Starting a web design company?

Well, not a company exactly, just me.
I have made a web design site( www.thepoco.com ), and I want to get the word out, but I have no idea how. I am serious about this, I feel I have the skills required to do the job of making decent web sites, so why not?
I would like advice from people who are in the business, how do you draw in customers? What's a good price?
I think I charge fairly, considering there are lots of way, way worse companys that charge more(get an estimate on the estimate page).
I have tried putting an ad in the paper, but they won't reply.
I have told my info-tech teacher about the site, and I'm on google.

Any advice would be appreciated.

The page cannot be displayed... :(

Yeah, I forgot to mention my server is down right now, should be up shortly though.I`m surprised how many people on this forum suggested PowWeb, I`ve had non-stop down times since I signed up 3 weeks ago.

Its a gimmick service. Thats why I only recommend hostforweb.net I put all my clients there (I am not talking about kiddie companies, I am talking about legitimate $$$ companies), they need professional and reliable service. hostforweb.net provides that.

One site I help maintain is a major ministry based out of Spartanburg, SC. They stream the daily radio programs and the daily tv programs and they have all that archived and available for the past five years, not to mention all the text based info on the site. Their bandwidth reguirements are in the high 3-digit TBs. Hostforweb customized a dedicated sever to meet their needs and it is rock solid stable, even when several hundred people are using the site at the same time.

Hostforweb's normal shared hosting is just as good and just as reliable.

Powweb:



Gotta love it, huh Po?

It`s back up, finally.

Hi po,

I'm self employed (5+ years now) and although most of my business is programming, I also do websites. For what its worth, here's my advice.

1) Your site screams "one man band". Avoid "I will", "Choose me". Use "Us", "We". Refer to yourself as a company not an individual.

2) The homepage waffles too much about what you do & don't do technically, what tools you use. 99% of customers don't care what tools you use. Don't forget most of your customers won't even know what you're talking about when refering to "CCS, PHP, java, flash, code validation"

3) There's too much talk about money. Businesses generally pay via cheque so there's no real need to spell out how you'd like to be paid.

4) Your examples are a bit, errrm, amateurish. The best one is the AME jobs one. The other 2 look a like a nights work made by a hobbiest. If you have no other examples. Design a few madeup sites as examples.

5) Your contact page. The boxes are out of alignment which shows lack of care to detail. Presentation is always a good idea.

6) "Payment is not upfront, but upon completion of your web site." - Not a good idea. I personally find it best to charge a development fee before I start anything, even with returning customers.

Regarding getting work. Small local businesses are your best bet to begin with. Go in to them (dress smart) with a simple presentation pack (include a CD which sells your business, even something simple in powerpoint). Very briefly explain what you do and ask if you can leave something which might be of interest to them. Dont be pushy at any point.

In your presentation pack offer an insentive for that small business to make money for recommending your services to others. For example they earn 10% commission on all successful recomendations.

See if there's a local business network group in your area. Join it if there is, it's a great way to get your name and business cards into the hands of people who could give you business.

Anyway, thats just a basic outline from my own personal experience :)

some good advice Qube

Yes, thanks for the advice Qube.



I agree, I will get on that once my servers are back up (again). Grrr..



Is my 'Estimate' page a mistake to have up? Would people get scared off by the price of a website they could have?



That's true, the AME jobs one I have been working on for my brother for a month now, on and off, it isn't that presentable, but it's pretty decent on the program side of things. I have been trying to do as many free sites as I can for family members (like the Dr. Leducs office one for my dad which I did in 5 hours) to show off.



Really? So, 50% before hand and the rest upon completion?
I have been looking at acouple pdf documents that some companys sent, and they do the same. I know that I shouldn't be looking at those documents but just to get an idea..

I will change my web site a bit once it's up again.
-Simpler home page
-Less money talk
-Use 'Us' and 'We' instead of 'Me' and 'I'
-More better site examples
-Pay some upfront
-Fix my contact page

I had a 500 error and couldn't view your site but i'd like to echo this sentiment:



I have only ever once taken a web design job, I didn't really want it but circumstances prevailed so I went to see the customer, chatted for a bit and whilst talking started sketching, I designed the site on paper and then did my presentation.

