these same types of services to every type of business which existed, I would lose the ability to scale up the use of existing code. Do you want to grow your profits? If the answer is “yes” then find a niche and focus on it.

One other point about choosing a niche is that you wind up providing a much, much, much (much) higher level of service to your customers. Because I have extensive experience in serving a narrow class of companies, I’m able to anticipate their needs and offer solutions they may not otherwise have thought of.

Also, since I’m not completely starting a new codebase all the time, the client does not have to be overly worried about bugs. So, in other words, I am able to provide a better product and better service by focusing on a niche.

Unfortunately, many startup developers decide to take whatever work “comes in the door.” This is very bad for their long-term profits. I just spelled out why serving a niche increases profits. Taking “anything you can find” works in the opposite direction.

First, you may put a lot of time into learning something new only to find that you never use it again after you deploy the customer’s product. Second, all that time that you put into having to learn something new or write a brand new code base could have been put into developing marketing towards your niche.

In other words, people who take whatever they can get are foregoing actual business building to make a few quick bucks. This is the equivalent of stepping over a dollar bill so you can pick up a penny. Never a good idea.

When deciding what type of niche you want to serve, you really only need to ask yourself two questions.

First, is there an area where you can bring unique experience or value that some other developers may not be able to provide? If the answer is “yes,” then you have an opportunity to provide value to your customers.

Second, ask yourself if there is a particular type of work which you would enjoy doing.

If you don’t fit into one of these two types of niches then you’re going to have problems. The reason for this is simple.

First, if you’re not providing unique value then you’re going to grind it out and get frustrated with how difficult it is to run your business.

Second, even if you’re not providing truly unique value, if you’re really passionate about what you’re doing then you’ll be able to persevere the grind.

Picking an area that you’re good at/have specialized knowledge in or picking one that you have a passion for will help you to succeed.

Developers must figure out their services and pricing in order to be successful

Once you’ve carved out the niche you’re going to serve it’s then time to decide what services you will offer, within that niche, and what you’ll be charging for your services.

Your services

Deciding what services to offer may seem like something you can do quickly, but it’s actually important to consider a few different factors in regards to your offerings. Also, when determining pricing it’s important that you consider going the flat fee route for services as opposed to charging by the hour. Let’s dive into each of these issues.

There are three things any freelance developer should consider when deciding what services they wish to offer. Once these three areas are analyzed, if your potential service offering seems to make sense, you consider the size of the current addressable market. They are:

• your level of interest in a given area
• the extent to which you can scale up the offering, and
• your ability to outsource some of the work.

You then look at the market to see if there is enough available work to turn the offering into a business.

I can’t stress enough that your service offerings should focus around things which interest you. Again, as stated in the section above, you’re likely to burn out and quit if you start engaging in activities that you find uninteresting.

By selecting an area that you are generally excited to learn about and work in, you will be able to view your work as something other than drudgery. This leads to you putting in more hours which, in turn, leads to more of dat sick cash flow. So, again, when deciding what services to offer, ask yourself what you’re actually interested in.

It’s also crucial to consider scaleability when deciding what services to offer. The concept of scale is simple. You want to focus on something where your profit margins actually increase, or at least stay the same as you grow your revenue.

Areas in which you can write, and then re-use, a codebase allow you to achieve this.

Areas in which you are constantly doing things from scratch, and spending a lot of time learning things that won’t apply to more than one or a few clients, will take you in the opposite direction. Always ask yourself “can I scale this up” before diving into an area.

The final thing to consider is the extent to which you’ll be able to outsource the work which needs to be performed. The greater the ability to outsource, then the more you can grow the company by leveraging the labor of others.

In our main business, for example, we subcontract the writing of legal content to attorneys and law students who wish to write as a side hustle. Given that there is a large population of people who have the skills to do this work, and are looking for the opportunity to do so, outsourcing our content needs does not prove to be a problem.

Another example of products which outsource well are those which don’t have complicated codebases. The simpler it is to build a product then the easier it will be to hire/subcontract another developer to assist you. This is because you will not need to bring on an individual with as high of a skill set.

So when deciding what services to offer your niche, you’re looking for a scalable area which interests you and in which you can outsource as much of the work as possible.

Once you find this area, it’s time to weigh it against the actual size of the market. If you have a great offering, but there just aren’t enough available customers, then you’re not going to get anywhere for obvious reasons. If, however, there is an abundance of available customers, then have at it.

Let’s look at how the concepts discussed above work in practice. As an example, a company we recently started is focusing on building simple (often single page) websites for small businesses for a low introductory rate.

We greatly enjoy working with small businesses, and given the simple nature of the websites we’ll be building, we’ll be re-using large amounts of code. Also, since the websites won’t require extensive JavaScript development, or much other development beyond HTML and CSS, this is work we can outsource. So this area would be considered viable under the three factor test I just laid out.

We then have to weigh the idea against the size of the market. Well, as I mentioned in my article on whether one should become a freelance developer , roughly thirty percent of America’s 24 million small businesses didn’t have or needed a new website in 2017. This means that there are roughly 7.2 million potential customers out there for the new company we started (30% * 24 million).

This is certainly a large and addressable market. Since our business idea passed the three tests and will address a large market, we went ahead and launched the service offering.

It’s time to determine your price structure once you’ve decided what services you’re going to offer your niche. It’s important that, as much as possible, you stick with flat fees for a project as opposed to any type of hourly billing. You also want to try to create recurring revenue. Let’s discuss why these things are true.

To the extent possible, you should work for flat rates and avoid “by the hour” work. This leads to greater profits for a few reasons.

First, as your expertise within your niche expands, you’ll be able to complete work in less time.

Suppose you take on a project for $5,000 and get it launched after 50 hours. This equates to $100 an hour. Now suppose that a similar project comes along a few months later. You charge another $5,000.

The second time, however, you don’t have to spend as much time learning about the domain of the business and you can also re-use some of your previous code base. You get the second project done in only thirty hours.

This means that your “per hour rate” just went from $100 to $166. This value of prior experience and code writing is lost when you elect to charge by the hour.

The fact that you are reusing old code, in the example above, in no way means that your second client is receiving less value. In addition to the product you launch for them, they are also receiving the benefit of your gained expertise in their area. They are also gaining the benefit of your experience in building similar applications. This experience means a smoother launch, fewer bugs, etc. So flat fees are a win-win for everyone.

In addition to working for flat fees, you want to develop offerings which can generate recurring revenue. As an example, the company we started which services small businesses also provides ongoing maintenance after we launch a website. We host the customer’s website on our virtual private server and keep everything up to date for the client. We charge $50 per month for this service and it forms a nice piece of recurring revenue.

By offering services with a recurring revenue stream, you help to make your income more consistent.

So, to wrap up, when deciding your pricing it’s important to remember three words: “flat fee” and “recurring.”

Freelance developers need to choose the right business structure when starting up

It’s time to form your business after you’ve selected a niche and narrowed both your service offerings and pricing.

It is generally suggested that you form an LLC through which to run your business. Doing so provides you with liability protection that you won’t receive if you operate as a sole proprietorship. (Disclaimer: this article can’t be construed as legal advice and I am not holding myself out as a legal professional. I suggest that you discuss your individual situation with an attorney).

Generally speaking, this liability protection can help you in the event of a lawsuit and can also help to prevent you from being personally responsible for business debts if your affairs are structured properly. Also, there are tax benefits, which I briefly discuss below, associated with forming an LLC.

Once your LLC is formed then it is important to remember that you and your company are now considered separate legal entities. This means that you must keep separate bank accounts and that you must not run personal expenses through the business.

For a full breakdown of the legal requirements associated with managing an LLC it is, again, a good idea to speak with an attorney.

There are also multiple tax benefits which you can reap by forming an LLC for your business. The specifics of these benefits should be discussed with a tax professional, as I am not licensed to give tax advice.

But to summarize, the benefits of an LLC include, among other things, being exempted from self-employment taxes in regards to the company’s profits. To ensure that you receive this break you need to fill out IRS form 2553 and “elect” to be treated as an S Corp. You will also need to pay yourself a reasonable salary.

To avoid making this part of this guide too long, I break this idea down, in further detail, in this video:

The tax benefits alone are reason enough to go the LLC route. Add in the liability protections and it becomes a no-brainer.

Action items for developers who are preparing to start a freelance business

I can’t stress enough that it is crucial for you to adequately plan your new venture. I’m a very strong believer that the reason for which many small businesses fail is a lack of adequate planning. If you take the time to “do it right” then you can avoid the fate that many small businesses, unfortunately, arrive at.

