If You Build It, They Will Come: Starting and Sustaining Your Own Web Design Business

Developing websites for a career can be a rewarding experience. You’re always being faced with new information every day, different businesses you’d never think about or personal sites and movements that keep you educated. You are at the front lines of a business or person’s branding experience. By taking this a step even further, you can take your web design hobby or occupation and turn it into a fully fledged web design business.

Starting up the Business

If this thought has ever crossed your mind, then there are some things you should think about and check out before starting the web design business. As a web developer and designer you’re part of the creative side of things. Once you make the switch you’ll have to start getting on the sell sides of things. If you’re going to be running your own business, take what you’ve learned from making other people’s websites and apply it to your own business.

There are some key areas you’ll have to look into, more so than just price. The competition in terms of price is just one area that others with larger resources or strategies and time can beat you on every time. Instead you have to focus on quality and setting your web design apart in other ways.

Always be ready to ask for the sale and close negotiations with a prospective buyer by offering them a line that will seal the deal for current and future business between the two parties. Your previous work speaks for itself, as it is what sells your business to your new client base.

Treat Your Creativity Like A Business

It’s not enough just to be good in order to be successful in business. You’ll have to work out a proper business plan with objectives and be able to look out for new customers and be ready to expand into new markets.

A properly done expansion strategy is essential for success. You have to be able to not only create your work, manage finances, long-term business plans, but also be able to keep up with volume if need be. While you may want to do everything yourself, there are times when it is better to outsource some work.

When business gets busy, it’d be smarter to finish the work on time with a strict deadline rather than waste it because you want to do all the work. By passing off some design duties to a place like white label web design, you can be sure that your customers are in the right hands.

Taking Advantage of Your Tools

 If you have a limited budget don’t be afraid to offer an internship program that will assist you in getting some work done at a lower price. Not only will you get cheaper labor, you have the possibility of drawing from a large talent pool of potential employees who are either in design school or college.

Many different universities are on the look out for their students to land them with a proper internship, especially if your company is becoming renown and can offer them a lot of on the job experience.

Leveraging Social Media

The medium of social media is completely tied to business now. Certain websites and applications you simply cannot do without. By having a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you can connect directly with your preexisting customer base and find new ones in the mean time as well. Don’t worry about amassing a huge amount of followers; just enough to establish yourself in whatever business or niche you’re in.

Having an up to date social media following shows that your company is relevant and can connect with people quickly. There are some key things you can add on your social media to show your connection to the people as well.

Make sure that your brand shows the faces behind the work. You want to seem like real genuine human beings that potential customers will be working with. Featuring some people on your team or even past customer’s work can show trust and caring. The more shares, tweets, follows that you have are going to add up over the long run as well. Creating content and then sharing it to others will reach their own individual groups of friends.

Overall, make your web design a business, through offering value and treating your creativity like a business. You could have a successful business on your hands made from your own design skills.

Anja Merret with an MBA specializing in marketing has years of experience in working for small to medium sized businesses in marketing and business development. She can identify the best solutions for an online presence for clients. She’s always focused on giving white label web design clients excellent value for money.