They loved it. They loved it so much they got somebody else to make it exactly to my design.

To be honest I didn't mind loosing the business, I hate writing web pages. Give me a rogue vertex anyday.

AAArrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh POWWEB!!! My site is still down!! it's been more than 12 hours!

Ok, it's back up. I got some free months added to my account too, for the long wait. :) (Not that I would want any more months with them).

I would not say its a "mistake", I would just tone down the overall blurb about how cheap you are, its giving the wrong impression. Lol, the good thing is you're not saying "We guarantee to get your site in the top 10 listing on search engines". I hate that on web design companies.


Thats generally how I work. 50% upfront means your customer is genuine about wanting the work done. The remaining 50% owed to you will make sure you get the job done.

Also never underestimate the power of "word of mouth". A happy customer recommending you to another is worth much more than any advert.


Don't get me wrong, they are functional sites and to the point. They are just not eye catching grabbing adverts for your company.

If I was looking for someone to design me a website I'd want to be reassured that the company I picked would:

1) Be able to complete what they start out
2) Be available to talk to through the design phase
3) Be there in the future if/when my needs change
4) Be able to give my site a unique character of its own

no offense, but visit www.linkdup.com, check some sites and re-evaluate your situation.

I've updated my site a bit.



I can do all that :)


I tried, but nothing came up of any relavence. It's hard enough trying to navigate that terrible excuse of a layout.

The Poo Company? Name sounds bit "non-pro" to me :P

Pah, that's not even the worst of it.

In spanish po means 'small'
My name (Paul) means 'small one'
In chinese po means 'broken'

So: The Small Broke Company. :)
It's true, I'm a small business and I'm broke!

You do know what poo meens in English dont you?

Yes I know what poo means in english.
He added an O, but what I said refers to the po co more directly....

It's hard enough trying to navigate that terrible excuse of a layout. 

It's not about linkdup.com itself, but about the sites that are linked from the left navigation.

What I am trying to say, and this may sound arrogant, is that I dont find your site appealing, looking professional, creative or unique. And, if you are going to start a
design company, well, your design should look
professional, interaction should be effective and creative...

I have two companies, one is an audiovisual advertisement
company. And there are a lot out there. So the first
question you should ask yourself is: where am I unique in?
What is my specialty? And ditch the rest. Keep your pencil sharp. This turned out to be the best for us.
Good luck with the company.

Partially true, Jeroen, but there are a LOT of small-medium companies out there who don't care about interaction or giving the customer "an experience" or anything like that. I used to do 1-page websites for $500 a pop for small businesses with little more than name, address, products, and maps of how to get there.

At Po's age and experience - this is his target market, and simple leaflet dropping to businesses describing his services can get results. Of course, if he wants to make a living from it, that'll take a few years, and a lot more design experience. :) Po - natural ability will only take you so far unless your surname is Van Gogh. When you finish school, look at tertiary design courses - community college, whatever - just to show you how to flesh out your artistic ability into a portfolio of decent scope. :)

+BlackD

Hi Po,

I'm a part time web developer ( www.johnpitchers.com.au ). I work as a sales consultant 4 days a week and spend the other 3 days and most evenings doing web development.

A few things;

Become as fluent as possible with HTML(obviously), PHP, MYSQL and CSS.

Qube advised above to refer to yourself as a company not an individual and I can see the reasoning. On the other hand, most of my customers are small businesses and I find that customers like to know who they are dealing with and prefer a personal approach. I've had a better response from my web page since I started referring to myself as an individual.

Your website is important but don't rely on it as your primary source of business. The vast majority of my work comes from word of mouth. About 80% of my work over the past 2 years has been refered to me by computer retailers. You will be surprised how many business people buy a new PC from a retailer and ask "Do you do websites?" So, get down to your local computer shop and ask if you can leave a business card stand on their counter. Be sure to service that client. Buy things from them every now and then or offer to do some work for them for free or at a discount. It's the Law of Reciprocation. They will refer everyone to you in return.