Your immediate list of needs should include the following:

• Determine how you are going to fund your new venture
• AVOID debt or credit cards as a form of funding
• If necessary, work some type of second job until you have the money needed to get off the ground
• Decide on the niche that your new business is going to serve
• The niche you wish to serve should be in an area you enjoy and/or are interested in
• DO NOT get in the habit of taking work simply because it is available - stay in your niche
• Determine what services you will offer to your niche and determine your pricing
• When determining pricing and services, weigh your ability to scale the service and to outsource work against the size of the addressable market
• Charge flat fees whenever possible and avoid hourly billing
• Make sure you have a model which can build recurring revenue
• Form an LLC for your new company
• Discuss the benefits, and specifics, of doing so with an attorney immediately
• Discuss your tax situation with a professional and consider making the S Corp election (again, after talking to a tax professional)

Getting started with your new freelance development business( back to top )

Once you’ve planned your new business then it’s officially time to hit the ground running. The first step is making sure you have everything you’re going to need in order to start out effectively.

If you don’t have everything you need then it’s going to be like hitting the ground running with no shoes on. That’s why this section of the article will be devoted to things you need to do right away in order to make sure that you’ve got clients coming in and that you’re operating efficiently.

I’m going to look at several points in this part of our discussion. The topics we’re going to dive into include:

• The importance of getting started off on the right foot
• Administrative items which need to be completed
• Marketing items which need to be completed
• The importance of ongoing learning

So…shall we?

Freelance developers must understand the importance of starting their new business off on the right foot

Before I get into how to hit the ground running, it’s important that we discuss the need to start out well-organized and with all of your ducks in a row. It’s crucial for multiple reasons.

First is the fact that there is no easier time than right now to get organized. Think about it - as you get more customers and get busier, it’s only going to get harder to get things done.

Second, if you don’t have the items discussed below taken care of in advance, then they’re only going to get in the way once you’re trying to run full speed ahead.

In other words, starting out in a disorganized fashion will get in the way of trying to get your substantive work done. This, in turn, will interfere with your ability to do a good job for your clients.

A final, and crucial, reason to get organized now is that not doing so will make you work in an inefficient manner. This inefficiency will stem from the fact that you will constantly be interrupting your work to deal with administrative headaches. This leads to massive inefficiencies throughout your workflow. These inefficiencies will compound on one another and you will suffer from decreased profits as a result.

So, choose to get organized now and not later. This organization includes both your administrative needs and your marketing needs.

Developers must get their administrative affairs in order when starting up

One of the biggest challenges to freelancers who are just starting up is dealing with the various administrative tasks involved with running a business. It’s easy to get in the mindset of “I’ll deal with these tasks later.” Such tasks, after all, can seem boring, confusing, and completely irrelevant to the actual work you’re doing.

Neglecting these items now, however, can create massive problems down the road. A little later this article will discuss how to deal with such things on an ongoing basis. For now, let’s look at the items that you need to deal with from the start.

The first item of business is to make sure you properly form a company. As mentioned above, it will often be the best course of action to form an LLC. The specifics of your situation, however, should always be discussed with a lawyer.

In addition to forming the company, it is important that you get any necessary business licenses and that you complete any other documentation required by your Secretary of State as well as your county level or city level governments. Some states will require more of this documentation than others.

Failing to properly obtain your necessary business licenses, or to obtain other necessary records, can result in you not having the legal right to do business. Make sure you’re properly complying with all requirements in this area.

The second item of business is to get your company its own mailing address. It is generally a good idea that your business have an address other than that of your residence.

First, it allows you to list an address on your website that is not your home. Second, doing so can prevent people from looking up the business on a Secretary of State’s website and getting your home address. Third, having a separate business address helps your company to appear more legitimate.

If you’re just starting out, and have few to no customers, then a post-office box may be your best bet. You can also look into shared working spaces (such as WeWork). Such spaces not only give you a place to work, but you will be provided with a mailing address as well.

The third item on the agenda is to open a bank account for the company. It is crucial that you do not intermingle your personal finances with the business finances. This company account is what you will use to pay for business-related expenses, to reimburse yourself for business expenses which you paid out personally, and to accept payments from customers.

Personally, I would suggest using a large national bank (such as Chase, Wells Fargo, and so on). The reason I suggest this is that the largest banks will be the most likely to integrate with various payment options, to have branches in every state, and so on.

Next up is to sign up for different software services as well as other services that you will need to run your business on a day to day basis.

First on this list is a business suite with which you can set up a branded email address, receive cloud storage for the company, and so on. We use G Suite in our company but here are plenty of other options, such as Office 365.

Next is to sign up for a service offering accounting software (I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping good books). There’s more below about how to keep the books in your business, but for now just know that you need to have accounting software set up from the get go.

For most freelancers I’d suggest trying Wave’s accounting software . I suggest Wave because, while not as robust as Quickbooks Online (which many consider to be the gold standard for accounting software), it is much easier for non-accountants (a.k.a. “you”) to use.

Three other reasons to use Wave are,

• it’s free, and

After you’ve signed up for your accounting software you’ll also need to sign up a payment processor so you can accept credit cards and e-checks. Most accounting software options also have an add-on component for payment processing. Personally, I find the option Wave offers to be acceptable and we use it in our company.

While not an exhaustive list, these are some of the services and software offerings which you should sign up for immediately.

It is also critical to have the contracts which you will use with your customers ready from the start. Not having a properly written contract can result in you not getting paid, in you getting paid less than what you thought you had bargained for, or even in you getting sued.

To explain the importance of contracts in some detail, and your options for preparing properly drafted agreements, we are fortunate enough to have this contribution from Cari Ross, an Ohio attorney with Ross Legal Services (the video embedded below is a larger course, but will open directly to the section containing Cari's lecture).

Personally, I would suggest erring on the side of caution and retaining legal representation to review your agreements. Often, you can find an attorney who will review your documents for a one-time fee.

Another thing that I would strongly suggest is that you sign up for professional liability insurance on behalf of your business.

We maintain insurance in our company and it costs us less than $70 per month. If a client were to sue us, claiming that we bungled a product that we built, we would be able to turn the lawsuit over to our insurance company and they would deal with it. Having an insurance policy such as this makes it easier to sleep at night.

The foregoing list shouldn’t be considered as everything you will need to have starting out. These are, however, things which I don’t believe you should consider optional.

Freelance developers should get their marketing infrastructure in place before starting up

Striking out as a freelancer means the opportunity to make money. You are going to need clients to make that money. You need to get your marketing infrastructure set up as soon as possible in order to get those clients.

Let’s go over a list of things which you should get set up from the get go. While some of the items on this list may make you say “duh – I know to set that up,” you’d be surprised at what some people don’t do before getting started.

The first order of business is to build your company website and to include a portfolio of your various projects. A great thing about freeCodeCamp is that you will have built some projects for your coursework even if you don’t have any customers yet.

It’s important to remember that your website is the equivalent of a store front. The level and quality of the work you put into it will go a long way in deciding how seriously your potential customers take you. Your site should highlight work you’ve done, make clear to the layperson what type of work you’re available to do, stress customer service, and make it easy for clients to contact you.

When you're building your website, it's important to consider your audience. All of us (including me) can be guilty of forgetting that most of our customers really don’t care about code or technology. They just want a solution to their problems.

A customer likely doesn’t know what HTML is and they don’t care if you're using Bootstrap, Flexbox, or some other framework to build a responsive page.

If you want people to become your customer then don’t alienate them by talking like a tech head on your website. Instead, present yourself as a problem solver that is ready to assist them.

The next crucial point is to have a branded email. You can take care of this by signing up for a business software suite, which I suggested above. Having a company email is important because you want your customers to take you seriously. And trust me that they won’t take you seriously if your email address is “[email protected]”. You might as well be using “[email protected]” if that’s the case. Get a branded email.

Another important item to get is a dedicated phone number for your business. There are a variety of reasons why you don’t want business calls going to your personal cell phone. These include the fact that clients will then have your personal number, you’ll be putting your personal number on your website, and you’ll have to answer personal calls with a professional sounding greeting (since you won’t know if it’s a potential customer calling).

The best way to deal with the separate number issue is to sign up for Google Voice - which is included with any free Google account. This allows you to add a second VOIP number to your cell phone. You’ll be able to receive calls, make calls, and text from this number. And again, the beautiful part is that it’s free.

If, for some reason, you don’t want to use Google Voice or some other VOIP, you can always get a second cell phone. If you go the second cell phone route, make sure it is signed up under your LLC so that the monthly bill is deductible on your taxes.

