Starting a WebDesign Biz
By marina321
@marina321 (4556)
June 25, 2008 10:06pm CST
I have been playing with this idea on and off over the past few years but I would really like to start my own webdesign and print business eventually.
What puts me off is the competitiveness of the industry meaning there's a smaller market these days, or is there?
I have come across some franchises specialising in web design and wondering if its worth buying a franchise or starting from scratch.
Is anyone running their own web design business and has handy tips or is anyone else able to advise?:)
3 responses
@LilyPad123 (377)
• Singapore
27 Jun 08
Hi marina321 , i can offer you some tips and the possible outcome of your business. First of all you got figure out the market you want to sell your web design services to. To earn well you need to layout your services with more value added services such as web hosting or optimiztions to web design to allow faster search engine indexing. Such services can bring you the market. You got to create blogs with your design which will act as pre-selling to get potential customers. You need to make sure you have a good customer support and plus added value to your services. This are very basic tips, but doing web design is tedious. You can choose to meet with clients and end up doing more work than required becuase clients are bound to make changes many times. Or you can just sell templates to some template online stores and wait for it to be sold. Franchises do have thier ups and downs but at the end of the day keep your budget low as possible. Web design busines can be done by a single person provided if you can handle it.
@marina321 (4556)
•
27 Jun 08
Thanks for the handy tips Lily. Selling templates is a great idea and the value added services should maintain a good client base.
Thanks for your response:)
@sdas86 (6076)
• Malaysia
26 Jun 08
Hi,
I am not running web design business. I am not sure what could be done to make web design business profitable.
I saw some of the sites use affiliate program to allow members to promote their site and generate more sales. Maybe you can try to use affiliate program to help you make more money for your web design business.
You can pay commission of 10% or 20% or more to your affiliate sellers. If they successfully help you generate sales, then they will earn commission. I think that this is a good way to help you make money faster from your web design business. 

@nanajanet (4436)
• United States
26 Jun 08
Personally, I am the type to shy away from franchises, but then again, it might give you a start. It's costly, though.
If you are good at web design, start small. A friend of mine, a father of one of my students, started with me. He created one for my dance school, my dance competition, my dance team, and my dance company.
He learned on me and kept going. He does fabulous work.
@marina321 (4556)
•
27 Jun 08
You're right about the franchises being costly and it's a good idea to start small and build a portfolio.
Thanks for your response:)



