A Graphic Designer’s 6 Step Guide to Starting Your Own Web Design Business
I bet you chose to be a graphic designer for a really simple reason… because you LOVE graphic design!
You love taking your imagination and turning it into something real for people to enjoy.
But, after a few years, you begin to realise that, yes you still enjoy what you do, you love to design, but you now want to grow into other areas. You want to feel financially secure AND creatively rewarded, don’t you?
One way to achieve your goals is to move into web design. With a little bit of business know-how and a few simple web smarts you can easily run your own successful web design business. You don’t have to go back to school and you don’t have to become a geek.
Do you know why?
Nowadays, You Can Run Your Own Web Design Business Without Knowing An Inch of Code or HTML.
You might think that running your own web design business is impossible. After all, surely you need to know more than how to design if you want to manage and deliver a complete website?
Well the good news is that over the last few years, web production software/services have smashed the gap between a ’web designer’ and a ’web developer’.
Yes, we’ll always need web developers for the really complex jobs. But nowadays it’s entirely possible to create an entire website yourself, using nothing more than your imagination, Photoshop (or whatever your poison is) and just a few short hours to learn how to pull it all together.
Through the Web123 ProPartner Program, you can get everything you need by clicking here; the easy web builder platform, the powerful websites, the education AND the support all within a single program.
Web123 Can Help You Realise The Next Step In Your Career
Web123 has been in the business of creating, selling and managing powerful CMS based websites for years. And with over 1000 websites under their belt, they’ve recently launched a training program specifically for graphic designers to show you how to make the jump into running your own web design business.
It’s called the Web123 ProPartner program, and it includes:
- Full training and support to help you set up your web design business.
- Access to experienced senior staff within Web123 who will mentor you with the technical and marketing aspects.
- Comprehensive guides resources to ensure the smooth running of your web business.
- Full training on how to become an advanced web designer.
- Get access to Web123’s complete web builder software (designed specifically for designers).
By the end of this article, you will know not only know what you need to do to run your own web design business, but more importantly, you’ll have the means to go out there and DO IT!
Now, without further ado… let’s look at the Web123’s 6 step guide to running your own web design business.
1) Start Your Web Design Agency Training
If you want to expand your skills into any new area, such as learning how to be a self employed business owner, you’ll need training. Luckily we’re in the information age and there’s plenty of help out there, you’ve just got to find the right source
Better yet, a lot of this training is no longer the expensive excursion it once was, and is instead more of a reasonable investment into your own personal development.
In other words, training yourself up doesn’t need to cost a lot, and you will quickly earn more than you’ve spent on your training.
How Web123 can help.
Obviously you can find training courses both off and online, but Web123 ProPartner program includes a complete training schedule.
The training includes:
- 8 eBooks on how to achieve web design success;
- 100 + bite size video tutorials on running your new business;
- Complete box of 50+ resources & templates;
- Over 75 web layouts (ready for you to customise);
- Unlimited access to your very own account manager experienced in all things web;
- And more…
The program is designed to walk you through all the inner workings of running your own web design business. And it can take as little as 6 hours (which can be spread over multiple days or even weeks).
And if there’s any areas you need a bit of TLC with, that’s what your account manager is for!
You will be taught how to approach clients, how to sell to clients, how to work with them to design their perfect website, and finally, how to deliver it to their exact specification…. in just a few short weeks.
All whilst making enough income to support your new venture.
2) Partner Up With The Right Companies
No matter how talented you are, the likelihood is that you will need to work with a number of companies to help bring your customer’s sites alive.
We’re not talking strictly about developers here… but you’re going to have to work with:
- Hosting companies.
- Domain name registrars.
- Professional email hosting clients.
- Digital marketing companies
- And more…
The fact is that setting up these relationships is time consuming when setting up a new business. Especially as you can’t just choose the first partner who comes along.
Take hosting. Do you take the cheapest hosting you can find? What if their customer service is poor or if the hosting is based outside of your home country? It can be a nightmare sorting out the best from the rest.
Then you have to repeat this process all over again before you can even approach your clients… however there is an easier way.
How Web123 can help.
As part of Web123’s ProPartner Program a lot of these concerns have already been resolved.
Web123 have been in the web design game for a whilst now, and are willing to share their beneficial partnerships to make sure your business gets off the crowd straight away.
They run their own Australian based hosting, work with the best digital marketing teams, can help source all the technical help you will ever need and supply unlimited support when you need it.
In short… being a Web123 ProPartner means you don’t need to worry about the technical aspects, and you will be fast tracked into starting your web design business.
3) Develop Your Web Processes and Admin Systems
Unfortunately, although seeing your glorious web creations come to life for your portfolio of clients is a satisfying feeling, you will quickly learn that you’ll need to become organised. Time is money, it’s a cliché but once you start running your business and managing your clients, you’ll realise how true it is.
You can make a lot of profit with web design, but you need to be in total control of the process, from start to finish.
Handling quotes, chasing for payments, scheduling your workflow, managing client expectations… it may sound boring, but a little organisation NOW can make life so much easier, and it’ll save you a whole heap of trouble down the line.
How Web123 can help.