A key, key, key, key (key) part to your marketing is going to be to sign up profiles on which clients can leave you positive online reviews. These include your profile on Google My Business, a business page on Facebook, and a Yelp profile for the business.

Many people, even those referred to you, will want to look at your online reviews prior to deciding to hire you. Failing to have a bank of reviews is going to cost you money, and a lot of it. I’ll be speaking more below about how you can actually go about getting those reviews. For this part of this guide, just be aware that you need to sign up and fully fill out these various online profiles.

Another important step is to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is as complete as possible. Make sure your profile makes clear that you are available for freelance work. You’ll want to include your various projects in your profile and make sure you list your various skills.

Also, I’d strongly suggest taking the various LinkedIn tests to gain their coding certifications. These tests only take a few minutes and, for example, your profile can indicate that you are actually certified by LinkedIn in HTML, CSS, Javascript, and so on. These certifications will go a long way towards prompting others to contact you for work.

These are simply some initial “must haves” that you need to get taken care of immediately. I’ll be discussing, in depth, how to actually get clients as you move further through this guide. For now, just be aware that you should have the above items before you dive into the world of trying to hustle up your next project.

Freelance developers must decide to be continuous learners in order to succeed

Yep, perhaps you’ve just learned to code. But before you even get that first customer you should've already decided that you’re going to continue learning about a variety of topics.

In truth, coding only makes up a part of your business. And unless you decide to continuously improve your skills in a variety of other areas, you’re going to have problems. The areas about which you should be learning on an ongoing basis include:

• communication/soft skills
• personal and business finance
• business history (in order to learn from the successes and mistakes of past entrepreneurs)

It’s important to remember that completing freeCodeCamp, and learning to code, is the beginning of a new chapter and not the end of an old one. If you want to succeed, get in the habit of lifelong learning before you even get your first customer. If you don’t want to succeed then, don’t worry, you never have to pick up another book again.

My suggestion would be to set aside some time every morning during which yo improve yourself through learning.

Personally (and this is just what I do), I read for forty-five minutes each morning. My daily routine consists of “wake up,” “eat a quick breakfast,” and then “open a book” for forty-five minutes. Again, this is what works for me.

Some initial readings I suggest include:

• Profit First
• How to win friends and influence people
• The Millionaire Next Door
• Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of Trouble
• The Innovators
• The Everything Store

These are just my suggestions. I will say though, that each of these books went a long way in changing my outlook and making me better at business. One of the most common habits among super-successful people is continuous learning - so get to it.

Action items for freelance developers who have just started their own business

Again, it’s important that you have all your ducks in a row before you start taking clients. That’s why I’ve put together this list of “to do” items that should be completed after you’ve formed your business and are preparing to start taking customers.

Your “to do” list for this section includes the following:

• Administrative
• Research the local business and licensing requirements for your new company and make sure you follow these requirements
• Establish a separate address (such as a PO box) for your business
• Open a separate bank account for your business
• Sign up for “administrative software” that you will need
• A business suite
• Accounting software
• Credit card processing
• A payroll service
• Develop/obtain the contracts you will have potential customers sign
• Sign up for professional liability insurance
• Build out your website and online portfolio
• Establish a branded email
• Establish a dedicated phone number for your business
• Sign up the profiles necessary for your business to receive online reviews (Google My Business, Yelp, etc.)
• Build out your LinkedIn profile
• Continuing Education
• Make a plan to become a lifelong learner
• Execute on the plan to become a lifelong learner

Freelance developers need to start finding clients after their business is organized, up, and running ( back to top )

Once your business is planned, formed, and your initial “to do” list is taken care of, there’s something you will need: customers . Hustling up business is going to be crucial for anyone just starting out.

Like anything else there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about getting business. I fully recognize that you will need clients now, in the short term, while you are building your new empire.

It is vital, however, that you don’t make the mistake of focusing only on getting clients in the short term and, as a result, don’t do the things needed to build a venture that is sustainable for the long-term.

In this section of our guide we’ll be discussing the following:

• The importance of building your long term business while still getting clients in the short term
• How to sell yourself to your clients
• Sources of business for the short term
• How to build your company over the long term
• A list of action items to get rolling with immediately

With that said - on to the next section!

Freelance developers must get business in the short term while focusing on their long-term business

Before we get into how to get clients for your new business, it’s important to discuss your strategies over both the short and long term.

In the short term you will be working to hustle up work, to make a few bucks today, while over the long term you’re going to build a brand. The value of having a brand is that you will be able to get more work, with less effort, and will often be able to charge higher prices.

Unfortunately, too many developers get caught in a trap. This trap involves developers putting all of their time and resources into getting clients today in the short term. These developers can never rest easy and know that they’ll have a steady flow of business and, quite often, spend many years working at reduced rates.

By building your brand over the long term you’ll be able to avoid this trap while still making money in the meantime.

The difference between a short term hustle and a durable brand is simple. Short term hustles involve you spending quite a bit of time and money convincing others to let you do work for them. Again, this work will often be at a reduced or mediocre rate.

Having a brand means that people will seek you out, as opposed to the other way around, and you can then charge higher rates. The latter is a path to success while the former will make you feel like you’re stuck on a hamster wheel.

Now let’s figure out how you can avoid getting stuck like this. We’ll start by looking at how you’ll get clients today and then move on to building your brand.

The first part of getting clients today is learning how to sell yourself to potential customers.

Developers can sell themselves to clients by playing the role of a problem solver

It’s impossible to succeed as a freelance developer unless you’re able to effectively sell your services to clients. A big problem for most freelancers, however, is that they don’t go about selling their services in the right way.

This is often because, as developers, we tend to think that we are selling code and products to clients. The fact of the matter, however, is that we are selling solutions to clients' problems. When we see ourselves as “developers,” instead of “problem solvers,” we tend to fail to effectively communicate our value to a client.

The truth, at the end of the day, is that a client won’t hire someone if they don’t see value in the services being provided. By presenting ourselves as solving our clients' problems, we can show how much value we are providing and, in turn, the client will want to hire us.

Consider the following example. Suppose your are called by a local pizza shop that wants to develop a new website. They want to implement online ordering, and they also want to develop a mobile app so that people can order food while on the go.

You go to the pizza shop and explain which language you will build the app in and start speaking technical mumbo jumbo which the shop owner probably doesn’t understand.

After your presentation, the shop owner won’t understand the difference between what you’re going to build and what someone else can build, for less money, in a CMS such as WordPress. They are simply left with your word that your product is “better” without any understanding as to why.

This shop owner is not likely to hire you because all they want, at the end of the day, is something that meets their needs.

Now suppose that you go to the pizza shop and have a conversation with the owner in which you take the time to understand their needs and goals. You then show them how the website and app you are going to build can meet those goals. You’re doing this while using little to no technical jargon.

You then explain, in layman’s terms, why the person using a CMS won’t meet those goals (for example - you may specifically explain how limited the CMS’ functionality will be when translated into an app).

Now you’ve spoken to the owner in their language and they see value in the service you’re providing. They are now more likely to hire you because you spoke to their needs, through the lens of a problem solver, without using “tech head” speak.

Do you want to close more sales with clients? If so, then it’s simple. Present yourself as a “problem solver” and don’t speak code. Once you start freelancing, you need to stop seeing yourself as a developer and, instead, recognize that your purpose is to solve a client’s problem in the most efficient way possible.

Now that you know how to sell your services to clients, let’s look at how to go about getting business over the short term.

There are several ways for freelance developers to get immediate business

There are several ways to get clients in the short-term. As you will see in the following discussion, these methods do not involve spending large sums of money (or any money for that matter). Let’s take a look at how you can immediately get clients through the following types of resources:

• Leveraging of your existing contacts
• Services such as Upwork and Thumbtack
• Services such as Fiverr
• Free advertising through Craigslist
• Networking groups, such as BNI

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of each of these.

A good place to start getting clients is by simply leveraging your friends and contacts. What I AM NOT saying is for you to simply start telling everyone you know that you are now a freelance coder and you want to build them a project.

Instead you take the approach of telling various individuals that you are embarking on this venture and that you just wanted to let them know of your availability in case they come across anyone who needs your services. Also, make sure that you give them some of your business cards. I wouldn’t suggest bringing it up again after these initial mentions - then you’re just annoying your friends and acquaintances.

I’ll give a personal example of how powerful it can be to simply reach out to your circles.

