Starting a web design agency

Hollister11

Hi

I'm a 3rd year computer science student. I want to do freelance work, but from research decided that working under a company name will give you more respect from clients,

Is this a viable alternative to working retail during college.

My pros and cons

Pros

Flexible hours around course work
Good money
Doing what I love
Hands on experience with clients (will look good on CV)

Cons

No stable income
No guarantee of any work
No idea of what to pay in tax
No experience

Any opinions will be greatly appreciated

zig

I think if this is just a side income you're looking for and you dont have much experience then I dont think it will make a huge difference whether you set up as a business name etc.

Its a good idea but I think you would need a few jobs lined up at least before committing to it and dropping a retail job or whatever. It may be very stressful if you're broke and have nothing reliable income wise in and no time to look for work.

At your stage really I think its best for you to maybe offer your services to as many friends of friends and local design companies etc and tell them you're available.

In all honesty though, I personally dont see any harm in doing retail work while you finish your degree. I think having some really interesting projects that you came up with yourself combined with good results will make you just as, if not not more employable afterwards and the quality of the projects can be much higher because you'll be able to take your time on them and not have the pressures of business/deadlines on top of you while you try to code!

Good luck with your choice!

ironclaw

Depends how big a fish you want to land. If you want to help Harry's Hat store on Main St get a small website up and running, I say go for it. But if you want to help Micks Mega Store pave a new ecommerence path, you could be biting off more than you can chew. Companies are being staffed by more tech savvy people these days, and whilst not always (rarely) right, many have the where with all to call your bluff or ask bigger questions. They may be able to get WooCommerence up and running, but they might want a complete UI/ UX redesign with custom logos and graphics. Likewise, they might want some serious under the hood customisation to the checkout process which requires deep knowledge of the underlying code base / design. They might want a process defined as opposed to a solution e.g. How can we sell carpets online by asking peole to upload a picture and dimensions of their room?

So I'd start with a list of what you can really comfortably do yourself. Things you feel you could stand in the Dragons Den and pull from your back pocket without a moments notice or hesitation. Can you really design or are you just pulling stock designs and images? Can you really tailor an experience for a client or are you just making money from their lack of technical knowledge? I'm not aiming those questions at you in a harsh manner, you just should go into this with eyes wide open. Someone is going to pay you for a product and you should be able to deliver, without compromise or quibble. That will set you apart as plenty of 'web design' companies are just milking the naieve and those days are ending.

My next points would be auxillary:

- Understand contracts and requirements list. Make sure you tightly scope a project (Something you should be comfortable with as well e.g. Face to face requirement gathering) as a small oversight could cost you your pay cheque e.g. They wanted an ecommerence site but wanted integration with BitCoin which the required platform doesn't support, hence you need to write an extension because your contractually obliged to do it.

- Factor in outsourcing. No matter how good you are, you are a one man show and you may need expertise to fix a problem e.g. A tricky JQuery script or PHP module. You can't pass this cost onto the customer so have some reserve in your quotes to do so.

- Be realistic in your quotes and don't undersell yourself. €500 sounds great in college but its peanuts in the real world. If the site takes 50 hours, you've made less than a shift part time. Know your market and know your price. Everyone wants a website for €10 and free facebook assistance for a year, its ok to say No to a client and move on.

- Value add. Don't just offer a website design service. The key to making money is subscription services. Maybe you can host the website and cover your own hosting costs. Maybe tag on some SEO each year or a day of AdWords help. This has the added bonus of keeping your sites in check, as they are your portfolio you don't want an 'Opening Weekend' banner on a site thats been up for three years.

Buttercake

from research decided that working under a company name will give you more respect from clients,

I think quite the opposite, clients are more willing to work with individuals instead of agencies.. someone working from home or at a hotdesk will have far less overheads than Johnny Web Agency in Dublin 2 with x amount of staff and office dog.

ironclaw

Buttercake wrote: »

I think quite the opposite, clients are more willing to work with individuals instead of agencies.. someone working from home or at a hotdesk will have far less overheads than Johnny Web Agency in Dublin 2 with x amount of staff and office dog.

Can be 50:50 in my experience. Generally speaking having a VAT number and some corporate bumf, however light, can add a little security to a deal. The web agency in town will have more experience and resources however to deliver if things get tough, an individual is limited by their own output and a bigger client would be wary of this. But like you said, for every one you lose you'll find someone who'll want to work 1:1 and get it done.

Hollister11

Thanks guys. I have read some very valuable information. So I guess my first step is to start a 'business portfolio and Facebook page'.

Just in terms of the name would I be better off using 'initials Web design' or 'full name Web design'.

I'm trying to build a social media presence to drive people my site, and potential result in sales. I'm using Quora and Twitter at the moment, and plan to use instagram also.

In terms of start up capital. I'm going to start small. Use €200 to pay for my web hosting, domain and Facebook ads. Hopefully this will result in a €500 website and repeat the process.

Is this a good way to go about it.

BailMeOut

strongly suggest you add hosting to your services as this will generate recurring guaranteed revenue over time. Also do not underestimate how much time you will spend selling your services (meeting customers, defining requirements and writing up proposals, etc..) which could easily equate to 50% of your time.

Hollister11

BailMeOut wrote: »

strongly suggest you add hosting to your services as this will generate recurring guaranteed revenue over time. Also do not underestimate how much time you will spend selling your services (meeting customers, defining requirements and writing up proposals, etc..) which could easily equate to 50% of your time.

Do people charge mark up on hosting?

I understand that yes. A lot of my time wont actually be development time.

BailMeOut

Hollister11 wrote: »

Do people charge mark up on hosting?

I understand that yes. A lot of my time wont actually be development time.

you bet and you should.

Goodshape

Buttercake wrote: »

I think quite the opposite, clients are more willing to work with individuals instead of agencies.. someone working from home or at a hotdesk will have far less overheads than Johnny Web Agency in Dublin 2 with x amount of staff and office dog.

Totally depends on your customer.

Johnny Web Agency in Dublin 2 comes with some guarantee that the agency will still exist in a years time and is a professional body capable of handling update requests. Not to mention accountability should things go wrong.

Someone working from home or at a hotdesk simply might not be contactable in a months time. Plenty of business' are only too happy to pay the agency overhead for peace of mind.


But then there's the other type of customer who might be teasing out an idea and/or require a smaller site to advertise themselves / their business / their service. They're unlikely to need as much support and will try to avoid those agency overheads.

Gloomtastic!

Don't forget to get paid!

Most small operators will require at least a 30% deposit before they do any work. Another 30% half-way through and a final 40% on sign-off.

Always have the upper hand to pull their website if they start messing you about.

When it comes to chasing money always do everything you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it! Otherwise, they will take the piss!!!

Irish businesses are notorious for not paying their bills on time, if at all. Don't be a victim. Once you've done the work, it's your money. Make sure you get it!

Good luck to you.

BailMeOut

do not forget to always add a support/admin/maintenance contract as well for any site you build at maybe 15% of original cost per year and always be thinking recurring revenue (see my note about about hosting) as that is the best revenue.

devildriver

Hollister11 wrote: »

Do people charge mark up on hosting?

I understand that yes. A lot of my time wont actually be development time.

Definitely have a good mark-up on your hosting. But also don't try and cut corners on your hosting costs as dealing with cheap shared hosting companies will eat into a lot of your time and profit.

Get a VPS with a reputable host and then work out a hosting plan for your clients based on subdividing the VPS resources.