Hold on tight! If you want to learn how to start a web design business, get ready for a wild ride.
The journey of a freelance website designer is often like a turbulent, yet exciting, roller coaster ride. From a state of confusion to a sense of accomplishment, from exhaustion to exhilaration, with detours along the way for sanity checks, strategy resets and supporter shoutouts. But if you do it right, all those banked turns and barrel rolls can lead to a successful career as a freelance web designer.
How to start a web design business: A comprehensive guide
It takes time to build a successful business, so manage your own expectations, and make a commitment to see it through to the end. Use these guidelines to stay on track as you get rolling.
- Are you ready to start a web design business?
- Set up your work environment.
- Build your support squad.
- Write your business plan.
- Address legal and administrative infrastructure.
- Name your web design company.
- Craft your brand.
- Find your clients.
- Set up products and services.
- Build your online presence.
- Establish proposals and contracts.
- Formalize project management and communication protocols.
- Establish a comprehensive client site launch process.
- Conclusion and next steps.
Let’s get started!
1. Are you ready to start a web design business?
First things first: Figure out if starting a web design company is the right move for you by considering the pros and cons.
Pros
- There will always be demand for websites, as new businesses get started, and established organizations want to up their game.
- The work is fun, creative, and you’ll learn from working with many types of clients and businesses.
- The work can be done from anywhere and allows you to flexibly balance family or personal needs.
- You can get started without a formal degree, and use specialty certifications and training to raise your expertise level and be better prepared.
- You can expand your business over time, by offering complementary services as you gain expertise.
Cons
- In a rapidly evolving field, you can’t rest on your laurels. You’ll need to stay current on new trends and technologies.
- Precisely for the reasons listed above, there’s a lot of competition, as many are anxious to get into the field.
- You may be working alone at your computer for long stretches of time, so will need to change your lifestyle to increase outside interaction.
Don’t quit your day job yet
No one becomes a web designer overnight.
Plan to spend a few years improving your technical skills, then start charging for your services, and continue to develop a stable revenue stream.
Remember that you won’t just be doing production work. You’ll also be
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This article was written by Lisa Stambaugh and originally published on ManageWP.