I recently spun up a separate business which will assist small to medium sized businesses/entities with basic web design. First, I mentioned to one friend that I was starting this service, in the “fyi” fashion I described above. The friend became excited and quickly told me that her mom had founded a church (something I didn’t know) and the church needed a new site designed.

Second, I mentioned that I would be starting the new business to my next door neighbor (who is self employed) and that I would drop him off some business cards just in case he came across any entrepreneurs who needed help. His wife quickly mentioned to me that the parent-teacher organization at the school their child attends wanted to build a new website.

So, two conversations wound up yielding $6,000 worth of work for what are actually very simple projects. And these were just the first two conversations I had. You get the point. So, making your availability known to your immediate circles can be a great way to get started.

The next step is to sign up for services such as Upwork and Thumbtack. These are platforms on which consumers can state what services they need and ask for proposals. You will typically pay for the ability to submit a proposal and these jobs will often be for lower amounts than what you would normally charge.

Is this perfect? Nope. Is it good for someone just getting started? Yep, and especially so when the alternative is to sit around and twiddle your thumbs.

There are a few things to make sure of when signing up for these types of services. First, you need to make sure that you fill out your profile as robustly as possible. Include introductory videos for yourself and your services if the platform allows them.

Also, as you complete projects it is important to ask clients for reviews if you are sure that they will leave you good feedback. As you build up a bank of reviews, you’ll be able to bid on higher priced jobs available through these services.

While these types of services aren’t a good way to get rich, they are a good way to start building up a portfolio of work while getting paid for doing so.

The next option is to set yourself up as a service provider through a company such as Fiverr. If you are unfamiliar with Fiverr, it is a website that essentially allows you to set up a store front and provide services in different categories. The available categories include web and software development.

As with Upwork and Thumbtack, you’ll typically be providing services for a good amount less than your normal “going rate.” With that said, Fiverr simply brings the customers to you and you pay a portion of your fee to the service. You are not paying up front for the leads.

Personally, I prefer this approach over services like Upwork. This is because you are not paying for leads and, perhaps more importantly, you are not putting time into submitting proposals for work that you may or may not get.

As with the other services discussed above, it's important to do a good job for your customers, to provide quality service, and to get good reviews. This will allow you to charge more over time. Again, while not a long term solution, this is a good option for getting started.

Another option that you’ll want to take advantage of is advertising on Craigslist. For reasons which go beyond my understanding, this remains a highly under-utilized option. You can advertise your services on Craigslist at the cost of $5 per post and a post will last up to 30 days.

Depending on how many people are using Craigslist in your area, one post may still be visible, without being pushed to the bottom, for the entire month. In other areas, it may be necessary to post once a day or so.

When creating a Craigslist ad, I’d strongly suggest that you do a few things. First, create a graphic to insert into the post. This should include your name, the services you provide, contact information, and so on. The standard size for a Craigslist graphic is 600 x 450 pixels. Also, you can use a limited amount of HTML when writing the text of your advertisement. So make it look nice.

Right now you may be thinking “Craigslist?” My answer to this is “yep!” People always look at me oddly when I tell them that this is an under-utilized option. Over the years I’ve suggested to various businesses (including attorneys, realtors, and others) that they advertise on the service. The same naysayers are then surprised at the fact that they actually make money doing so. These won’t be high end clients (you’ll typically only be doing very basic web design). But, again, it’s revenue to help you get started.

A final option for those starting out (and an important one at that) is to join a networking group through your local BNI chapter . BNI (short for “Business Networking International”) is a worldwide networking group which focuses on helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses through effective networking (I stress the effective part). I’ll be writing an article in the future on how to network the “right way” (spoiler alert).

In short, BNI is a way to have other business owners refer you business whenever the opportunity arises in exchange for you doing the same. It also allows you to meet entrepreneurs with whom you can form a business synergy.

If, for example, you want to build websites and apps for small businesses then you will likely need a photographer to help companies produce proper photographs of their products. Your local BNI chapter may include a photographer to whom you can refer business. That photographer, in turn, may refer you business whenever they do work for a company which mentions wanting to improve their web presence.

Don’t underestimate the power of networking, when it’s done correctly. BNI really does give you the opportunity to “level up” your networking efforts.

One of the downsides of the networking route is that it can be quite time-consuming. Also, if a referral source ever decides to get out of the game, then you lose your flow of business.

These are just some of the reasons why you can make a few bucks in the beginning through networking, as well as the other methods discussed above, but it remains important to build your brand and long-term business. Let’s talk about how to do so.

Freelance developers must build their brand and company over the long-term

It’s one thing to put time and effort into your business and to get a few bucks back in return. The real power of working for yourself, however, comes from building a brand and an actual company. You will then be able to charge higher rates and customers will seek you out, as opposed to you having to find them.

I’m assuming that you find this type of look acceptable. In order to get there, you need to build something enduring. There are several aspects to and options for doing so. Let’s take a look at the following:

• Why repeat customers, and referrals from former customers, will always be your most important source of business
• The importance of online reviews
• Leveraging a blog
• Leveraging YouTube

Let’s dive into each of these, shall we?

The first point, which I cannot stress enough, is that you have to provide your customers with both high quality service and a high quality product. This makes them want to use you again in the future and, importantly, turns them into a referral source.

Why is this so important? Simple - you can’t succeed otherwise. Think of it like this: Your marketing efforts lead to a phone call from Joe the baker. Joe has you build a basic $2,500 website for his bakery. You do a good job for Joe.

Six months later he refers you his friend, Bob the restaurant owner, who pays another $2,500 for a restaurant website. Then you do a great job for Bob and he later refers you someone.

Do you see what just happened? Your marketing only led to one phone call from Joe, yet that one phone call indirectly turned into two additional phone calls.

The above example relates to a crucial point. You’re not going to make it if you have to generate a marketing related phone call for every eventual customer. Doing so is resource intensive and kills your profit margins (if you’re able to stay in business at all).

If Freelancer “A” earns 10x the revenue of Freelancer “B”, it’s not because A’s marketing yields 10x as many calls. It’s because, while they do get more calls, they make sure that one phone call yields more than one customer.

This is how you grow your business exponentially. Conversely, if growing your revenue by 10x requires you upping your marketing by 10x then…….good luck with that.

So how do you make sure that you’re earning repeat business and referrals?

First, deliver a quality product in the time frame that you promise and DO NOT make excuses.

Second, be timely in responding to phone calls, emails, and other customer communications. Be courteous and simply treat your customer the way you would want to be treated.

In short - provide good service. While this may sound like something that makes you go “duh,” you’d be surprised at how many developers fail in this area.

Another important part of building a brand/enduring business is to consistently get good online reviews from your customers. Even if you're dealing with customers from a wide range of geographical areas, it’s vital that you have a bank of reviews with which potential customers can evaluate whether they want to hire you.

You can also refer potential customers to these reviews for their consideration. The reason I’m stressing this is that good reviews mean that your marketing won’t need to generate as many phone calls for your to make money. Let’s use a hypothetical to explain why this is.

Suppose that every $1,000 devoted to marketing, by Joe Developer, generates two paying customers. Now suppose that each of these customers pays Joe an average of $3,000. This means Joe nets $5,000 for the first $1,000 in marketing [($3k * 2 customers) - $1k of marketing expenses].

Now suppose Joe wants to double his business. He spends $2,000 on marketing this month and nets a total of $10,000 after expenses. This sounds fine and good until you consider the epic story of Jill Developer.

Jill Developer regularly gets good online reviews from customers while Joe doesn’t think that such reviews are important. As a result, people who find Jill online, or via referral, are more likely to hire her. As a result, Jill gets three clients for every $1,000 in marketing as opposed to Joe’s two clients.

So, Jill’s first three clients yield a net profit of $8,000 [($3k * 3 customers) - $1k of marketing expenses). This is sixty percent higher than what Joe gets for his first $1,000 in marketing spend. When Jill doubles her marketing budget, her $8,000 in profit jumps to $16,000.

Do you see how the gap in income is going to continue to grow between her and Joe, even though they are increasing their marketing budgets by the same amount? Getting good online reviews turns more of your marketing dollars into actual revenue. Neglecting the accumulation of reviews will leave you spinning your wheels.

There are a few tips to follow when it comes to reaching out to your customers for good reviews. First, while it may sound obvious, don’t ask for a review unless you’re sure the customer will actually leave a good one (you’d be surprised what some people do).

Second, it’s important to get the reviews on websites which people actually visit (Yelp, Google, Facebook, and so on).

Third, don’t just ask customers to leave you reviews. Simply asking will result in a very low percentage of your clients actually doing so.