As a solo web developer, actually SELLING your service is as important as the service itself. Conventional advertising is a waste of money in my opinion. Give your business card to every one you meet - the mechanic, the newsagent, the gardener, your kids school teachers, everyone. Entice them. The back of my card says. "SAVE $2000 OFF THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR NEW SITE! HOW? WWW.JOHNPITCHERS.COM.AU". One of my clients owns a flooring shop a few suburbs away. He didn't have a web site so I built him a simple 3 page site without telling him, uploaded it to my server and sent him the link. Three days later he signed up for a new site for $800. Took me about 4 hours.

Most customers will ask you if it's hard to update or add pages to their website. And for most customers with a static website and no html experience it's going to be impossible for them.

For this I use and highly recommend Mambo (www.mamboserver.com ). Mambo is an open source content management system based on php and mysql. There are a wealth of add ons for it, a fantastic online communtiy, and it's easy to setup and customise. There is a mambo-phpshop component which instantly add ecommerce functionallity. Unlike other CMS's mambo websites don't all look the same. You will need a good understanding of CSS and PHP to design custom templates.

What I really love about Mambo, is that customers who have very little computer know how can add content to their website almost as easily as typing a Word document.

I can charge $1800-$2500 for a site made with Mambo where I would have previously developed a static site for about $600.

A friend once told me "Be aware of copyright. If it's right,copy it!" Now, I don't mean blatantly copy other peoples work. Just, be inspired by good works. If you like the look or functionallity of a particular site and think it could work in one of your own then emulate without copying. It's a great way to learn new techniques.

Lastly, there are alot of highschool kids out there with a copy of Frontpage calling themselves web developers. Be different. Offer people the ability to update their own site, on site training, ecommerce or if ecommerce is not required then sell them the ability to easily add ecommerce to their existing site when they are ready, saving them money in the future. Offer them free configuration of their email client to their new email addresses, search engine optimisation and ongoing support.

That's about it. Sorry if I've rambled.
Good luck.

Regards
John Pitchers

Jeroen: Well, my market deffinately isn't the pro flash web sites, but more like what BlackD said. Small businesses who really don't care what their site looks like as long as they have one. I'm not saying I would make a terrible looking site, it would still look nice and presentable.

BlackD: I'm not trying to make a living from it, I don't have to, I don't pay the bills. I just want some spending cash. :)

Great advice John. Thanks. I agree with the being able to update your site bit.

One thing I have been curious about: How does uploading their site to their server work? For the site I'm making for my brother, I use his password and username to access his server through WS_FTP95. Is this how it normally works? They give me their pass and username and I upload it? It works for me, but I was just thinking some people might not want to give thewir account info like that.

EDIT: My site is down again, what a surprise.

I think most of your customers will expect you to take care of hosting for them. Few of the people who ask you to design a website will already have a domain name and web server ready; they'll want you to handle that. You should make sure that your website design package includes a free domain name and a year of hosting, then charge a fixed amount each year for hosting costs.

As for your web hosting, I have a few recommendations:

1. One of the most popular virtual hosts is 1&1. Their packages range from $5 to $20 a month, which is very reasonable. They also sell domain names for $6 a year.

2. If you need more bandwidth and more control over your server (especially if you plan to develop web apps), you should look at HostVector. They have a "reseller plan" which provides unlimited sub-accounts and email addresses for $25 a month.

3. The best host I've found is a small company called NetSonic. None of their servers are below $99 a month, but they are all dedicated (meaning you get the server to yourself), and their support is excellent. My server with them has been running perfectly for 59 days, and the last time it went down, they had the server back up within minutes of receiving my email. They're also one of the few hosts who provide Debian Linux servers, which I prefer over RedHat (the most common Linux server OS).

Hope that helps, and good luck with your business!

Ah, Thanks. So I would charge them $60 extra for web space(if it were $5/month) and throw a domain name in for free.

Sorry, but then you will never suceed :-(

If you have no fear of failure, or nothing really riding on this to keep you going, then you have no reason to see it through.

I do occasional website contracts, and used to do it full time. From your words of drive above, I dont think you will do well (again, sorry to say this, but attitude is everything)

Woah, woah, woah. I got a whole lotta things I really want to buy, so that's drive enough. :)
Seriously though, I would deffinately see all of my web sites through to the end, because I hate the embarassment of not finishing a site for a paying customer.

EDIT: Down again, my god will it ever stop?

Uniti can help with web hosting. E-mail me at (leon at uniti-online dot com) for more information :)