Through Web123 ProPartner Program, you will be able to watch key video lessons specifically on how to manage your clients and workload. More important, you will get access to key resources that can help you manage your company efficiently, including:
- Pre-written sale letters.
- Timeline management templates.
- Client design brief forms & questionnaires.
- Educational freebies to send to your clients.
- And a LOT more…
As part of your Web123 ProPartner training, you will know how to manage your company, your clients… and ultimately… your sanity! You want your web design agency to be simple to run, and you will get all the best business tools to make your life much easier.
4) Learn Web Design (It’s Ridiculously Easy).
Now that you’ve got many of the nuts and bolts in place, it’s time to get to the fun part and learn how to take your design skills and apply them to websites. Thankfully it won’t take as long as you might think.
As mentioned, it has never been easier for a graphic designer like yourself to make the transition into becoming your own one-man-web-development machine!
How Web123 can help.
Although web development & CMS software such as WordPress and Dreamweaver still exists, the fact is that there is new web design software so advanced and user friendly, that you can effectively minimise (and in some cases eliminate) the need for a web developer to be involved at all. That means no waiting or stressing, you’re in complete control.
Web123’s ProPartner Program comes with a web builder that makes building your websites a breeze. Designed specifically for graphic designers, it automates a lot of the technical process of building a website, meaning all you have to worry about is how the websites looks and flows.
The web builder is designed FOR creative minds… not cold developers who can often get so lost in the details they ruin the look of the final website. You retain complete creative and technical control, and you deliver the final website.
Naturally this has a number of huge benefits:
– Faster delivery of websites: Because you can do everything yourself, you can massively reduce the time it takes for websites to be created. It’s entirely possible to now build an impressive website that would usually takes 6-12 weeks… in less than 14 days!
– More control: As a graphic designer you’ve no doubt butted heads with a developer who wants to change how your site fundamentally works. No more. Now you can build the site that YOU design and retain full control of its build.
– Higher income: Less people to split the pie with and quicker turnarounds generally means you can do more web projects, whilst also earning a larger profit from each one. It’s a real WIN- WIN, and why so many designers are jumping onto the ProPartner model.
Web123 have put together a great video tutorial, so you can see just how easy this program is. Check it out NOW… pictures speak louder than words after all!
5) Develop Your Own Site
Now that you’ve got the knowledge, the resources and drive to create your own effective web design business, it’s time to make a website for possibly the most important ‘client’ in the world… YOURSELF!
If you do decide to use the ‘web business in a box’ solution from Web123, then you can get a FREE website from them via their HTML-free web builder.
Alternatively you can give this FREE website to your first client (so you make even more profits), but we recommend you use it to develop your own stunning web presence first, so that you have an online base for your future clients to find you. You can be your best advertisement!
As a graphic designer, you should have a good grasp on the design side. But here are some useful pages / features you might want on your site:
– Home Page: This should quickly and effectively communicate your service offering in the space of a few seconds, with a strong and clear message with a single-minded proposition.
– About Us: Because clients like to know who they are dealing with. Show them you’re a great guy or gal to work with.
– Services Page: A clear and easy to follow guide explaining exactly what you offer and for how much.
– How to Find Us and a Contact Page: Make sure you let people know how to find you and how to get in touch. You will be surprised how many businesses forget these crucial little pages when they launch their site.
– Portfolio: If you’re a designer, show off your skills! If you show your clients what you’re capable of, they are more likely to work with you.
– Blog and Social Media Links: A great way to prove that you are an expert in your field is to share your thoughts and expertise with your prospective clients. You never know, you might even turn your regular blog followers into a valuable customers later on.
Excellent… now all the hard work (which really wasn’t all that hard really was it?) is done, so it’s time to start raking in the moola.
6) Your First Project
Now you’re fully trained up, you’re ready to approach clients and start working on your very first professional website. Exciting, isn’t it?
But how do you go about this? Thankfully, as a Web123 ProPartner, you have access to all the tools you will need to get your from A to B. You’ll need to sign-up to Web123 first, but once you do, pop back here and follow these easy steps.
- Read our sale guides on how to find clients.
- Follow the ‘Suggested Sale Process’ document.
- Send your client a brief planner so that they can tell you what they want.
- Calculate how much you want to charge and send them a proposal / quote.
- Get the job agreed in writing, and receive their initial deposit.
- Use the Web123 Website Builder to create a draft of their new homepage.
- Send your client the draft.
- Once they approve the draft, create the website.
- Send them the final invoice and receive payment.
- Pat yourself on the back and realise how far you’ve come in just a few short weeks
* Remember, you will need to be a Web123 ProPartner member to access these documents, but you can sign up for a free trial membership over at the official website.
There’s no better time to setup your own business than RIGHT NOW!
In fact, why not sign-up for a FREE TRIAL and see if it’s for you?
So if you’re a graphic design who wants to branch out, become more independent and grow into a true self-employed online entrepreneur, then NOW is the best time to invest into yourself and start your own web design business.
The tools are out there, and it has never been easier to setup your own agency or business, so what are you waiting for? Sign-up today, and take advantage of our 14 day FREE trial
via Web Design Blog, Web Designer Resources http://www.2expertsdesign.com/best-of-the-web/a-graphic-designers-6-step-guide-to-starting-your-own-web-design-business?source=rss