Instead, once you’ve completed the project, call your client and thank them for their business. Then make sure they know that if they ever need anything they can give you a call. Ask if there was anything you could have done to improve your services and, if they are happy, ask if they will leave you an online review. Once they say “yes,” thank them and let them know that you will send them an email with review links. That email should look something like this:

Dear [name of customer],

Thank you for allowing us to assist you. As I mentioned, I’m including a few links for online reviews. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to say a few kind words. The links below will take you directly to our review profiles:

If we can ever be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks again, [Your name]

The links to your review profiles should go straight to the review section and not the general page. You’ll find that this approach will lead to many more customers who say they are going to leave you a review, actually doing it.

Another tool for building a lasting brand is to develop a blog which speaks to the needs of your customers. This has been a key to our primary business which deals with providing solutions for law firms.

The key to developing a successful blog is to provide information that is, again, useful to your customers and not simply that which you want to write about.

Why do I stress this? Simple: one of the most common blogging mistakes I see is people taking the approach of “I’m going to write on the things I want to write about” as opposed to writing on the topics about which their potential customers are seeking information. Let me give you two examples of what I mean.

I wrote an article on how law firms can use Evernote as a tool for reducing clutter in their office. Over time, my analytics showed that article consistently receiving traffic. Since the article was popular, I wrote a comprehensive series of articles on how law firms can leverage Evernote to make their offices more efficient. Each of the articles in that series went on to generate significant traffic for our website.

Conversely, I also wrote a series of articles on how law firms could improve their cyber security (you would think this would be a big deal to those who handle sensitive information). The thing was, however, that our analytics showed those articles were receiving little to no traffic. In other words, our potential customers simply weren’t looking for the information (maybe that’s why law firm cybersecurity is so bad - but that’s a rant for a later time).

The moral of the story is this - monitor your analytics and write more on the topics that are proving to be popular and stop writing on the topics that are not popular. You’ll be surprised how many potential customers pick up the phone and call you as a result of you providing useful information.

As with a blog, it is also a good step to start a YouTube channel. The steps for integrating YouTube into your brand building are very similar to those involved in building a blog. This means that you should leverage your analytics and do videos on the topics your customers show interest in. Do not devote energy to topics which your customers are clearly not interested in.

Also, it’s important to actually put some effort into your YouTube videos. Do a few takes so you are putting out a quality product. Make sure you have adequate lighting, use a microphone, and do some basic video editing at a minimum (there are a ton of free/low cost and easy to use editors out there).

The one thing I’ll add on YouTube is that it’s natural to be nervous and apprehensive about doing video. Just remember this: the biggest YouTubers didn’t start out big. If you look at their early videos you’ll see a big difference in quality from where they started and where they are today. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all.

The big thing to remember, as we close out this section, is that you can make a few bucks with short-term strategies. Building a brand, however, will give you something which no one can take away and will lead to a far more lucrative business.

Action items for freelance developers who are ready to start bringing in business

The foregoing discussion provided information about how you can bring in business in both the short and long-term. It also discussed the importance of brand building so that you can increase your profits.

The following is a “to do” list which will help you get a stream of customers a flowin’:

• Start to think of yourself as a “problem solver” and not a developer
• Remember that your customers don’t care about code or technology. They only care about getting their needs met.
• Begin brainstorming the potential issues that your customers face, and how you can discuss a solution to those issues in ways that your customers will understand.
• Work on your “active listening” skills so that you can “hear” the needs and concerns which your potential customers are conveying.
• Begin the process of “short-term” business building so you have immediate revenue
• Make everyone you know aware that you are starting up. The goal of these conversations is not to sell your services to your current circles. Instead, it is to turn your current circles into referral sources.
• Complete a robust LinkedIn profile. Your profile should make clear that you are a freelance developer accepting work.
• Create robust profiles for yourself on services such as Upwork and Thumbtack. Consider bidding for jobs through these services.
• Make your services available through Fiverr and begin advertising on Craigslist as well.
• Join BNI or other similar networking groups.
• Begin the process of long-term brand building
• Create profiles for your business on Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook. Begin getting client reviews on these websites and make the acquisition of reviews an ongoing process.
• Develop a blog which speaks to the needs of your customers. Leverage your analytics over time to ensure that you are writing on topics which interest your customers.
• Develop a YouTube channel which also speaks to the needs of your customers. As with a blog, leverage your analytics to ensure that you’re doing videos on the correct topics. Make sure you put some effort into your video production. This includes considering your scripting, lighting, sound quality, etc.

Freelance developers must develop systems to manage their business on a day-to-day basis ( back to top )

Once you have customers coming in the door then it is vital to ensure that you properly manage your business on a day-to-day basis. Failing to do so will lead to inefficiencies and wasted time. This leads to two horrible things - decreased profits and unhappy customers.

Assuming you want to avoid these things, it’s important that you embrace your new role of business manager in addition to that of being a developer. When managing your business, you should focus on the administrative side of things as well as on the substantive work to be done. Failing to do so will lead to administrative problems which will pop up at bad times. These problems will then get in the way of your substantive work.

So, while administrative tasks may seem boring, it is vital that you give them the attention they deserve.

Too many freelance developers get into the mindset of thinking “I’m a developer, not a businessperson.” Well, if you take this mindset once you start freelancing then you won't have to worry about being a businessperson. Because you’ll go out of business so fast that the problem will simply take care of itself.

If you want to avoid this fate then focus on running all aspects of your business correctly.

This section is going to focus on the following areas when it comes to running your operation:

• Managing your business’s administrative and financial affairs.
• Managing your substantive development work in an efficient and profitable manner.
• An action list meant to help you develop procedures for keeping your business running.

Again, I can’t stress enough the importance of seeing yourself as a “businessperson” and understanding that your business is now development. Think of it this way - if a chef starts a restaurant and makes themselves head cook, they are now a restaurateur and not a “chef.” The same is true for your new business. Now let’s get to it.

Freelance developers must focus on their business’ administrative and financial management

The reason why I’m discussing the management of your administrative affairs before the management of substantive work is simple - this is the area where most freelancers get themselves into trouble.

Neglecting your administrative affairs leads to problems which have to be dealt with immediately. This means having to drop whatever current development task you're working on, telling a customer that there is going to be a delay, and putting out an unnecessary fire.

A simple example, which I’ve seen more than once, is the small business owner who never does their bookkeeping. At the end of the year, those books must be done so that the business can file its tax return. The business’ return must be filed so that the developer can file their individual returns.

Once tax filing deadlines are getting close, the small business owner has to drop everything, run around like crazy, and blow off their substantive work in order to get twelve months worth of bookkeeping figured out.

All of this could have been avoided by spending a small amount of time each week simply doing the books. Such weekly bookkeeping could have been handled in an orderly fashion, planned as part of a workflow, and handled in a way which did not disrupt the business.

The first step in managing your freelance business’ administrative affairs is to develop a monthly budget for the company as well as financial restraints.

Far, far, far, far (far) too many small business owners utilize “bank balance budgeting.” By this I mean that they simply look at their bank balance and they assume that having “X” in the bank means that they have “X” at their disposal. Gee, with an approach like that I can’t imagine why so many people have financial problems.

The crucial first step for your new venture is to set up a financial system. How to do so would be a very lengthy guide in and of itself. So, for the purposes of this guide, I strongly suggest that you read the book Profit First and implement its suggested systems. While there are certainly other possible approaches, I think this book gives a solid framework which will help those who struggle with financial management.

A key thing to remember when running a business is that your company’s bank accounts are not your personal account. You do not get to simply raid the business funds anytime you like.

An issue which I see far too often is when a business owner takes excessive withdrawals from their business account for personal purposes. The business then finds itself short on cash when bills are due and, to make up for this shortfall, the business owner then takes work at a reduced price to generate immediate cash. This reduced price work means there is still not much money in the business account and the owner has a hard time getting their personal bills paid.

This begins a difficult cycle which can be hard to break. By practicing financial restraint, you can avoid this trap.

The next critical point is that you regularly perform your accounting and understand your business’ books. I never understand the small business owners who don’t do their books regularly. Such business owners, as a result of not doing their bookkeeping, never actually know how much money they’re making. This can lead to a belief that you’re doing better or worse than you actually are.

To put it simply, if you’re not going to be regular about doing your books then don’t go into business for yourself.

How to do your books could easily be a course in and of itself. Fortunately, Erin Lehr of KPI Bookkeeping was willing to put together a group of instructional videos meant to get you started when it comes to keeping your books. She also put the slides from her presentation together into two separate documents. You may download her slides on money management here and her sample chart of accounts here .

Again, the following videos are introductory only (Erin's videos are embedded into a larger course, this link will open directly to her section of the video):

Again, and not to beat a dead horse, but it’s crucial that you handle your books regularly. If you need assistance then contact a bookkeeper such as Erin. Don’t neglect this chore.

One last point I’ll make, regarding managing your finances, is that you need to understand the difference between not having any business and not having any money.

I’ve consulted for way too many small businesses who call me freaking out because they have no money in the bank. The freaking out entrepreneur, however, starts these conversations by saying that business is dead. In other words, they assume that the fact that they’re broke is due to business being slow.

Upon talking to such people, however, it turns out that they actually have quite a bit of business. It’s just that they spent the money as fast as it came in, usually on indulgences (including large indulgences such as high end cars).

“Not having any business” would mean that you’re twiddling your thumbs and that you have nothing to be working on. If you’ve got a mountain of work to do, and no money, then it’s probably a sign that you need to practice better financial restraint.

It is vital that you manage your administrative tasks as well as affairs involving your finances. Administrative tasks include timely filing of any necessary documents with the Secretary of State, keeping your business licenses up to date, and so on.

Not keeping these affairs in order could be devastating. You don’t want to be sitting there, in the middle of a coding project, only to find out that you’ve lost your legal right to do business for the time being, all because you didn’t file a piece of paper with a regulatory entity. Know your licensing and regulatory requirements and, if necessary, hire an attorney to help you with these matters.

Freelancers must manage their development in an efficient manner

A freelance developer’s “substantive” work consists of the tasks which they are actually paid to perform. In other words - development work.

If you’ve come this far into this guide then I think it’s fair to assume you’re interested in making money. Assuming that you are on a quest for prosperity, and that you haven’t read this article because there was nothing interesting at the public library, we’ll devote this section to making your substantive work as profitable as possible.

As mentioned above, the key is to identify your high value activities and to ensure that such activities receive a serious and efficient time commitment on your end.

To help you get there, this section will discuss the need to focus on the right tasks, how to make sure you’re putting in the right amount of time, and tips for making sure that you’re using that time efficiently. If you focus on these things, then you’re likely to make more money. If you don’t…then you’re not.

The most important part of getting rich is making sure that you’re focusing your time into higher value activities. This concept is pretty simple: identify the tasks which yield the best results and do more of those tasks !

While that sentence may leave you going “duh,” you’d be surprised at how many entrepreneurs fail to recognize this concept. Let’s look at some specific examples, both in terms of your substantive work and your marketing activities.

Suppose you develop what you consider to be a typical small business website for $3,000. The site includes multiple pages, lots of media, and extra functionality (such as online ordering for a restaurant).

Now say that such a project typically takes you about twenty hours to complete. This means that this type of work yields you $150 per hour ($3k/20 hours).

Now suppose that you can drum up work building one-page “starter websites” for small businesses for $500 a pop. You can typically handle such projects in two hours (given that you’ll likely develop a number of templates to work from). This means these “starter” sites can be completed at a rate of $250 per hour ($500/2 hours).

While the latter may pay less in total than the former, it actually pays more per unit of input. A developer who actually wants to make money would focus on doing more “starter” sites and less on the larger projects I mentioned.

While the math I just laid out may seem obvious, you would be shocked at how many developers (and small business owners for that matter) fail to focus on the work which yields the most per unit of input. This can be due to not keeping track of the inputs (i.e. not tracking how much time you’re putting into something) or simply focusing on the price tag as opposed to the hourly profit.

Whatever the reason, those who fail to identify their most profitable activities, and focus on them, are making a big mistake.

Mark Cuban is on record as saying that diversification is “for idiots” and Warren Buffett is on record as referring to diversification as “madness.”

This is also true when it comes to the activities you are engaging in as a freelancer. If you identify an activity as being more profitable than any others then it makes NO sense to engage in other activities. Instead, you should be trying to drum up as much of that profitable activity as possible.

This is true in terms of your substantive work, your marketing activities, and pretty much anything else. In short - focus on high value activities.

Once you identify your high value activities then it is vital that you put a lot of time into them. Think about how much you need to work should as a function of efficiency and time (a few speeches from Elon Musk really opened my eyes to this).

Consider it in these terms: Jill and Joe perform similar tasks as freelance developers. Jill, however, works twenty-five percent more efficiently than Joe, meaning that Jill can get twenty-five percent more done in an hour.

You might think that Jill is going to make more money than Joe, right? The problem, however, is that Jill only works thirty hours a week and thinks her increased efficiency makes up for any lost time. Joe, by contrast, works forty hours every week. At the end of the week, Jill’s thirty hours of work will produce the same amount that Joe would produce in 37.5 hours (30 hours worked by Jill * 1.25 of Joe’s efficiency).

Since Joe works forty hours each week, he’s going to get more done than Jill. Since Joe produces more than Jill, due to his better work ethic, he will make more as a freelance developer. If Jill had just worked forty hours, like Joe, then one week would yield an amount of production that would have taken Joe fifty hours (40 hours * 1.25 Joe’s production = 50).

What you can take from the epic story of Jill and Joe is that you have to put in the hours while working as efficiently as possible .

The foregoing concept is why I put a minimum of 43.3 hours into my business each week. My hourly requirement of 43.3 hours is based on a simple formula: if I’m working at the same level of efficiency as some hypothetical person, and that individual only works forty hours a week, then by putting in 3.3 extra hours per week I add one working month to my year.

In other words, someone working at the same level of efficiency as myself, who is only putting in forty hours a week, will take thirteen months to equal the level of production I reach in twelve months.

It’s important to stress that the average of 43.3 hours a week is a minimum that I put in. If there is additional work which must get done due to some type of deadline, then I put in extra time. Any extra time that I put in can then be taken off from a later week.

When working efficiently, however, it isn’t too often that I have to go over my 43.3 hours. By adding an extra working month to my year, using this method, I feel my production greatly increases.

The point of putting in your hours is so important that I’m going to rant about it for just another moment. An overhyped belief is that it is important to work “smarter not harder.” To this idea I say WRONG .

It is, instead, important to work smart and hard. I deal with plenty of self-employed individuals who put in many of hours and manage to get nothing done. This is because they work in an extremely inefficient manner. You can put in sixty hours a week, but if you’re only working at fifty percent efficiency, then the average Joe will equal your production in just thirty hours a week.

At the same time, the math shown above in the hypothetical about Jill and Joe shows that you do need to put in the time. This is why the amount you produce, which largely dictates how much you make, is a function of both working efficiently and putting in the time. There can be no compromise on either.

Here’s an important tip, which I cannot stress enough, for working as efficiently as possible: always assume that you’re operating inefficiently.

I work with way, way, way (way) too many people that are convinced that they are operating in an efficient manner. After going through how they do things, however, it quickly becomes obvious that improvements can be made.

My approach to my business is to assume that I am inefficient and to be in a constant state of trying to do things better. Remember that no matter how well you think you are doing, there is always room to do better.

Now that we’ve gone over the importance of identifying high value activities and putting time into them, let’s give some specifics on how you can run your business more efficiently.

Again, it’s vital that you streamline your operations. It’s too easy, after all, to work all day, not get anything done, and then go home feeling like you’ve actually accomplished something simply because you put in time.

The tips below (which by no means should be considered an exhaustive list) will help you eliminate “noise” which causes unnecessary distractions, eliminate unnecessary work, and avoid self-inflicted extra tasks. Let’s get to it.

How to work more efficiently:

The first step for working efficiently is to develop the Only Handle It Once (O.H.I.O.) method. This is a straightforward time-saving idea which too many entrepreneurs fail at.

The idea is simple. Do not deal with an item unless you are prepared to take action on it at the time you deal with it. Consider how often the following occurs. Joe receives an email from a customer. He skims it and says to himself “I’ll deal with this later.” When “later” comes, Joe then has to read the email a second time before dealing with it. In other words, Joe to take the time to read the email twice instead of just reading it once and dealing with it.

Now multiply the wasted time of one extra reading by every email received in the course of a year. The time lost quickly becomes mind-boggling. Instead of making this mistake, Joe should not even open the email until he is prepared to deal with it. This will save him the time of a second reading.

The O.H.I.O. method can be applied to a number of different contexts. Imagine every piece of administrative paperwork you receive (notices from the Secretary of State, forms you have to fill out, and so on). As with the email example above, it’s easy to look at such a document and put it off to the side for later handling. Again, when the task is completed this means you will have reviewed the document twice.

The idea of Only Handle It Once means just what it says - do not open an email, pick up a piece of paper, or start a task unless you are prepared to actually deal with it. The time savings that come out of this method can be extreme.

The next step for working more efficiently is to adopt the mindset that you’re not going to start on something until you finish it. In other words, don’t spend a little time each day working on numerous projects. Finish one project and move on to the next one. Failing to do this means that you never get into a groove with your work.

Let me explain this by way of personal example. A big part of our primary business is adding blog posts to our client’s websites. Also, we recently switched our virtual private server from the company we were using to Siteground. As a result of this switch, we had to migrate all of the websites we manage from one server to another (this was a lengthy process).

In regards to adding client content, and migrating websites, we could have taken the approach of adding content to a few sites each day and migrating a few sites each day. This would mean constantly switching tasks, however. So, instead, we set aside time where we weren’t going to add content and were going to devote ourselves to site migration until it was finished.

Once that was done, we devoted ourselves to adding content to the websites until that project was completed. In other words, we finished one thing before we moved on to the next.

The benefit of this is extreme: when you switch tasks it takes time to get into a groove with the task you just switched to. This “lost groove time” greatly reduces your efficiency. It is, therefore, important to finish one task before moving on to another. Don’t keep jumping back and forth between partially completed projects.

When taking on new freelance projects, I take a “one at a time approach.” If I’m building something out for customer One, and I know it’s going to take me a week, then I let potential customer Two know that I won’t be starting their project for a week. I also adjust my proposed delivery date accordingly.

Manage your workflow so that you’re working on one thing at a time, but so that you have a stream of work lined up.

It is common for us to have multiple projects lined up and under contract. We, however, always finish one before moving on to the next. We do not jump back and forth between projects. This allows us to get more done, in less time, and we make more money as a result.

The third step to increasing your efficiency is to deal with problems as soon as they arise. And when I say “as soon as they arise,” I mean immediately. Not doing so will simply allow the problem to swell and become larger.

Here’s a simple example - my business partner pointed out to me the other day that the app we use for syncing contacts between everyone’s email accounts wasn’t working. I immediately stopped what I was doing to fix it.

It would have been easy to say “I’ll deal with this later.” In between that moment and later, however, people in our organization would have needed to make notes about customers, to pull up contact info, and so on. The app not syncing would have created problems in others’ workflow. This would result in a small problem (the app not working) compounding into larger issues.

Not dealing with inefficiencies immediately can compound in other ways. Consider this real world example: I was once talking to a customer on the phone while they were heading to their office. Once they got to their office, it took them extra time to get in the door. This was due to the fact that the customer had an excessive number of keys on their keychain and she said “I don’t even know what most of these keys are for” while we were talking. When I talked to the customer again, about a year later, they made the same comment.

Now consider this - the customer probably loses thirty seconds a day fumbling through keys that didn’t even need to be on her key ring. That’s 2.5 minutes lost per week. Over the course of the year that works out to roughly two full hours that are lost. 2.5 hours of substantive work likely works out to several hundred dollars. If this customer had taken a time out to take unnecessary keys off of their key chain immediately after realizing it was a problem, they would be making several hundred dollars more a year.

The foregoing story of the key ring may seem silly to some. It proves the point, however, of dealing with issues as soon as they arise. Failing to do so results in ongoing lost production. Taking the approach of “I’ll deal with this minor annoyance later” will result in you losing many hours over time in order to save a minute today. Don’t sacrifice hours to save a minute.

The fourth, and one of the biggest steps towards increased efficiency, is to improve your management of communications. Communications are one of the biggest ways you can lose time, for completely unproductive purposes, while feeling like you’re getting work done. Let’s look at the need to completely avoid real time communications and to better manage email.

One of the biggest problems in many tech companies (and businesses in general for that matter) is the use of real time messaging platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and others.

The problem with these platforms is twofold. First, they result in people sending a large number of small messages as opposed to requiring that they put all of their thoughts into one message. This means that the reader of these short messages has work in a constant state of distraction. The individual gets far less done as a result.

Second, and perhaps worse, is the fact that these platforms lead to co-workers/employees/partners sharing random thoughts that don’t really have anything to do with the project at hand as well as the sharing of messages essentially saying how much one liked the last message.

These types of interruptions contain no actionable information and, instead, just lead to the reader being bombarded by extra noise. It is far more efficient to read one comprehensive message, which is why we avoid these types of platforms.

Many developers could also improve how they manage email. It is a mistake to read emails as soon as they come in. Instead, you should completely deal with your email inbox during one to two set times per day, and avoid it for the rest of the time.

There are several reasons for this. First, as stated above, you shouldn’t read an email unless you are prepared to act on it. Second, it is important to consider how people tend to use email. Way too many people fire off a message as soon as a thought enters their head.

It’s not uncommon for me to open my inbox in the afternoon and have multiple emails from the same customer. By waiting to deal with emails until a set time, I can then read all of their emails and write one consolidated response. This is opposed to writing separate responses, which would take more time.

Also, you actually create more email for yourself to read if you respond to messages immediately. Suppose Joe Client sends you a random thought and you respond. Now suppose that Joe does this several more times, and you respond, during the day. Joe is likely to respond back to each of your responses (creating a large number of emails to read). By writing Joe a consolidated response, at a set time of the day, Joe will only have one email from you to respond to. The net result is far fewer messages hitting your inbox. This saves a great deal of time.

After reading the prior paragraph on email management, you may be saying to yourself “but my clients want to hear from me right away.” If you go through your inbox at least once a day, then they’re never going more than about 24 hours without a response.

If something is so important that someone can’t wait 24 hours for a response then they should be calling you on the phone as opposed to shooting you an email.

I never go through my email more than twice a day and our customers feel that we give good service. Save yourself time and only respond to emails during set time blocks each day.

When you put all of the above-mentioned concepts together you will greatly improve your efficiency.

By using the O.H.I.O method you will reduce the amount of time you spend reading email, reviewing documents, and so on.

Only starting projects when you are prepared to finish them, and working on one thing at a time, reduces distractions and allows you to stay in a groove.

Dealing with problems as soon as they arise will result in you losing minutes today, but saving hours over time.

Finally by improving/reducing your communications, you will avoid distractions and actually have fewer messages to respond to. Put these things together with actually putting in the hours and you have a recipe for success.

Suppose the foregoing efficiency tips make you twenty percent more efficient than the average developer. Also, suppose you average a minimum of 43.3 hours worked per week (the reason why I use this number was explained above). Finally, suppose your competitors average forty hours a week at average efficiency.

You will achieve in one year what it takes your competitors roughly 15.5 months to achieve. If you focus all of this production on high value activities, then your bank account will grow quickly.

Action items for freelance developers who wish to better manage their business on a day to day basis

Freelance developers can greatly increase their net income by better managing all aspects of their day-to-day operations. The following is a list of “action items” which can help you to immediately increase profits:

• Properly manage your financial and administrative affairs.
• Read Profit First and adopt its suggested financial plan for your business. Alternatively, develop your own financial plan and stick to it. Sign up for accounting/bookkeeping software and get in the habit of doing your books regularly.
• Research and learn about administrative requirements you must meet (i.e. filing for a business license). This will vary by state and locale. Your local Secretary of State’s Office may be able to assist with this information.
• Manage your development work in an efficient manner and identify your “high value” work opportunities.
• This is the work that pays the most per hour of labor, not necessarily the most in total.
• Make a plan to focus your business on these high value activities and maintain a narrow focus in regards to the type of work you take.
• Decide on a minimum number of hours that you will commit to the business each week. Make sure you hit this hour requirement on a weekly basis.
• Adopt the Only Handle It Once (O.H.I.O.) method.
• Adopt the habit of not starting on something until you are prepared to finish it.
• Adopt the habit of dealing with problems as soon as they arise.
• Improve your management of communications.
• Avoid “real-time” communication platforms such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.
• Set aside time each day in which you will deal with email. Do not deal with email outside of these designated time periods.

In no way is this guide meant to tell you every last thing you need to know about running your own business. Sticking with these tips, however, will help you to get out ahead of your competition.

Keep in mind that being successful in business requires effort in all of the areas described above. You’re never going to be better than the area you are weakest in. Because of this, I can't stress enough that you need need to be striving for constant improvement in all aspects of your business.

I am a web developer who maintains websites and other software on behalf of law firms through SEO For Lawyers . I am also a co-founder of Modern Website Design . I enjoy writing on issues related to small business and entrepreneurship.

Luke Ciciliano is a web developer who writes on issues relevant to freelancers and other developers starting their own business.

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YELLOW PAGES -> is dedicated to creating a website for you business. We offer Website Design development, Logos and Graphics, Programming and Promotions. We can offer webspace for your company website on Copyright  2003- Optima Tours All rights reserved. | | | | | | | | | | | | Integrations Learning Center MoSCoW Prioritization What is moscow prioritization. MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements.    The acronym MoSCoW represents four categories of initiatives: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have, or will not have right now. Some companies also use the “W” in MoSCoW to mean “wish.” What is the History of the MoSCoW Method? Software development expert Dai Clegg created the MoSCoW method while working at Oracle. He designed the framework to help his team prioritize tasks during development work on product releases. You can find a detailed account of using MoSCoW prioritization in the Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) handbook . But because MoSCoW can prioritize tasks within any time-boxed project, teams have adapted the method for a broad range of uses. How Does MoSCoW Prioritization Work? Before running a MoSCoW analysis, a few things need to happen. First, key stakeholders and the product team need to get aligned on objectives and prioritization factors. Then, all participants must agree on which initiatives to prioritize. At this point, your team should also discuss how they will settle any disagreements in prioritization. If you can establish how to resolve disputes before they come up, you can help prevent those disagreements from holding up progress. Finally, you’ll also want to reach a consensus on what percentage of resources you’d like to allocate to each category. With the groundwork complete, you may begin determining which category is most appropriate for each initiative. But, first, let’s further break down each category in the MoSCoW method. Start prioritizing your roadmap Moscow prioritization categories. 1. Must-have initiatives As the name suggests, this category consists of initiatives that are “musts” for your team. They represent non-negotiable needs for the project, product, or release in question. For example, if you’re releasing a healthcare application, a must-have initiative may be security functionalities that help maintain compliance. The “must-have” category requires the team to complete a mandatory task. If you’re unsure about whether something belongs in this category, ask yourself the following. If the product won’t work without an initiative, or the release becomes useless without it, the initiative is most likely a “must-have.” 2. Should-have initiatives Should-have initiatives are just a step below must-haves. They are essential to the product, project, or release, but they are not vital. If left out, the product or project still functions. However, the initiatives may add significant value. “Should-have” initiatives are different from “must-have” initiatives in that they can get scheduled for a future release without impacting the current one. For example, performance improvements, minor bug fixes, or new functionality may be “should-have” initiatives. Without them, the product still works. 3. Could-have initiatives Another way of describing “could-have” initiatives is nice-to-haves. “Could-have” initiatives are not necessary to the core function of the product. However, compared with “should-have” initiatives, they have a much smaller impact on the outcome if left out. So, initiatives placed in the “could-have” category are often the first to be deprioritized if a project in the “should-have” or “must-have” category ends up larger than expected. 4. Will not have (this time) One benefit of the MoSCoW method is that it places several initiatives in the “will-not-have” category. The category can manage expectations about what the team will not include in a specific release (or another timeframe you’re prioritizing). Placing initiatives in the “will-not-have” category is one way to help prevent scope creep . If initiatives are in this category, the team knows they are not a priority for this specific time frame.  Some initiatives in the “will-not-have” group will be prioritized in the future, while others are not likely to happen. Some teams decide to differentiate between those by creating a subcategory within this group. How Can Development Teams Use MoSCoW?   Although Dai Clegg developed the approach to help prioritize tasks around his team’s limited time, the MoSCoW method also works when a development team faces limitations other than time. For example:  Prioritize based on budgetary constraints. What if a development team’s limiting factor is not a deadline but a tight budget imposed by the company? Working with the product managers, the team can use MoSCoW first to decide on the initiatives that represent must-haves and the should-haves. Then, using the development department’s budget as the guide, the team can figure out which items they can complete.  Prioritize based on the team’s skillsets. A cross-functional product team might also find itself constrained by the experience and expertise of its developers. If the product roadmap calls for functionality the team does not have the skills to build, this limiting factor will play into scoring those items in their MoSCoW analysis. Prioritize based on competing needs at the company. Cross-functional teams can also find themselves constrained by other company priorities. The team wants to make progress on a new product release, but the executive staff has created tight deadlines for further releases in the same timeframe. In this case, the team can use MoSCoW to determine which aspects of their desired release represent must-haves and temporarily backlog everything else. What Are the Drawbacks of MoSCoW Prioritization?   Although many product and development teams have prioritized MoSCoW, the approach has potential pitfalls. Here are a few examples. 1. An inconsistent scoring process can lead to tasks placed in the wrong categories.   One common criticism against MoSCoW is that it does not include an objective methodology for ranking initiatives against each other. Your team will need to bring this methodology to your analysis. The MoSCoW approach works only to ensure that your team applies a consistent scoring system for all initiatives. Pro tip: One proven method is weighted scoring, where your team measures each initiative on your backlog against a standard set of cost and benefit criteria. You can use the weighted scoring approach in ProductPlan’s roadmap app . 2. Not including all relevant stakeholders can lead to items placed in the wrong categories. To know which of your team’s initiatives represent must-haves for your product and which are merely should-haves, you will need as much context as possible. For example, you might need someone from your sales team to let you know how important (or unimportant) prospective buyers view a proposed new feature. One pitfall of the MoSCoW method is that you could make poor decisions about where to slot each initiative unless your team receives input from all relevant stakeholders.  3. Team bias for (or against) initiatives can undermine MoSCoW’s effectiveness. Because MoSCoW does not include an objective scoring method, your team members can fall victim to their own opinions about certain initiatives.  One risk of using MoSCoW prioritization is that a team can mistakenly think MoSCoW itself represents an objective way of measuring the items on their list. They discuss an initiative, agree that it is a “should have,” and move on to the next. But your team will also need an objective and consistent framework for ranking all initiatives. That is the only way to minimize your team’s biases in favor of items or against them. When Do You Use the MoSCoW Method for Prioritization? MoSCoW prioritization is effective for teams that want to include representatives from the whole organization in their process. You can capture a broader perspective by involving participants from various functional departments. Another reason you may want to use MoSCoW prioritization is it allows your team to determine how much effort goes into each category. Therefore, you can ensure you’re delivering a good variety of initiatives in each release. What Are Best Practices for Using MoSCoW Prioritization? If you’re considering giving MoSCoW prioritization a try, here are a few steps to keep in mind. Incorporating these into your process will help your team gain more value from the MoSCoW method. 1. Choose an objective ranking or scoring system. Remember, MoSCoW helps your team group items into the appropriate buckets—from must-have items down to your longer-term wish list. But MoSCoW itself doesn’t help you determine which item belongs in which category. You will need a separate ranking methodology. You can choose from many, such as: Weighted scoring Value vs. complexity Buy-a-feature Opportunity scoring For help finding the best scoring methodology for your team, check out ProductPlan’s article: 7 strategies to choose the best features for your product . 2. Seek input from all key stakeholders. To make sure you’re placing each initiative into the right bucket—must-have, should-have, could-have, or won’t-have—your team needs context.  At the beginning of your MoSCoW method, your team should consider which stakeholders can provide valuable context and insights. Sales? Customer success? The executive staff? Product managers in another area of your business? Include them in your initiative scoring process if you think they can help you see opportunities or threats your team might miss.  3. Share your MoSCoW process across your organization. MoSCoW gives your team a tangible way to show your organization prioritizing initiatives for your products or projects.  The method can help you build company-wide consensus for your work, or at least help you show stakeholders why you made the decisions you did. Communicating your team’s prioritization strategy also helps you set expectations across the business. When they see your methodology for choosing one initiative over another, stakeholders in other departments will understand that your team has thought through and weighed all decisions you’ve made.  If any stakeholders have an issue with one of your decisions, they will understand that they can’t simply complain—they’ll need to present you with evidence to alter your course of action.   Related Terms 2×2 prioritization matrix / Eisenhower matrix / DACI decision-making framework / ICE scoring model / RICE scoring model Prioritizing your roadmap using our guide Talk to an expert. Schedule a few minutes with us to share more about your product roadmapping goals and we'll tailor a demo to show you how easy it is to build strategic roadmaps, align behind customer needs, prioritize, and measure success. 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What is MoSCoW Prioritization? MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements. The acronym MoSCoW represents four categories of initiatives: must-have, should-have, could-have, and won't-have, or will not have right now. Some companies also use the "W" in MoSCoW to mean "wish.". assignment essay homework paper phd report resume review speech thesis